How to Identify Turtle Food: 9 Steps (with Photo) - tips

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Turtles are great pets, but taking care of them requires a lot of time and effort. Turtles have a varied diet that includes fruits and vegetables as well as insects, bugs, and fish. To care for turtles you need to know what food they need and how often they will be fed. The exact amount of food depends on the species of turtle, but there are some general guidelines you can follow. Also talk to your veterinarian if you are unsure of how to feed the turtle. A list of safe food for tortoises can be found at RuaViet.com

Steps

Part 1 of 2: Determine what kind of food for turtles

Feed the turtles with fruits and vegetables. Turtles have a varied diet that includes fruits and vegetables as well as meat. A general rule of thumb is that baby turtles will eat a lot of meat, and when they grow up they will change to eat fruits and vegetables. Among the fruits and vegetables you provide, 80-90% of the total food should include vegetables and flowers, and fruit should only be 10-20%. In general, green vegetables make up the bulk of your diet, and you should avoid high-fiber ones like lettuce and celery.
- You should feed the turtles with kale, parsley, green beans, bell peppers, and cabbage.
- Turtles can eat small amounts of spinach and broccoli.
- Flowers such as carnations, roses, and hibiscus flowers can be added to the meal in bulk.
- For fruits you can choose from apples, bananas, pears, grapes, kiwi and melon.
Provide raw food. Unlike three, turtles also eat meat. This is an important part of their diet, so you need to provide your turtles with processed animal foods, including fresh food. Some of the animals you should feed your turtles are crickets, worms, waxy moth larvae, small larvae and insects. Water turtles need to eat small fish like goldfish, mosquito-eating fish or even sea slugs.
- You can buy live worms and crickets from your local pet store, as well as insect pests that have died before packing.
- Feeding turtles live crickets may seem complicated, but this helps to recreate the way they eat in the wild.
Use high quality pellets. An easy way to feed turtles is to use special turtle pellets that you can buy from your local pet store. This food provides minerals and vitamins to meet the needs of turtles. However, if you are mimicking how turtles eat natural food, pellets are not as effective as green vegetables and insects. If using pellets, you should balance these foods with fresh vegetables. Pellets should only be a cornerstone of the meal.
Balance between food and vitamins. For creatures with a varied diet like turtles, it is important to balance different nutritional factors in order to maintain their health and well-being. Each turtle will have its own separate plant and animal diet, but you need to provide the following main foods.
- Using supplements can ensure that turtles absorb the necessary vitamins and minerals. You should weigh up on powdered foods with calcium and vitamin supplements before feeding them.
- Add calcium to turtle food twice a week. If you are unsure of the right balance for them, talk to your veterinarian.
Continuous water supply. Just like feeding turtles, you need to make sure they have access to water. Fill a bowl with clean water to make it easy for the turtle to drink and not choke. The water should always be clean and replace it if it becomes dirty. advertisement

Part 2 of 2: Feeding the Turtle

Feed the baby turtles often. Baby turtles need a lot of food, and have a need to eat more often than adults. You should feed the baby turtles every day. Baby turtles will develop into adults by the time they are seven years old. Then their eating habits will change before reaching this age, and will eat less. In this case, you can feed the turtles at a lower frequency, but it's also a good idea to see them see your vet to find out if they're changing their eating habits for another reason.
Do not feed adult turtles every day. As turtles get older they will change their eating habits and should not be fed every day. Each turtle has different eating habits, but as a general rule, feed an adult turtle every two days, or four to five times a week. You may find that turtles often ask for food. They will do this action whether you feed it or not, so you should follow the proper feeding program.
Provide a sufficient amount of food. Each turtle has different food requirements, so recommendations on how much food to provide are generalized. However, there are some helpful guidelines that you need to keep in mind. Baby turtles will eat more than adults, so feed them in an amount that fits their head and neck. This is not always accurate, but can also serve as useful reference information.
- Another way to determine the right amount of food is to feed the turtles as much as possible within the allotted time. The recommended interval is 5 to 15 minutes.
- Feed the turtles until they stop and then remove any non-live food.
- Eliminating food scraps will help prevent turtles from overeating, as well as prevent uneaten food decomposition that can contaminate water resources affecting aquatic turtles.
Feed aquatic turtles in the water. These turtles differ from normal turtles because they eat in the water. Therefore, feeding aquatic turtles in water is essential. However, this can lead to food decomposition in the water. So you should build a separate feeding tank that is easy to clean after feeding. If not, you should remove any spilled food and keep the water clean.
- Feeding aquatic turtles with small raw fish helps stimulate them to be more active.
- You should feed aquatic turtles that are floating on the surface of the water instead of sinking.
- If you are adding vitamin supplements to your food, be aware that the powder will dissolve in water. To solve this problem you should use pellets.
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