Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if anyone uses dried ,frozen or canned insects when feeding their turtles? I bought zoo med's can o worms http://www.zoomed.com/html/canned_reptile_foods.php tonight. I thought it would be worth a try as i can't feed live insects.

Are these foods a good alternative to live,nutrition wise?

I can't vouch for the nutrition, but my water turtles absolutely LOVED the can o crickets!

After raising insect-eating birds for 25 years, I can tell you that insects lose a tremendous amount of their nutritional value when they are allowed to dry. Many vitamins simply evaporate away with the moisture. They still have some protein, but little else, and the nutrients that remain are harder to digest and assimilate because of the lack of moisture.

I have had birds raise their babies on whole, live insects and also on the dried insect products and there is no comparison when you observe the results in the youngsters. The babies raised on dried bugs are spindly and weak, with poor feather and bone developement, and take longer to wean and become independent.

Then do you have any suggestions on what else i can try? I know live insects are best but i still live at home and my mom said i am not allowed to have any bugs in the house, plus i can't really touch live insects(too creepy). SO what should i do untill it is summer and can get some worms from outside?

The canned insects should work just fine until the spring. While some might believe there is a loss of nutritional value I don't think that it would be so great as to do any harm over the winter season. I've found that most pet chains and petshops in general carry a large selection of bugs which is another option. Some of the more common food fare is waxworms, meal wroms, king meal worms, live crickets, night crawlers. Once again, you don't want to feed any one item exclusively. In addition to this stuff I will ocasionally feed Mazuri tortoise diet in addition to greens.
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Well, if Mom outlawed the bugs, then I guess you'll have to use alternatives. Boiled (NOT fried) chicken or chicken livers or chicken heart. Beef heart or beef liver. Those are good protein alternatives for carnivorous turtles. You can buy them frozen or feed some left over from what you had for dinner, although the liver I would feed raw or very lightly boiled. You can also get parrot biscuits at most pet stores that are pretty high in protein and don't have a lot of fat. Just soak them in water first. I feed these biscuits to my keeled box turtle when I can't find enough bugs for him and he loves them.

The Can O insects aren't dried, they are canned. So that probably makes them more nutritional than dried insects.

You can also use dog food for senior dogs (it has lower fat than regular).

Thank to everyone for helping. I guess i will try a combo of the can o worms, boiled chicken breast and soaked dry dog food. I had been feeding a bit of the dog food before hand and she really seemed to like it. I would only feed one or 2 kibbles at a time and it is the low fat/calorie kind.

Thank you