Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First, just wanted to say sorry for the duplicate post here and on the tortiose forum, just need an answer and I know alot of the box turtle people also keep torts. So I have this 37mm 19g boxie. I have it eating regularly but it will only eat crickets. No mealworms, red wigglers, fruit, veggie, canned food ect. These are always offered but rarely eaten, I did see it take 1 bite of mazuri tort chow once. How important is it to get this little guy eating plant/fruit matter at this stage of his life? I figure that eating just crickets is better than not eating at all. I have tried all the approaches (mix in its prefered crickets and stuff it wont eat, the tough love "if it gets hungry it will eat" approach and others, no luck). What should I do?

first see the exhaustive discussions in the post below titled: "how do I change the diet..." and "1 year old box turtle". that's a start, but a protien diet in the first year is not a significant problem with supplementation and UVB.
introductions to vegetable and fruit food items should be attempted soon after. if you haven't tried them yet, nightcrawlers and snails are more nutritious and don't have the lopsided phosphorus to calcium ratio that crickets have.

Mick

Juveniles are mostly carniverous but do keep offering fruits and vegetables. I have a very finicky eastern box. He's a rescue and I have no idea how old he is but he is one picky eater and will not touch crickets, mealworms or waxworms. He LOVES nightcrawlers. He also eats Wardley's Aquatic turtle food (won't touch Reptomin) and ZooMed Box Turtle food. I mix them together and moisten to soften. Another favorite is well rinsed, water packed sardines. He finally nibbled dandelion flowers and leaves yesterday for the first time. Just keep trying different things and be persistant. Oh, one other thing, my boxie will not eat unless I put the food right in front of his nose so you might want to try that also. Good luck

Laure!
He actually nibbled dandelion greens? Congratulations!!

I've found with the rescues that none of them like the same foods but often if one sees another eating something the one hasn't eaten & realizes that hey this one is getting something I'm not they'll try a new food. Kind of like monkey see, monkey do. Too bad Morris can't watch a video & get the picture!

PHRatz