Feed baby turtle

What Do Baby Turtles Eat in the Wild and As Pets?

Slow-going turtles that live in an aquarium and can be just as fun to watch as cats and dogs. Like most reptiles, they are fairly easy to maintain. They live for a long time, especially when you feed them right.

As a turtle mom or dad, you may want to make sure your baby turtle is eating the right kinds of food, or feed them a diet as similar to a wild turtle as possible. We’re going to cover what baby and adult turtles eat in the wild and also what you can feed them as pets, depending on your preferences.

What Wild Turtles Eat

Image Credit: Nature_Blossom, Pixabay

Turtles are found on every continent in the world except Antarctica. You will likely spot a turtle along the bank of a small pond, stream, or lake. They love damp areas with lots of rocks or spaces they can hide. This means that they like to eat things you can find in these areas.

Wild turtles eat a variety of things in nature. When they are babies, they mostly eat meat because they need the protein to keep growing. Types of protein they like to eat include small insects, snails, worms, and fish. When they get bigger, they can start eating more and more plant-like substances.

What Pet Turtles Eat

What your pet turtle needs for nutrition depends on the species and age of your turtle.

Omnivorous vs Carnivorous vs Herbivorious Turtles

There are three kinds of turtles; carnivorous turtles are rarer and eat only meat, omnivorous turtles are more common and eat meat and vegetation, and herbivorous turtles eat only vegetation. Box turtles, Mississippi maps, and red-eared sliders are omnivorous and common pet turtle breeds. Musk turtles are carnivorous.

What Do Adult Pet Turtles Eat?

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Just like in the wild, a turtle’s diet needs to change as they age. It’s important to know how old (approximately) your turtle is so you know what to feed him.

Pet turtles that are mature and omnivorous can eat pelleted food specifically made for turtles. You can find this kind of food at most pet stores. Again, check the species to make sure you are giving your turtle the right diet.

Most turtles do well on pellet food containing between 40-45% protein and 6-8% percent fat. The moisture content counts too: the higher moisture content in the food, usually the higher percentage of protein and fat inside the food. Look for “fish meal” towards the top of the ingredients list.

Turtle-specific pellets should make up at least 25% of your turtle’s diet. It’s important to get food specific for turtles as it stays intact more easily when it contacts water, and it also floats.

The rest of your turtle’s diet should be 25% from a protein source, like a comet goldfish, which also provides essential nutrients like calcium and phosphorus.

The final 50% can be made up of fruits and vegetables. Vegetables should be rich with colors, such as dark, leafy greens, shredded squash, and carrots. You could also opt to feed your turtle aquatic plants like duckweed.

Occasionally you can offer meat, but this is not always beneficial. Turtles benefit most from the nutrient livers of feeder fish, and won’t get much of what they need from the kind of meat we normally eat.

Herbivorous turtles, like land turtles or tortoises, can be fed only fruits and vegetables. Aim for 20% fruits and 80% vegetables total.

Related Read: 10 Best Turtle Foods 2021 – Reviews & Top Picks

What Baby Pet Turtles Eat

Image Credit: Pixabay

Baby turtles in the wild eat from different food sources sometimes because they are growing. In general, you should feed a baby turtle a little more protein than you would an adult turtle. You can replace some fruits and veggies with a little more pellets and feeder fish if your turtle is still growing.

Pellets are a great option here, but you could opt to feed him live food instead. Baby turtles can eat the same kinds of proteins adults can: earthworms, snails, slugs, grasshoppers, beetles, and crayfish. Ask your local pet store if they have live food for reptiles, and this is where you can buy it.

One thing you might want to consider adding to your pet baby turtle’s diet is a gel capsule supplement. You can find these at most pet stores. Just make sure the label indicates that it’s for your specific breed of turtle.

Ultimately, you want to make sure what you feed your baby turtle has variety. That way, you know he is getting all the nutrients and vitamins he needs.

Is It Okay to Keep a Wild Turtle?

Generally, no. For one, turtles in nature are wild animals. They are not used to human interaction, and will therefore not make very good pets. Wild turtles could carry diseases that captive-bred turtles don’t have (though both can carry some, which is why you should always wash your hands after handling). Lastly, some states ban captivating wild turtles. It’s frowned upon by conservationists, as well. These are all the reasons it’s not a good idea to keep a wild turtle.

Here’s another interesting read about turtles: 17 Turtles Found in Illinois

Baby Turtle Care Tips

Image Credit: Pixabay

Feed them in a separate aquarium to keep your main habitat clean. Alternatively, you can sprinkle pellet food on top of their water. Whatever you feed them, make sure it’s shredded into small pieces to make it the easiest to eat.

Turtles eat every day when they are young. Once they are about 7 years old, you can feed them once every 2 days. They can be fed 1 cup of turtle food per day, or whatever amount they can eat in around 20 minutes.

Never feed your turtle cat or dog food, as the protein content is too high and could harm your turtle.

Here’s another topic of interest: Can Turtles Eat Chicken? What You Need to Know!

Baby turtle’s diet needs differ slightly from adult turtles, just like in the wild. They require a little more protein and rely more on essential nutrients than full-grown adults, and that’s about the only difference. When it comes to feeding a baby turtle a pellet diet or live food, the choice is up to you.

Looking for more information on turtles? Take a look at:

How To Take Care Of A Turtle Egg: A Beginner’s Guide (with Pictures)
Do Turtles Need a Heat Lamp at Night? Lighting Guide For Your Pet Turtle
How Many Babies Do Turtles Have? How Many Eggs Do They Lay?

Featured Image Credit: Gauthier Pous, Pixabay

Step-by-step Guide to Caring for Your Baby Turtle

Your baby turtle will add a small and (relatively) easy pet to your household. While no animal should be adopted without careful consideration, turtles can be fun, affectionate, and engaging with their human owners. Even though they don’t take as much daily commitment as a dog or cat, you’ll need to learn how to care for a baby turtle so he thrives in his new home.

Contents

Find a space for your baby turtle
Set up his habitat
Feed your turtle on a schedule
Keep him engaged

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

1 hour

What You Need

Turtle housing
Heating lamp
Filtration system
Substrate
Basking rock
Cave
Thermometer
Cleaning supplies

Find a space for your baby turtle

The first step in baby turtle before you even bring your new pet home is to have his turtle home ready. When buying a new turtle, your first key decision is whether to get a terrestrial animal or an aquatic one. They require slightly different habitats, but both will need access to water and land, which means you will fully equip your terrarium for them to enjoy both environments.

Turtles like space, so find a large designated area in your home. Even small turtles get bigger — be sure the new home provides enough room for the turtle when he grows up. You may also decide to use a starter habitat and upgrade as he gets older.

Set up his habitat

When designing baby turtle habitats, it’s important to get the setup just right. You’ll need the correct temperature, water-to-land ratio, and proper basking areas all in one medium-sized tank.

Step 1: Get the right tank! Don’t use a fishbowl, too-small housing, or any tank without a lid. Your turtle needs at least 20 gallons or much larger if you don't intend to upgrade in the future.

Step 2: Fill up with water, but not too much water. Plan to have at least 50% land (for a terrestrial turtle) or a large basking area (for an aquatic turtle) when your pet is fully grown.

For a hatchling, the depth of the water must be greater than the width of his shell, but not so deep that the turtle has trouble getting out. You can measure this with a ruler in advance, but you should be able to see if he's having an easy time swimming around. Install a ramp if it looks like your turtle is struggling to get in and out.

Step 3: Once you have the water situation set, you get to the fun part: decorating your turtle’s new home. Add a mix of rocks, plants, and structures to your design for him to explore. Think about where you will leave extra food, like plants, for him to nibble on during the day and keep it away from the water.

Step 4: Turn up the heat. Turtles need to stay warm, and you will have to install a heating lamp in the enclosure to keep the temperature around 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Situate the basking rock so it gets direct "sunlight" and put his cave at the other end for him to have a cooldown.

Step 5: Lastly, keep the tank clean. Invest in a filtration system and poop scoop but still do a partial water change every couple of days. You want to deep clean his tank about once per month, so set aside those tools for later.

Feed your turtle on a schedule

Feeding your turtle can be one of the most fun parts of interacting with him on a daily basis. In the wild, turtles eat a diet of worms, snails, and plants along with a few other things they might find around their waterholes. Food from the pet store will keep his diet balanced and is designed to mimic the vitamins and nutrients he would seek out if he were free to roam.

Step 1: Invest in a feeding tank. While not strictly necessary, it can cut down on the mess substantially. Instead of painstakingly pulling out bits of lettuce, you just dump the water or extra substrate when he's done.

Step 2: Feed every day. Baby turtles need a daily meal, but you may taper that as he gets older. An older turtle might only eat every three days.

Step 3: Try a live feeding. Even though you might not enjoy watching it, turtles like to catch their food. Give him the opportunity to try it out as a baby by feeding him live prey and see if he takes to it. For a terrestrial reptile, this means crickets or worms on land, and for an aquatic species, it's fish in the water.

Keep him engaged

Turtles don’t like to be handled much and can carry diseases that are bad for humans. Properly wash your hands whenever you come into contact with him. In addition to playing at mealtimes, your turtle may enjoy exploring the outside world. Be mindful of predators and escape routes, and take him out (weather permitting) to walk around in the yard and bask in the sunshine. Inside his home, he'll play with toys like shells or plants and will enjoy digging in the gravel.

We all know turtles famously live a long time. When you bring home a baby turtle, you're signing up to take care of him for possibly 40 to 50 years. Ensure you know who will take him when your kid moves out or moves on from caring for him. With the right plan in place, though, you’ll have a fun and not too demanding pet for your home for years to come.

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Feeding herbivorous turtles - Turtles.

Home
Maintenance of the house
Feeding
Herbivore turtle feeding

Plant food is consumed by:

all land tortoises (Central Asian, Mediterranean, Egyptian), but a small part of them are omnivores.
Secondary terrestrial turtles (box turtles, Asiatic) that are omnivorous.
many adult freshwater tortoises (red-eared, geographic, musky, bog and others).

Land and omnivorous tortoises must be supplemented with vitamins and calcium for reptiles, as they are not enough in food. And most importantly - turtles should be fed varied !

Basic diet

These types of food can be given without restriction, but the turtle's diet must be varied.

Meadow grasses, flowers and leaves of shrubs and trees

In summer they can be collected outside in the forest-park zone and dried/frozen for the winter. This is an affordable, free food rich in vitamin A. You need to collect plants away from the road, because. otherwise, they may contain heavy metal salts and chemicals. Mammalian worms are not dangerous to turtles. For the winter, meadow grass buds and their buds can be frozen and dried.

Plants are divided into those that can be given without restrictions, with restrictions and cannot be given. Below are the plants "without restrictions":

Dandelion

Plantain

DOW

Cineneline

Lilac

Tatar. Tatar

bell Complete list of edible plants

Houseplants, succulents and cacti

Turtles can be given indoor plants that are edible for them. Such food will always be at hand if you did not have time to go to the store for a salad or to the street for dandelions.

Herana

calendula

Koleus

Malva

Marante

Mint

chlorophytum

Sansevera (pike tail)

Pland Plaint

Complete list of edible houseplants

Aquatic and semi-aquatic plants

Aquatic and semi-aquatic plants can be collected from a pond, purchased from an aquarium pet store or from aquarists. You can give them to adult freshwater turtles.

Hornwort

Caroline Kabomba

Eichhornia excellent, water hyacinth

Elodea, water plague

Complete list of edible aquatic plants

Supplement to basic diet

It is better to give additional types of food no more than 1 time in 1-4 weeks. These can be meadow grasses, indoor plants, leaves and flowers of bushes, trees , which can be given in limited quantities.

Bigs

Cyprus (Ivan Chi)

Clover

Netiva

Chamomile

Clove

Lileynik

Petunia

SUNDUCH

Transicanda

Complete list of restricted edible plants

Salad-Romen (Salad Romano)

Salad Iceberg

Latuk Latuk

Pumpkin

Carrots

Bowl Complete list of vegetables, fruits and berries

Arcadia EarthPro HerbiMix

JBL Agivert

JBL Herbil

Sera Reptil Professional Herbivor

Turtles can also be fed meadow hay (from a pet store or independently dried from the summer), dry pharmaceutical herbs from the list of permitted, germinated tops of vegetables (carrots, beets).

hay

germinated leaves

marigold flowers

chamomile flowers

mint

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Health and treatment
Reproduction
Care and hygiene

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Central Asian tortoise
Bog turtle
Mediterranean tortoise
Other turtles

Veterinarians, Pet stores.

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Feeding herbivorous turtles - Turtles.ru

Home
Maintenance of the house
Feeding
Herbivore turtle feeding

Plant-based food consumed:

all tortoises (Central Asian, Mediterranean, Egyptian), but a small part of them are omnivores.
Secondary terrestrial turtles (box turtles, Asiatic) that are omnivorous.
many adult freshwater tortoises (red-eared, geographic, musky, bog and others).

Land and omnivorous tortoises must be supplemented with vitamins and calcium for reptiles, as they are not enough in food. And most importantly - the nutrition of turtles should be varied !