Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 2-year-old is tiny, 50-cent piece size. He ate well when he arrived last spring. He LOVED superworms, and also ate his processed Turtle Food every couple of days.

He is now very finicky. (Terrible Twos time?) He won't touch mealworms nor superworms, same thing with the processed food.

Earthworms are great, but generally all that you can buy are nightcrawlers, which are way too big for him. He eats a small amount, the rest is wasted.

He sometimes eats salmon eggs. I have not tried Smelt or other freshwater fish yet.

Regarding carniverous juveniles, what does yours eat??

As these turtles get older they eat meat less and less. He should be eating more plants and stuff like that.

I fully understand that adults eat mostly plants alongside the pond; they are grazers like tortoises. Juveniles, however, ESPECIALLY of the Painted species of the North American turtles, are very carniverous.

My turtle is tiny! He's only the size of a silver dollar, if that large. This is only his 2nd year. My former turtles of similar size loved flies and worms, usually ignored their processed turtle food.

I've experimented with plants last spring, types he should enjoy. He seems to ignore them. Granted, he is eating some algae in his pond, but aside from Sword Fern or Horsetail occasionally thrown in as decorations, he seems to not yet prefer plants.

What meat items do your young turtles enjoy??

I don't have young turtles. I have one 6 year old Painted turtle. He likes the occasional fish (Rosie, guppy, minnow) but sticks with his reptorum sticks, turtle flakes, romaine lettuce, dried shrimp, live crickets covered in calcium powder, and water hyacinth from the pet store. I have tried dried flies and flies I have found around the house but he only eats those once in a while. I have also tried dried grasshoppers but he will have nothing to do with them. He has also had some chicken and turkey when he was younger and I was at college. I would bring him back some bits from the cafeteria salad bar.
But Sliders can have other things like dandelion, spinach, carrots, zucchini and any aquatic vegetation, i.e. duckweed, water lettuce, water hyacinth. I am not sure but I think they can have other fruits and veggies as well. A RES owner would have to give you more info on that though.

I'm sorry, for some reason I thought you had a RES. Please ignore the last part of my last post.

If your turtle is 2 years old and only the size of a 50 cent piece somethings not right. Your turtle should be at least 3in by now. Mealworms and superworms are pretty much crap. They have hardly any nutritional value. Try feeding rosies, a good pellet food such as ZooMeds Aquatic turtle food, and then some aquatic plants like Anacharis. That should be a great diet for the turtles entire life.
Chris D.
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Hey whats up, I'm Chris and I currently have 0.1 Midland Painted, 1.0 Western Painted, 0.0.1 RES, 1.0 Bearded Dragon

You are right, I think that the dealer lied to me. It was likely hatched in 2003, not 2002.

I have ReptoMin food now, but read the ingredients! Mostly fish meal (likely seafood, not good, they need freshwater fish) wheat gluten, artificial colors and flavor!

I now have 2 species of water plants from a local pond. Maybe I will buy some Anachris later.

Q: What is a "rosie"??

Just ask for a dozen rosies at your local fish pet store and they will know what they are. They are feeder fish that look like little thin gold fish. They aren't as fat as comets and they are smaller so your little guy will be able to eat the entire thing. I gave my Binx some comets once and they were so big he would rip them apart and leave pieces of them in the tank so I had to clean up after every time he ate one. I finally found rosies and everything was better.