Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering how mucha healthy box turtle can eat at one sitting? About a TBSP, 1/8cup,1/4cup? my boxie has never really eaten very much, she eats about 1 TBSP(around that,maybe a bit more) of food every 2-3 days. She has fresh food every day but doesn't eat very much. She i healthy and has gained weight since i got her last year,before i got her the girl only fed her oranges and lettuce. I'm not sure how much normal boxie eat.

She also prefers box turtle pellets over the veggies and worms i try to feed her. Is pellets ok as the main part of her diet? each meal i mix grated veggies with teh pellets so she is getting a bit of veggies,she jsut wont' eat them by themselves.

I also try to feed red wiggler worms but she has a hard time picking them up to eat them(her brak isn't quite back to normal,when i got her it was VERY over grown)i chop them up sometimes an add them to the mix.

SO how much do your turtles eat?

Thats a good question, and since my guys have different eating habits, I think its fair to say that there may not be a single correct answer.
I put out more food than mine actually eat at one 'sitting', mostly because they're pretty sloppy eaters and can't always pick up the stray bits, but the adults probably actually ingest approximately 1 to 2 tablespoons of the 'salad' I serve up every couple of days, and they also forage between meals.
A good practice is to offer more than you think they'll probably eat, and remove any leftovers after 30 minutes or so.
I do have one that eats more than that if given the opportunity, and she got pretty fat last summer, and couldn't fully pull herself back into her shell.
As far as feeding commercial foods goes, keep offering different foods along with it, and try to get to a point where the commercial product is your 'backup food' when other foods are temporarily unavailable. I try to change an ingredient or two in the food I make for them in each batch so that they get some variety.
Stephanie