Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My eastern box wont eat veg or fruit's at all what should i do?

you could try putting a bunch of foods in a blender and make it all like a mush, then put a worm in the mush to get the turtles attention, put some things in the blender that you know he likes so it smells like something he wants to eat.

I've had good luck with ZooMed's canned box turtle food. There is some flavoring agent in it that the picky turtles seem to like, and it is primarily fruit-based. If they eat it, you can shred some veggies and stir them in.

Just keep trying. You may need to start offering the favored items less frequently and offer veggies and fruit regularly. Start with items that most Easterns find particularly tasty...strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, partially cooked sweet potatoes, green beans, peas. These items aren't the best to offer over time, but you can use them to spark your turtles interest towards what you're offering on the plate. When the turtle begins to respond, take away the favored item and add in something dark, green, and bitter. Try to offer the food in the same exact way and at the same exact time for each feeding. Eventually, the turtle will begin to respond more to the habit of "feeding time" instead of the actual morsels being offered.

It can be tough. I used to spoil my turtles by offering only their favorites, and they all became very overweight. Also, their egg production was weak. It can take a while, but they'll come around. You may also notice that the diet preferences change throughout the season.

One tip...purchase some cod liver oil gelcaps. You can poke a hole in one with a toothpick and drip the stinky oil onto the veggies. My Easters love the fishy smell of this stuff (of course, this doesn't mean that yours will). Don't overdo it, though, as this is loaded with Vit. A and can cause toxicity in large quantities.

Good luck.

Oh, and one item that seems to be taken by almost any box turtle that is very nutritious (high calcium/phosphorus ratio too) is prickly pear cactus. They prefer the fruits, but mine will eat pads also. Ratz has talked a lot about them lately. You can purchase them with the spines already removed at just about any Hispanic grocery store...cheap!

How old is your turtle?

Im not sure whats a good way to tell age? As for the can box turtle food he'll eat that but i have to feed it to him from tongs. He loves super worms, goliath worms, and night cralwers.
Dosnt touch any of that frutiy pebbles box turtle food.

Haha...fruity pebbles...it does look like that! Good one.

I was just wondering about a general age...adult, juvenile, hatchling. Box turtles will tend to accept more veggies as they age. You're lucky to get a hatchling to eat veggies at all, whereas it will make up a substantial part of an adult's diet. Just keep at it. My turtles were dragged kicking and screaming into a more vegetarian diet about, er, 8 years ago. It took a while.

i would say hes more of an adult.

A nice, bright eyed, adult male. Handsome turtle.

>>>Oh, and one item that seems to be taken by almost any box turtle that is very nutritious (high calcium/phosphorus ratio too) is prickly pear cactus. They prefer the fruits, but mine will eat pads also. Ratz has talked a lot about them lately. You can purchase them with the spines already removed at just about any Hispanic grocery store...cheap!

Let me just say this about that..
In our local grocery stores we can buy this cleaned,cut up, in a sealed bag, ready to cook for human consumption. Depending on where you live it may be be hard to find if you don't know to look for napoles or napolitos.
I hear that cooked it tastes a lot like green beans. I don't know I've never tried it.
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PHRatz

No one mentioned protein. My two boxes love turkey slices cut up in bite sized bits. My reptile vet said that boxes should have 30% protein, 50% veggies and 20% fruit. If I'm doing something wrong with this diet, please advise.
P.S. Cantelope was the magic potion that got one picky eater to start eating.
I've had good success with mustard greens, collard greens and turnip greens. Cut up bite sized.

Every text I've read says that their diet is made up of about 50% protein.

I took the original post to mean that the poster couldn't get the turtle to eat fruits/veggies aside from the protein that it was consuming. Maybe I interpreted that incorrectly.

My adult turtles get both animal and plant matter. I can't determine the exact ratio. It's close to half and half for the Easterns(except bauri), and about 75/25 for the ornates. Some eat more protein, others eat a good amount of veggies. It can vary with the turtle. I certainly OFFER a lot more veggies than protein, but most is only grazed upon.

Mine sometimes pick their way around the veggies, other times they aren't finicky at all.

I mixed some veggies with beef baby food. Then gradually reduce the amount of baby food you add. You can also get veggie baby food and put some on her worms etc. and gradually add more baby food.

I also picked out the some veggies from my vegatable beef soup and she loved those! They and nice and soft and coated with beef soup!
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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
1.11.0 chickens
1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband