Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is referring to my earlier post about my turtle only eating worms. So today I fed him some carrots, romaine lettuce, and strawberries. He only ate the romaine lettuce. I've never heard of a turtle that doesn't like strawberries. Anyway, any suggestions?
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two oregon newts
one male eastern box turtle
ten gallon tropical fish tank

Did you check your other thread? I gave you some suggestions there already.

Somtimes it takes a little time for a turtle to warm up to new food itmes. You should not give up on strawberries and carrots, but try them again. Next time grate the carrots and nuke them for a few seconds, and use more ripe strawberries. Try grated, cooked sweet potates, fresh cooked corn on the cob, ripe bananas. Read the chapter on diet in my online care book at www.boxturtlesite.info for more hints.

Thanks strange_wings. I read your advice and it worked w/ the romaine lettuce. I've read the article on your website PHBoxTurtle. It has also provided me with good help and info. I'll just try to keep feeding him various fruits and veggies and see how it goes.
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two oregon newts
one male eastern box turtle
ten gallon tropical fish tank

In the meantime, you can supplement the worms by offering them in a spoonfull of baby food. Carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes are great, but any type would be good to add some extra vitamins.

Wow, can't believe he turned down strawberries and went for romaine...wierd dude.

I tend to have more problems with males accepting fruits and veggies, especially in the spring.

"I tend to have more problems with males accepting fruits and veggies, especially in the spring."

Maybe the male turtle mindset is to bulk up on high protein and energy foods to get the jump on the other males at breeding? Or maybe, depending on area, it's because insects would be more readily available in the wild.

Either way, I got some of my babies to eat veggies yesterday despite only having been up for a couple days... and it looks like the weather is about to flip to chilly temps again for the weekend.

Turtles eat all kinds of things in the wild, but they don't eat them all year round. Most of the food items that a box turtle eats in the wild are available seasonally. In the spring, when they're fresh out of hibernation, they eat a lot of worms and slugs because the ground tends to be wet from spring showers and because they need a big animal protein energy boost after fasting for months and possibly losing body mass that can be replenished faster from animal protein than from plant matter. Where I live, the wild Eastern Box turtles like to chow on Mayapple while it's available, which is only for a couple weeks. Then wild strawberries become available and they eat them. As the summer passes, other bush berries mature and fall to the ground and they eat them. My pet box turtles won't even pay attention to a strawberry right now, or a banana, and they love both of those things. They're all about the animal protein right now, but will gradually start to eat the other things as the warmer weather sets in. Their appetite for different foods changes with the seasons if they're allowed to feed like they do in the wild. After any rain, they look for the worms and slugs, just like they would in the wild. It's instinctive behavior that's evolved over millenia and they hang on to some of that behavior, even in your yard or your house. I try to pay attention to what foods are available to the wild turtles in the area at any given time and feed mine some of the same things. I fill in the blanks when I have to with Reptomin.

He's still not eating fruits or veggies. This morning I fed him some grapes and grated carrots and lightly misted his pen, but still he didn't eat the veggies or fruits. Is there anything that could be wrong?
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two oregon newts
one male eastern box turtle
ten gallon tropical fish tank