Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have a box turtle that we bought 8 years ago. We have tried to get him to eat veggies and such to no avail. He will only eat meal worms, wax worms, and earthworms. Is there any suggestions on how to get him to start eating fruits and veggies? Thanks for any suggestions.

What kind of box turtle is it?

My easterns love strawberries, grapes, cantelope and corn on the cob are a few of their favorites. Have you tried these? Do you offer live food with the fruits/veggies? Mine will always take the live food before looking at the rest. How long have you gone without giving him live food while trying the veggies...it may take a little time to get him to realize he has to eat the veggies/fruits if he is hungry.

yeah, that's a very long time to have a turtle on that diet, without fiber, calcium, vitamin rich vegetables and fruit, and then try to change it. I'm sure he's well conditioned by now and it may be frustrating. have you been supplementing with vitamin and/or a D3 powder?

you can chop the worm up and mix in some very finely diced vegetables. I use mostly collard greens for their fiber and good calcium/phosphorous ratio. he'll have to get some of it that way if he wants the worm bad enough, and this is how many young ones have been taught familiarity with friut and veggies. I throw in alternate fruits and veggies pretty often too for variety. I've seldom seen a box turtle, even ones raised on a heavy protein/live diet, that didn't quickly show an interest in fruit like strawberries and bananas. so you might use that to introduce vegetables too.

there was also another good method suggested recently you could try. it was dipping the worms into real vegetable baby food before serving. probably much less messy than chopping a worm I'm sure. but, I would be suspect of it's actual nutritional value over fresh veggies. it sounds like a good plan to introduce to veggies, but I wouldn't use it long term once you could get them to recognize the smell and taste.

Mick

Thanks for your advice Mick. We are going through this process b/c our turtle is pretty sick. We are not trying to change the diet until he gets better, so as not to stress him more than he already is. I like the baby food idea. He turns his nose up at strawberries and banannas and every other fruit and veggie we have shown to him. But once he is better, we will be using the witholding method to make him hungry.

You can also dip veggies in beef baby food. Also I take the carrot chunks out of my soup and save them for my boxie. She loves carrots that taste like beef soup! lol
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0.1.0 snapping turtle
0.1.0 painted turtle
0.1.0 ornate box turtle
0.1.0 Australian shepard
0.0.12 chickens
3.2.0 children
1.0.0 husband

what are the symptoms and possible causes you suspect for his being sick? you might consider whether this illness may be related to, or worsened by possible malnutrition from going so long on a heavy protien diet.

probably the best thing you could do right now, in relation to diet, is try anything to introduce the extra vitamins & minerals from veggies & friut in order to boost immune response. any stress associated with a slight change in diet is negligible at this point in comparison to the illness itself and lack of nutrients. at the least, get some vitamin dust on his meals. continue to offer the food he likes, just try to work in the other things.

also, very important...if you are seeing obvious signs of illness in a turtle, consider it a serious matter. turtles, like other reptiles I've had experience with, mask any symptoms of illness for a long time so as not to show weakness. this is important in the wild to deter attention of opportunistic predators. they will carry their symptoms secretly until they become too weak to keep it up. by the time this is noticed overtly, there is a likely possibility it is more serious than one might suspect. an experienced reptile vet consultation would be recommended given in your words he is "pretty sick".

also note that reptiles can go quite a while without food, as you probably know if you've ever hibernated him. if you normally feed everyday or every other day, and he's not responding to your new diet methods within a week, something needs to be offered or methods modified. do not continue to withhold food to make him hungry. what happens is the reptile will reduce his metabolism and begin to "shut down" what is not necessary for life support. exactly what they do for hibernation.

lastly, UVA & >>UVB

We have had him into the vet for blood workup. Found the protein on high side, liver function is high, and differential is off, indicating chronic infection. He is being treated with worming med, and will start antibiotic in 2 weeks. The good thing is he is still eating, drinking, and we added UVA and UVB. He does not have bone disease. We are going to watch weight for 8 weeks, and then go from there. Thank you very much for your feedback and suggestions.