Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Mixed this up in a big bowl and put balls of it on cookie sheet just like making cookies then froze them then placed the frozen balls of food in freezer bags, doesn't get any easier than that, just take out a food ball and thaw it. My boxies absolutely inhaled the tester ball, and it's very nutritious, they really liked the new special main ingredient that I added, can you guess what the main ingredient is?

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Jeff Benfer
You'll get your regius's to the wall, man!
1.0 pastel Python regius
0.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
0.2 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.1 Ambystoma tigrinum
2.2 het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.1 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
1.1 heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus

"My boxies absolutely inhaled the tester ball, and it's very nutritious, they really liked the new special main ingredient that I added, can you guess what the main ingredient is?"

It looks like ground beef? Do you bake or broil it in the oven or what? I know that they've been seen eating carrion in the wild, but a breeder at the Daytona Expo told me not to feed box turtles anything raw. Seems like good protien, but nothing is good enough for my ornate, unless its something sweet, or unless its moving. Someone told me about something similar for when I had my aquatic turtles, but it was canned salmon(protien) and some random veggies in it, but I never tried it because I usually changed the water in their ponds every 5-6 months and that would have clouded their water up real quick.

Nope, guess again
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Jeff Benfer
You'll get your regius's to the wall, man!
1.0 pastel Python regius
0.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
0.2 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.1 Ambystoma tigrinum
2.2 het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.1 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
1.1 heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus

well, no I can't.
could you please post your mix?
oh, maybe I should have looked further back in postings?
thanks, anyway, patsy
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Patsy

I can't tell what type of meat it is, but I do pretty much the same thing. It has saved me a TON of time (as you've pointed out, Jeff). I use ground turkey mostly, but also ground fish. I vary the veggie content to round things out, and usually run them through a chopper. They go bonkers for just about any combination. Oh, and I keep the ratio of meat to veggies at about 1:1, sometimes 1:2. I also make meatballs out of soaked mazuri, reptomin, and trout chow and veggies. A favorite is trout chow and pumpkin.

RMB does something like this also.

My Wood turtles also go nuts over this type of food.

Thanks for pointing this out, Jeff. It's always great to read others' time saving tips. And we all know, time is at a premium when we have a bunch of hungry turtles to care for.

Yes Ken, I remember you make up a very similar mix, this is not a new invention, I was doing this for tropical fish 20 yrs ago using gelatin to hold it togather and it wasn't a new invention then, but I think it does help others to bring up this topic now and then anyway because it is a well balanced, highly nutritious, and super convenient, easy way to feed.
So anyway the secret ingredient, is one that I have a lot of left over in the freezer, lean ground whitetail venison and wholeground rodents that were refused once by my snakes. So while I am sick of eating the venison by this time of year the turtles aren't and the snakes won't eat rodents after one freeze thaw, but the boxies love them and they aren't rotten, they are just "tenderized and aged" a bit for them, and with the whole mammal organs and bones it is complete nutrition. The other ingredients include Reptomin, HBH turtle pellets, Wardleys turlte sticks, corn, peas, rasberry, strawberry.
Thats just what I had handy that day. It would be good to add more veggies perhaps, but I think that with the 3 different turtle sticks the huge variation of veggie material used in the sticks and pellets and all the different vitamins and minerals and various other ingredients found in the sticks and pellets it balances things out pretty well. For anyone that hasn't tried some form or variation of this mix and method, I highly recommend it for it's ease of use and balance.
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Jeff Benfer
You'll get your regius's to the wall, man!
1.0 pastel Python regius
0.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
0.2 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.1 Ambystoma tigrinum
2.2 het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.1 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
1.1 heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus

thanks Jeff.
I will give this recipe a try.
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Patsy

http://www.matts-turtles.org/docs/Box-Turtle-Diet.pdf

Here's a diet plan recommended by a retired National Aquarium in Baltimore employee. Box turtles seem to love the Turtle Brittle. Don't forget mulberries - everyone in TX used to have one in their yard when I was growing up, and the leaves are great as greens, too.

Katrina

I've been picking mulberries from my neighbors trees for a couple weeks now. Slim pickings though; I think I've collected only about a dozen or so b/c they're relished by the birds so much too!