Reptile & Amphibian Forums

is it bad that my yellow belly seems to be interested in nothing but freeze dried shrimp? its labeled as a "treat" & most treats seem to have no nutritional value whatsoever, but i cant get him to eat the food sticks anymore. i have to trick him into it by giving him shrimp first, then throwing in 1 or 2 food sticks. hell eat them if they dont float away too fast, but once i throw those in, he stops eating. he was eating normally until recently, so im wondering whats going on. should i try to wean him off the shrimp? i dont want him to end up malnourished because hes being picky.

this is mike wazowski. hes sleeping in his favorite spot, under the filter.

Your probably feeding him everyday? Turtles that are fed everyday can get "spoiled" and start eating only favorite foods. Try feeding everyother day or even only twice a week is OK. If he gets more hungry in between feedings, he'll eventually start to eat what you give him. It may take a while for you to get him on the right track. Feeder fish should be a major part of his diet too.

yeah, i was feeding him every day, more than once, actually, & he seemed hungry enough to eat the shrimp. but ill try feeding him every other day. he has guppies in there too, i forgot to mention that, but he wont eat them. i bought 12 right after i bought him, to find out what he liked, & he ignores them. im now on my 3rd generation of guppies, because i dont want to just kill them or ignore them & let them die off, because thats just mean. ok, yeah, they were supposed to be eaten anyway, but...im conflicted, dont ask. but ok, cut down on feeding, gotcha. thanks a lot. any thoughts on why he isnt eating the guppies? i dont think i can get goldfish small enough for him, or id try that too. hes not that big yet. thanks again.

Maybe he just can't catch the guppies? I think some turtles are better at catching fish than others. You may have to kill some of the guppies for him. Yucky I know but he needs them. As he gets hungrier, I bet he will become more interested in the guppies. A couple months ago I bought a trio of red platys with the idea that I'd use their babies as a feeder fish supply. The parents are so good about not eating their babies. I'm getting a bunch. After seeing the babies grow up I have yet to use them as feeders. I keep buying goldfish and rosy reds at the pet store for feeders. My baby platys are so cute but eventually I'm going to talk myself into using them. (sigh)

I know this sound terrible, and hopefully no one will hate me for this, but everything has to eat. I generally "stun" my feeder fish before I place them in with my turtles because the fish are often too quick. By stunning, I gently squeeze the head of the fish before I release it into the water. This allows the turtle to still "hunt" the prey, but gives it an advantage. Similar success can be obtained by pinching near the tail as well. Again, I know it sounds terrible, but everyone has to eat, and your turtle does need fish. Also try earthworms sprinkled with a calcium supplement (they can usually catch these well), crickets also work, and eventually as the turtle matures it will become more herbivorous.
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1.0.0 Thamnophis proximus
0.0.3 Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium
0.1.0 Graptemys ouachitensis
1.0.0 Chrysemys picta

>>is it bad that my yellow belly seems to be interested in

By the way, that photo is of a Red-Eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) not a Yellow Belly (Trachemys scripta scripta). Small difference but I just thought I'd point it out.

Ophidiophile Farms

actually, thats what my vet thought ear when i said the store had it labeled as one, but he researched it & said they were right, he was a yellow belly. its some sort of insanely hard to tell sub-species or something, but his specialty is reptiles, so he usually kows what hes talking about. but thanks for your help.

my turtle has developed some atrocious eating habits in the last week or so, basically won't touch the Nutrafin pellets but will still eat the Reptimin pellets. But, here's the catch. He's not eating pellets when I'm in the room, so I've been feeding him... leaving him... then coming back and scooping out what food he isn't eating. Since he's being finacky (excuse my spelling)I've decided not to endulge him. (I'm as stubborn as he is). This may sound cruel but I'm making him hunt his own food (he gets a steady supply of rosie red, I won't let him have less then 4 in the tank at a time) if he's not eating what I'm giving him. I'm trying to start him on veggies anyway and figured that since Turtles in the wild aren't guaranteed a steady diet, something about their biology must help them store food. Shrimp Turtle Treats are just that, a treat... kind of like potato chips for us.

I keep on meaning to get him a cuttle bone. I was even at the petstore less then an hour ago getting cat food but I forgot about turtle. Oh well, I'm at the petstore often anyway and the grocery store probably has cuttle bone.

How do you use cuttle bone for turtles...? grate it over the veggies as a calcium suppliment...?

~Rachael

>>How do you use cuttle bone for turtles...? grate it over the veggies as a calcium suppliment...?
>>
>>~Rachael

Personally, I haven't figured that out yet. But what made me remember someone on this forum mentioning it was seeing my turtle trying to nibble on the little desolving health conditioner that I put in his tank (a cute little turtle shaped sulphur block for turtles I found in the store). I guess if you break it up (makeing sure the back of it is removed) and put it in the tank they will take nips out of it??

Mike gets live feeder fish, so he's getting some bone. Cuttlebone is not a top priority for me, but should it be?

well, as far as how to give them cuttlebone, i didnt think i knew either until i dropped a (rather large) chunk in by accident this morning, so i just left it there...came back in 5 minutes later & mikey was eating it already. dont know the preferred method, but apparently the big random chunk thrown in by accident method works, too.