Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok so I have an alligator snapping turtle and a common snapping turtle both in different cages. The common snapping turtle is wild caught and eats Turtle pellets raw meat fish bugs pretty much anything. The Alligator snapping turtle is captive born is about 2 years old and only eats fish. Is there anyway to get it onto pellets as well just so I can constantly be giving him food. His cage is always stocked with goldfish but like pellets as an additional type of thing he doesn't seem to go for them at all when I put them in there now.

Any help appreciated

i would change to a different type of feeder fish. there has been much discussion (in the past) on this forum and the croc forum about feeder goldfish carrying a lot of parasites and just not being healthy to feed. i myself fed my alligator snapping turtle goldfish when i got him, but got worms from them. when he was little i moved to rosie reds and minnows. i now feed panfish. he will eat them live or i can freeze them and use later. when i had mine he ate reptomin no problem. i also moved on to trout chow as he got larger. you can get trout chow at feed stores. its like 20 bucks for a 50 pound bad or something like that. besides those items, my guy also ate crickets, night crawlers, crayfish, and thawed out rodents. at six yrs of age and almsot a 16 inch shell length he eats mainly fish, thawed out rodents, crayfish, and night crawlers. heres a pic or two of my ally from spring 2005
(lol and yes i know i need to get more pics. you that have seen these must be getting sick of them )

i dont know why i said when i had mine.....makes it seem i no longer have him. i think i meant to say that when i had him when he was little........

The chemicals that they use to treat goldfish for parasites can not be processed in by the snapping turtle's liver. So they collect in the liver and eventually will cause the liver to fail killing the turtle. I think the chemical is copper sulfate, but I could be wrong. However it is definitely toxic.

so how long would it take for goldfish to kill a common snapper? Iv'e been feeding mine, goldfish, crayfish, carp, trout, catfish, vegetables, reptomin and beefheart and liver and stuff. I had her for 4 yrs now and she has had no problem eating goldfish which meakes up about 60%-70% of her diet, everything else consits of other different types of food
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