Our personal story here:

If you've been here for awhile you know about how I got Chip.

When he first got home from the hospital in bandages the week before his body cast was placed on him I was feeding him with a syringe but he really wasn't getting enough food. As time passed it got harder & harder to try to feed him because he'd fight so I knew this wasn't going to work.

When the vet took him in to do the body cast she said he was starting to jaundice brought on by lack of nutrition so she placed the feeding tube in him before I picked him up that day.



We used Ensure mixed with Oxbow's Critical Care for herbivores.

The Ensure gunked up the tube & so it had to be done over & shortened. Next we mixed the Critical Care with Pedialyte.

That worked well enough that after a week or two he pulled the feeding tube out by himself. The vet said let's give him a few days to see if he'll eat on his own. I could not get him to eat ANYTHING at all that's turtle appropriate but on the day he was to have the tube placed back in he ate one bite of Iam's moist chicken bites that come in a pouch.



Vet said great he ate something on his own ok no tube, let's make him eat more on his own. So that's what we did. I would try every day to get him to eat something other than dog food but he refused. We thought ok dog food is better than nothing and at least it's chock full of vitamins & minerals. I think everyone knows that dog food isn't the best food for a turtle but I do believe it is better than nothing.

As he healed & got stronger still eating the dog food I gave him a waxworm one day & he ate that. As time passed I tried more variety- he still won't regonize a cricket as food but he'll eat a large variety of worms, grubs, caterpillers and some fruits.

So I weaned him off the dog food & filled his stomach with more turtle appropriate food, today 15 months later he refuses dog food.

Although I don't ever suggest that dog food is good for healthy turtles & I don't feed it to mine now, in Chip's situation it saved his life.

I used to think everything has to be done one way & any other way is wrong but over the years I've learned that just because someone else does things differently than I do, it doesn't mean they're wrong.. it's just every situation is different & so one size does not fit all.

This is just more food for thought..

pun intended









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PHRatz

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