Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i found a baby painted turtle on a soccer field at one of my sister's soccer practices and decided to keep it. every day i let it swim in our aquarium with our fish for 30minutes-1hour three times a day. i have it in a small aquarium but want to get a bigger one because he can't swim very much in the one i have. i bought some turtle food (pellets) from the pet store by my house but i don't think that he/she has eaten any of them. i am wondering what i should feed the turtle and how i should go about feeding it. also, does anyone have housing suggestions?

Well congrats on possibly saving the turtle. Turtle will live for a long amount of time if properly taken care of 20-40 years. I too have a small painter turtle and bought a 40 gallom breeder for him. cost $60, then a lamp fixture for $40, and created a basking area for him with 6 inch plastic planting pots flipped over and a large rock on top of them for him to bask on. I also have a 2 supreme ovation submersiable filters which keep the tank clean and a submersable heater too $20. Because he is young water changes need to be frequent to keep him healthy. If he still doesn't eat the pellets try romaine lettuce of leafy greens. good luck and if you have any questions let me know. I hope i have helped you.

Are you sure he is even a painted. Usually wild painteds stay in water except to bask or lay eggs, and even then they stay next to the water.

If he is a painted you need to get a rubbermaid or something because this is strickly an aquatic species of turtle. Also if your not keep his water in his tank around 78 to 80 theres going to be a good chance he will become ill if he is a hatchling.

You should have just moved him and not kept him. Specially when you don't have the right set-up. Set-ups always come before the turtle.

I'm pretty sure that it's a painted...here's some pictures. ((i don't know if the pictures will work))
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i'll try it again...(the pictures)

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One more time....
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Finally...Here's the picture of it's belly.

Your turtle looks to be a western painted turtle. I have three baby midland painted turtles and i got them to eat pellets by first giving them frozen brine shrimp, then i switched to dried brine shrimp, then baby turtlr pellets. the whole process took my like a week. Good luck.

I hope im not pointing out the obvious, but the turtle needs to be in water to eat.

i have now gotten him to eat around 4 or 5 large flys that I caught around my house. In our aquarium, we have set up a basking rock in one corner for him. i still think i need some better lighting, though. would you suggest dried insect larvae from the pet store or insects that I have caught around my house as better food?

Hey,

I had a hatchling painted as well as some medium age ones. They started off as finicky eaters (of commercially prepared turtle food), but readily gulped down earthworms, pieces of meat (chicken, beef), and seafood (krill, fish, squid). HOwever, after reading about what constitutes a good diet, I stopped giving them some of that fattening stuff. Perhaps you can try different items first to stimulate his appetite, especially worms since they wiggle and entice turtles. Young painteds are primarily carnivorous so think meat, along with some leafy vegetables for them to nibble on from time to time.

Offer them meat only rarely; ie, when they refuse to eat anything else and you feel like they are starving. Crickets and other insects should help. Slowly switch to commercial foods and then your job will be a lot easier. (For some reason, my adult painteds still don't like veggies much...)