Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have the following questions on my geomyda spengleri.

1. I don't like culturing live foods for feeding my geomyda spengleri. Are there any dry foods or prepared foods that the spengleri will eat such as reptomin, trout chow, mazuri, zoomed turtle food, etc.?

2. Do they require any UVA/UVB rays and a basking light? I find mine to be sluggish everytime when the lights are on. Is this a sign that they don't require it or as much as other turtles?

3 Is it possible to potty train them to defecate in their water bowl instead of using random spots on their substrate?

I feed my hatchlings Reptomin once they get used to feeding on live foods. Usually to start them out they like to see the food moving. UVB is something that I've never used with spengleri and I've had breeding success. I do use calcium and vitamin D3 supplements. Their eyes seem sensitive to really bright lights.
Best wishes,
Mike N.

How do you feed them reptomin? Do you feed it to them dry by putting the reptomin on the ground and they automatically eat it by themselves or put it in their water bowl and make it move by swirling it around for them to eat it?

How do they metabolize calcium without UVB, do they just use the D3 to do it? What is your only lighting setup for them? Also do you use a basking light to keep them warm when it gets cold?

Thanks,
Steven

I soak the Reptomin first. To get them acclimated to the sticks I usually have to hold them in my fingers and wiggle it like a worm. After they begin to like the taste they will eat it on their own.

For lighting I use regular spot bulbs with no UVB. The D3 is what helps them metabolize the calcium. The babies seem to need extra calcium so their hind marginal scutes don't grow upturned. I saw some posts on the spengleri yahoo group about babies growing their hind scutes upturned. I had a baby do that but it eventually grew up and the scutes grew normally. Some people grow snails for their babies and this adds a bunch of calcium to the diet. I grow snails for mine but I get baby snails only occasionally.

Best wishes,
Mike N.

My spengleri will not accept commercial turtle chows but they do eat things like strawberries, bannanas, tomatoes and dead pinky mice.

G. spengleri do require UVB to some extent. Some individuals are very avid baskers. One of my males usually basks under his flourescent UVB bulb for a couple of hours a day.

I have never heard of anyone successfully training a turtle to do it's business in a specific place. I think it would be nearly impossible.

I remember feeding the spengleri at FWZ earthworms. They are easily kept in the fridge. We also fed them the same salad mix (on occasion) we used for all the tortoises. I believe we put a little egg in the salad too. When we fed them salad it was in a seperate container from their living quarters for ease of cleaning.
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14 Leopard Gackos 5.9.0
2 Tokay Geckos 1.1.0
1 Graybanded Kingsnake 1.0.0 (on vacation in my house)
1 Baird's Rat Snake (Thanks Vadoni!) 1.0.0
1 Trachemys scripta elegans 0.0.1
coming soon...
Corn Snake, Green Anoles, crested geckos, and Yellow Rat Snakes.