Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a Gulf Coast Box Turtle and it's been a pain getting him to eat his veggies. I've offered several varieties and make sure to chop them up and mix them altogether in with some fruit and he never seems to go for it. Any time I give him live food mixed in with it he will purposefully scoop out the other food surrounding it and eat just the live food! I'm at my wits end with him, but I want to see him have a well rounded diet which doesn't seem to be happening. Can anyone offer me tips on dealing with this picky eater? Thanks!

This is what I have done w/ picky eaters:

I get some beef baby food and mix it w/ chopped veggies. This way they can't pic around the veggies. I slowly use less and less baby food. You can also get veggie baby food and dip part of a worm or other live food in it.

I also take the veggies out of my vegetable beef soup and feed it to them.

Good luck, let us know how it's coming.
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
2.2.0 eastern box turtles
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.9.0 chickens
1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)
3.2.0 adult children
1.0.0 husband

When I first got my Eastern juvies they would not eat veggies so I changed the way I prepared and offered foods. Now I take whatever I'm offering, usually some mixture of collards, dandellions, bell peppers, squash, carrots, and a fruit, and mix it in a processor starting with the greens, then the harder veggies and last the fruit and one or two earthworms. The mixture comes out moist but not too soggy and smelling like earthworm and bell peppers. None of my turtles have resisted this mixture.

do you freeze this mix?
There are posts showing mix that has been frozen.
I find that my BT don't want to eat previously frozen fruits.
Maybe the combo w/worms would be helpful.
Thanks for the hint./p
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Patsy

Curtis-your turtles look great and seem to be eating well. I chop my turtle's food finely too, and like your turtles-my turtles seem to eat better when I use a mixture verses one or two big hunks of fruit or veggies. Tess

Thanks, Tess. Yes, I'm very pleased with the success (knock on wood) I've had getting everyone to eat. There's few things as rewarding with keeping boxies as seeing their eyes get huge when they spot the food you put out for them!

Patsy, I don't freeze anything. I would prefer to offer fresh, and I think freezing would only be necessary if I needed to save time or had a lot of mouths to feed.

Curtis (?) I freeze left over meat/fruits for feeding.
Often we have guests, but in between time just the 2 of us and can't get through the meat, so I freeze it and take out a few bits in the morning & microwave a wee bit.
My dogs always know when it is meat time to feed the turtles when the micro goes off & it smells good...
/p
>>Thanks, Tess. Yes, I'm very pleased with the success (knock on wood) I've had getting everyone to eat. There's few things as rewarding with keeping boxies as seeing their eyes get huge when they spot the food you put out for them!
>>
>>Patsy, I don't freeze anything. I would prefer to offer fresh, and I think freezing would only be necessary if I needed to save time or had a lot of mouths to feed.
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Patsy