Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can you feed slugs to box turtles? What about possums? I've been finding alot lately under rocks in my backyard because of the rain and was just wondering if they would be okay to feed.

Yes they can eat slugs. Box turtles eat a variety of insects and invertebrates in the wild so any addition to the normal kingworm, mealworm, and cricket staple is a very good thing. I keep my ornate box outside for the summer and he eats snails, earwigs, worms, pill bugs, and any other invertebrate that manages to find its way into his enclosure. During the winter months he still gets the largest variety of insects, greens, cactus, and low sugar fruit I can provide as I believe that variety is necessary to longevity in chelonians (case in point, he was an adult when I got him 26 years ago and he is still in excellent health today). Just be sure that there are no herbicides or pesticides that the slugs have been exposed to as these can be toxic to your turtle. Also, I would be disingenuous if I didn't warn you that some people worry about nematode problems when feeding wild slugs and snails, so if this concerns you then you may want to discuss this with your vet. As far as possums, well I can't comment as I have never fed those to anything I own, although box turtles do occasionally eat carrion, so I guess they might eat it. Mine likes venison as a treat so possum may also be a hit, I just wouldn't use it as a staple due to the high protein content.
Shane

I'm sorry, I meant that as a question to ask if I could feed slugs to my possum, not my possum to the box turtles. I have a possum I got about a year ago when her mother was killed on the road.

Oops, my bad. Feeding possum to a box turtle did seem like a strange question, but hey it's the internet and you just never know

Slugs are a favorite food of box turtles. Almost every wild box turtle I come across along road shoulders in the early morning is eating a slug. Slugs are still active in the morning when the grass is still damp and that's when wild box turtles do most of their foraging. Opossums will eat anything, including slugs.

I find my box turtles eating slugs in the mornings sometimes and occationally I will find slugs when I am messing around in the garden and throw it in to the lions, I also see them eating earwigs and pillbugs all the time. The earwigs seem to be very attracted to the food dish, so it's a bunus for desert. Sometimes I will come back an hour after putting the food out to check on them and the smell of the food will have attracted the earwigs and the boxies will be busy catching the earwigs instead of finishing up the meal I prepared for them. The pill bugs are attracted to underside of the hide logs, I think the boxies sit there under the logs snacking on pill bugs and earwigs all day, kinda like sitting on the couch watching TV eating popcorn or potato chips, because half the time I go to lift the log up to check on them, one of them has a pill bug in its mouth or is hot pursut of one. I believe the pill bugs are high in calcium too, so they are a good food source anyway, not sure about the slugs or earwigs.
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Jeff Benfer

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