Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We recently moved our 4.5 inch RES out of her old unfiltered, unheated, unlit ten gallon tank into a 30 gallon, lit, filtered enclosure and we are modifying her diet. She was getting around 95% turtle sticks and the rest was goldfish every month or two.

So anyway, I've gotten her some new things to try including:
mustard greens
apples
squash
carrots

and any other fruits and veggies happen to be in our fridge at any time (besides bananas). The problem is she doesn't seem to be too interested in any of these. I haven't seen her eat anything but last nite there seemed to be less mustard green leaves in there when I checked up on her so as far as I can tell that's the only thing she's even tried. Does anyone know of a way to make new foods more appitizing to a turtle or are there any foods that any RES would almost guaranteed love?

Thanks for any help!!

Hi, before I went on vacation I stopped feeding Oregano the pellets (3 days before) and placed some plants, 10 guppies, & 5 ghost shrimp in his tank and had him fend for himself. He didnt really eat anything but the plants that I put in there, but the morning I left I noticed one guppie missing. So just give her time and when she is hungry enough she will eat. Do you have a couple feeders in there with her? If you are really worried, you can still feed her a couple of pellets but not enough that she is not hungry. You can also put in a Cuttle Bone for calcium (take off the plastic on the back). She will eat when she wants. What people here in this forum tell me is that no one has seen a self inflicted starved turtle. Good Luck

We do have a couple feeder goldfish in there. She hadn't seemed interested so I figured they could at least keep her company. One has since gone missing so you must be right. I'll just keep offering her a varied fruit, veggie, and pellet diet and she'll eat when she gets hungry. Thanks for the advice!

Goldfish are not really recommended, because of thier high fat content and since you are tring to slim her down a little I wouldnt feed them to her. You can get her some rosey reds, guppies and ghost shrimp.

If you want to encourage your turtle to tast fish flesh, grab a minnow by the tail with tweezers and squeeze real hard so in case it gets away, it will be retarded. Then hold the fish at water level and let your turtle come up and catch it easily. Once they have a taste for it and like it, they will catch their own regularly. Also providing cover for the fish that the turtle can move through easily like floating plants or something will give the fish places to hide and make it easier for a turtle to sneak up on them. Turtles arent all that great at catching fish unless the odds are with them. When I dump 5 dozen minnows in my 120 gallon, the turtles go on a feeding frenzy at first. Once the fish regroup and begin schooling, it it much harder for the turtles to catch them.

Also, im pretty sure goldfish make crappy food for turtles. You may want to find a more nutritious fish.
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Mine like lots of greens, including collard greens and romaine lettuce. They also love aquatic plants such as anacharis. Don't feed protein like pellets or fish very often, my guys only get it once or twice a week. Remeber that turtles can litterally go for several weeks without food, so don't get concerned if she doesn't start eating veggies right away.
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