Hi, all, I'm new to this forum, hoping you all can share a little knowledge.

My husband and I have a half-grown female Western Painted, 3-4 inches long, wild-caught. I found her on a bike path about 3 months ago. She adjusted well to captivity, quickly learning to associate people with food. She has a voracious appetite, eating enthusiastically a couple of times a day, but will only eat meat. Her favorite foods are worms and raw hamburger. She will also eat shrimp, raw fish and chicken, but seems to prefer red meat. She turns up her nose at any kind of vegetable food: greens, fruit, flowers, vegies. She sniffs at turtle food and fish food, but won't eat it. She won't even eat beetles or bugs. I'm not sure how this turtle survived in the wild with nobody to wait on her!

I've read that baby painteds are mostly carnivorous, becoming omnivorous as they grow. She's well past the baby stage, but never got the memo on plant foods. She's lively and looks very healthy, but we worry that she isn't getting a balanced diet. We bought some turtle vitamins that we mix into her hamburger once or twice a week. Is that enough? Should we insist that she eat her turtle chow before we give her the red meat she craves?

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