Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I meet someone who "knows" all about box turtles and he made a comment that he feeds his tuna fish (stored in water only). I've never heard of this. But I like the idea of another protein source. Has anyone tried this before? Thanks ahead of time .

I've never tried it but I am tempted to offer some and see if she takes it.

I feed my aquatic turtles and box turtles fish regularly. I have always avoided salt water fish due to the high sodium content. I like to feed whole, freshwater "minnows" of appropriate size. The guts and other organs provide some extra nutrients.

Box turtles are opportunists. They can and often do eat just about anything. You can probably feed tuna occasionally without issue, but it probably isn't the best thing. I have certainly fed questionable food items in a pinch i.e. cheerios, hahaha

Well, I conducted the experiment last night, but a tablespoonful of canned-in-water tuna on a tupperware lid in the cage. She demloished it with gusto, didn't eat it all but made quite a dent in it!

Each summer I will go down to the river with a minnow trap and catch some small Minnows. One year it was real hard to find any worms and the turtles were real hungry. I was realy surprized when they at 6-10 small minnows each. Execpt on turtle who would not eat any.

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Jack

Good grief!! Look at all these box turtles eating fish!!

I've tried it before & couldn't get one to touch fish so I gave up on that.
I like to give them the most variety in food items that I can but I find that they tend to turn their noses up at more foods than I thought they would.
In the wild if they lived by water & happened to find a dead fish on the edge I think most of them would eat it.
I have found mine eating dead birds that dropped into the yard a few times- that bothers me because West Nile virus does happen here. eek.
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PHRatz

Would guppies be an alright substitute for minnows?
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Patsy

Guppies are great. They are just getting harder to find at pet stores these days.

I keep them in various water containers as mosquito control. I shall give them some today. Are the BT able to catch them in the water or do I need to lay them out?/p
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Patsy

I lay mine out on a flat rock. As soon as they start to flop around a little they will catch the eye of the turtle. I think in water they would be very very hard for a box turtle to catch.

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Jack

great photo.
Thanks. I will definitely try some.../p
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Patsy

I buy rosies at the pet store. They are a kind of minnow and are very cheap - about 10 - 12 cents each. They will also breed. (I got an overrun of them now!) I put a few in my OBT's soaking dish and she enthusiastically chases, catches and eats them. My EBT hasn't shown any interest in them at all. The rosies live in the pond with my slider and cooter, who also don't seem to be interested!
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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

I also breed freshwater tropical fish. I also several times a year will feed old breeders or additional fish to my box turtles. They waste no time in eating them up. I'm not sure I would offer tuna as it is a salt water fish and would contain protiens foreign to what a land box turtle would come accross in the wild, but in very slight moderation it might be OK.

The guys on the fish forums would hate me for what I just said here..

Thanks everyone!I think I'm going to try just alittle bit and see what happens. Thanks again!

Most of mine go crazy for minnows, though a have a couple turtles that are completely uninterested in them.
The main component of ReptoMin is "fish meal," and all my turtles eat ReptoMin.

Tim

Third Eye

I also occasionally feed my boxies various aquatic turtle foods that contain fish, I have always been concerned about the worms and other intestinal parasites that minnows can carry though.

My turtles were infected with tapeworms from feeding wild caught minnows and crayfish. Now, I freeze all fish and crayfish before feeding. Freezing and thawing will kill just about any parasite.

That's a good point that I never really thought about.

Tim