They eat turtles? How to feed your turtle a healthy diet

Most tortoises kept as pets are “omnivorous,” meaning they eat meat and vegetables. Like many other reptiles that are omnivores, young tortoises eat more meat than vegetables, since protein is very important for their growth and development. As they get older, they will begin to eat more plants and vegetation.

Typically, in the wild, a turtle will eat worms, snails, small insects, fish, and plants that grow in the water. When purchasing your tortoise, make sure you know what species of tortoise you have and research your particular dietary needs, as the diet of different species will vary.

Turtles are considered exotic pets and can be expensive to feed, most pet stores only carry a limited selection of turtle foods, if any, however it is important to feed your turtles pelleted food made from good quality or sticks for turtles. The foods have been developed with the vitamin and mineral requirements of turtles in mind and will help keep your turtle healthy. You can supplement the diet with some fresh foods such as small feeder fish which are great for turtle health and hunting them will help give your turtles some exercise. If you don’t like the idea of ​​feeding live fish, you can buy fresh fish instead. Other options are red or green lettuce, bananas, strawberries, green beans, peas, dandelion greens, spinach, and carrots. Remember that some plants can be poisonous to tortoises, so be sure to do your research before feeding them something that hasn’t been recommended by a reputable source.

Feed your tortoises every 2-3 days, but always make sure there are some fresh vegetables available, watch them as they feed to make sure they all get their fair share. You should feed your turtles until they stop eating, don’t leave scraps of meat, for example, in the tank too long, as heating the enclosure will cause it to go rancid fairly quickly. Turtles are very messy eaters, some people feed their turtles in a separate tank from where they normally stay. You will need a good filtration system to keep the water from becoming dirty and possibly toxic to your turtles. Turtles need to be fed in the water as they cannot swallow when on land. It is difficult to replicate a tortoise’s natural diet, so you will need to feed it some vitamin supplements.

Some foods you shouldn’t feed your turtle: Hamburgers are definitely not too greasy and so is raw chicken due to the risk of salmonella. Another one to avoid is iceberg lettuce.