Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two ornates, one male and one female, that I bought at an expo a month ago. I'm new to the supplementing cricket thing. Crickets are the only thing I have found them to eat so far. I bought Rep Cal's Herptivite and Calcium with D3. How much is too much?
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Mike

1.1 Peninsula Cooters
0.1 Green Iguana
1.0.2 Southern Painteds
0.0.3 Western Painteds
1.1 Ornate Box Turtles

With a balanced diet healhty, adult ornate box turtles can be supplemented with vitamins and minerals once a week. However calcium in the form of a cuttlebone should be available at all times for them to munch on whenever they want.

Although ornates seems to prefer insects over other foods, in the wild these insects are gut loaded with plant material so they are gactually getting plant foods. WIld ornates do eat plants. for example mulberries and catus fruits. If all you fed were crickets, soon the turtles will be malnourished. Try gut laoding the crickets on dark greens and feed an assortment of insects like earthworms, waxworms, superworms, mealworms. Try vegetables like sweet potato, corn on the cob, romaine and red leaf lettuce and fruits like peaches, grapes, and apples.

Your ornates are picky eaters but can be broken of this habit. Read my on-line book's diet chapter for more info.
www.boxturtlesite.info/diet.html
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Tess
Kingsnake.com Forum Host

Thanks for listing your site. There is some very helpful info there.
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Patsy

I agree with Tess.

Just to add...my ornates LOVE superworms, so much so that I purchase 1,000 at a time during the summer. Also, I breed them in order to have a constant supply of babies for the hatchlings. Superworms are more "rich" than crickets. It is difficult to maintain weight on ornates that are fed mostly domestic crickets. Be cautious, though, as ornates will gorge so greedily on superworms they will often regurgitate. Along with cactus fruit and pads, my ornates tend to enjoy peas and tomatoes. I have no source for mullberries, but I have also heard that they are relished.

Good luck. Hope this helps.