Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...of feeding hatchlings in various recent threads, its been a long time since I've mentioned this seasonal food option: does anyone else offer wild mushrooms to their hatchlings?

When conditions are right, I will go out mushrooming in the woods and bring an assortment back for my turtles. The adults here will gorge on sponge mushrooms (Boletes) and eat certain others too, and even the littlest ones will eat mushrooms.

I guess that's one non-moving food that they instinctively know to chow down on, which makes sense to me: a mushroom is colorful, a good source of protein, and doesn't crawl away or fight back. depending on variety and the soil where its found, mushrooms can have a high mineral content as well.

Typically, supermarket button mushrooms are ignored by all.

Also, I have wondered if eating toxic/poisonous foods (at least to humans), such as some mushrooms, mayapples, and who knows what else, is a way for turtles to manage internal parasites.

Any thoughts?

We don't have any woods to collect mushrooms. I suppose I'd try it if I could.
We had a mushroom bloom in the lawn once & I pulled them up because I didn't trust them. I found I had reason not to, the sulcata ate one that I'd missed & it made her vomit 3 times then require vet treatment.
I think that those mushrooms were not native to this area & that's why they were such a problem. We've NEVER had them pop up like they did that time. I thought about it... we'd put organic fertilizer on the lawn, then it rained, then we had mushroom bloom. I think the fertilizer harbored those mushrooms & they were not suitable for eating.
I have tried the grocery store mushrooms too, nothing. Nobody wants to eat those here either.

A lot of people tout fresh pumpkin as a natural antiparasitic for tortoises.
If you knew what chemical is in the mushrooms that makes them toxic I think you could find the answer to whether or not they have antiparsitic properties for turtles.

As for fresh seasonal food I do like to use what I can. I have the cactus berries right now, they are this year's crop. When I run out I'll have to wait until next year. Hopefully the mulberry trees will bear fruit this year.. they didn't last year because of a late freeze.
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PHRatz

when the weather is right there are a couple of different mushrooms that pop up in the adult boxie pen, I'm not sure what type exactly, they grow on the logs, they dont seem to eager to chow down on them though.
once it warms up again(assume it ever gets really cold) I'll have to do as you do and go off in the woods to mushroom hunt.

Which ones are sponge mushrooms? I don't want to give my turtle something toxic. (Maybe someone knows of a website?)

Back when I had T. Herman, I gave him mushrooms from the store, but like the other turtles reported here, he did not touch them.

So-called sponge mushrooms have a sponge-like texture/appearance on the underside of the cap, whereas many other mushrooms have the radiating 'fins'.

I had purchased a fieldguide to mushrooms a few years ago, and, after reading it, concluded that I would probably never go hunting for mushroom for my own consumption.
Boletes, or sponge mushrooms, as a group are apparently less likely to be poisonous to humans, and apparently my turtles think they are quite tasty.

I just gather an assortment of colorful ones and offer them to the turtles here, and try to make a mental note of which ones are eaten and which are ignored. It is a known fact that Eastern box turtles can and do eat poisonous mushrooms w/o incident, so I rely on the turtle's instinct to know which mushroom to eat.

The few times I've offered small pieces to hatchlings or young turtles, they have eaten them too.

when you go mushroom hunting do you wear gloves?

and whats the field guide you use?

Thanks.

Hey Rouen,
To answer your questions:
No I don't wear gloves (I probably should), and the field guide I have is the National Audubon Society Field Guide. I didn't invest in anything more in-depth at this point because my interest in mushrooms is pretty casual, and I don't intend to eat any of the ones I collect myself. Strictly for turtles.

Here's a photo of the underside of a Bolete, to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Thank-you!

People here are so helpful and kind.

The person in Jersey (sorry, forgot the name already) said that mushrooms with gills are O.K. too. Would you say that is so, Steph?

I would try feeding turtles any kind of mushroom that you find, and let your turtle decide what it wants to eat. I have observed that my turtles will gorge on some of the mushrooms that I offer to them, and ignore others.

The point I was trying to make was that, as a group, the sponge mushrooms are less likely to be poisonous (according to what I have read). This does not mean that all sponge mushrooms are harmless, or that all other mushrooms are poisonous.

Whatever kind the ones that are red/maroon up top and yellow underneath, that turn blueish when you mush them, make for box turtle frenzies. They're stouter and smaller than all those light-colored mushrooms. I don't know how far north/east they range.

Don't know about any antibiotic properties of mushrooms holding up past the stomach since they'd be most useful against parasites only after reaching the intestines. By that point the nasty compounds might be broken down.

He in NJ this past summer was the best for picking wild mushrooms since I started to keeping box turtles 6 years ago. It was warm and wet most of the summer. Years ago when I came across the fist box turtle I ever saw in the wild, it was eating mushrooms. My turtles love to eat mushrooms. Even the hatchlings would always eat mushrooms. But they don’t eat just any mushrooms. The kinds they love to eat grow mostly under oak trees. They are light pink-red on top, sometimes a light brown on top but always pure white with gills underneath. I would ride my bike around the neighborhood looking for oak trees, after a rain. It did not take long to know just were to go. Sometimes I would see the homeowner and ask if I could pick the mushrooms. No one ever said no. Most said they were glad to get rid of them. Many times times I would be out early in the morning on the weekend and there was no one around. I would just pick the ones near the road. It would not take long to pick more then enough mushrooms then I thought the turtles could eat. But the turtles would always surprise me and finish almost all the mushrooms. There would just be crumbs let when they are finished. Most years they are only available for a few weeks of the year during an extend wet period. This year it was wet all summer.
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Jack

The only mushrooms I've ever found here growing naturally without our using fertilizer are these tiny little dry white looking things with a hole in the top & when you pull them up you'll see a puff of spores pop out the top.
We don't have any variety like all of you describe..
no fair!
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PHRatz

Puff balls.
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.12.0 chickens
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

Yes I feed wild mushrooms to both my very young, and mature boxies. They instinctively seem to know which are good foods for them regardless of the harmfull effects to man.

Native Boxies have been found to harbor the following:

Seven varieties Trematodes..........Three varieties of Cestodes................Twenty one varieties of Nematodes. Some individuals boxies can be living with thousands of these worms ( in their alimentary tract) and some boxies may have only a single filarial worm. However that single worm can be lodged in the connective tissue adjacent to the heart of a boxie.

While each case is individual; often, if kept in captivity the numbers of parasitic worms will go up due to substrate contamination and that’s where trouble can start via major stock outbreaks. In captivity we traditionally administer panacure, flagyl, etc... to combat them.

It has been well documented that boxies will feed voraciously on poisonous mushrooms. Throughout history Native Americans have died feeding on boxies that had ingested poisonous mushrooms; while they have no detrimental effect on boxies. In an old previous post; I similarly suggested that this was one way nature controlled parasites in boxies.

There is some documentation that pumpkin and some squashes have an anti parasitic effect.

Wild boxies will also ingest.....

Calcium oxalates although not an item on your typical boxies menu; as they bind usable calcium- although they are poisonous to some parasites. Boxies can feed on them in moderation. One has to wonder if they have some beneficial effects on wild boxie populations with respect to parasitism.

Consider the The common snowberry, (Coprifoliaceae) , the wild parsnip,(Umbelliferae), and the black cherry, ( Rosaceae) all examples of poisonious plants to people but foods wild boxies feed on.

There are literally thousands of herbs poisonous to people as are many of the mushrooms that boxies feed on; but many of which boxies feed on without injury to themselves. I for one believe it's natures way of keeping parasites and and a boxies immune system in check.

I think so too...there must be some way in which wild animals are able to keep the population of their parasites under control, and eating plants that contain compounds that kill the parasites is one effective way of doing that.

I do wonder about the pumpkin/squash connection for wild box turtles, simply because these are vegetables that are usually ripening about the same time many box turtles are preparing for hibernation (i.e. not eating). I feed winter squashes to my easterns throughout the warmer months because they are readily available at the market: pumpkin is another matter altogether.

I do wonder about the pumpkin/squash connection for wild box turtles, simply because these are vegetables that are usually ripening about the same time many box turtles are preparing for hibernation (i.e. not eating). I feed winter squashes to my easterns throughout the warmer months because they are readily available at the market: pumpkin is another matter altogether.

I can understand your reservations regarding wild boxies use of pumpkin with respect to hibernation times and pumpkin ripening.

That would be true if we limited our varieties to cultivars of pumpkin which ripen much later than their wild smaller cousins to achieve commercial quality size. Depending on geographical region there are non commercial native varieties of pumpkin that ripen from August through September. Native Americans are depicting eating pumpkin in August during one of their Thanksgivings. The first Thanksgiving was actually much earlier than we now celebrate.

How prevalent the wild smaller pumpkins are today is questionable; but boxies also feed on the pumpkin flower, which is not only a delicacy food to them but to many of our european descendants!

I think the theory regarding the benefits of boxies gorging on raw wild pumpkin and the clear liquid surrounding the seeds were a laxative or cleansing effect of their gut prior to cooler temps. With that cleansing effect, hundreds of parasitic worms were expelled prior to hibernation.

Ric K.

Great post Ric, you manage to state facts in such an easy way to understand.
For me it's always been difficult to put into words for people why it is that parasites in captivity need to be dealt with.
Captivity isn't the wild; nature does have a way of allowing animals to live with their parasite load kept down to a minimum so that wild animals usually don't die from infection.
Captivity is different because we can't duplicate the wild for them so we have to be mindful of the fact that parasites can overwhelm them.
I always have had a hard time explaining that to people who don't believe me, but you spell it out very plainly.
I ought to print that out so I can use it for reference the next time someone wants to argue with me.
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PHRatz

Captivity isn't the wild; nature does have a way of allowing animals to live with their parasite load kept down to a minimum so that wild animals usually don't die from infection. Captivity is different because we can't duplicate the wild for them so we have to be mindful of the fact that parasites can overwhelm them.

I couldn't agree with you more.

There are so many aspects of keeping an animal in captivity that it is difficult to comprehend. The more diverse an animals habits are - increases their complexity.

When we consider that these creatures have been surviving for tens of thousands of years with little evolutionary change, regardless of the adversity; that merits proof of a winning ecological model, yet a very complex one.

To keep them in captivity, we need complex mini environments with solutions to their varied needs, and that which plagues them.

Thanks for the kudos,

Ric K.

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>>Thanks for the kudos,

You're welcome, they were well deserved!
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PHRatz