Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have found my yearling snapper to be a varitable garbage disposable. I have fed him can corn, butter beans, and now spinach along with the raw chicken parts he eats as the bulk of his diet. Since he is getting too big to eat the Walmart turtle pellets that have added vitamins, my question is what vegetables have the most vitamins and calcium? Thanks for any replys,Steve

Awesome snapper. To my best knowledge, the dark, leafy greens are highest in vitamins/minerals. Mustard, collard, turnip, kale.
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2.1.0 water dragons, 2.2 crested geckos, 0.0.3 turtles, 1.0.0 5-line skink, 2.0.0 anoles, 0.0.1 giant millipede, 1.0.0 uromastyx, 1.0.0 armadillo lizard, 1.0.0 veiled chameleon, 1.1.0 bearded dragons, 1.0.0 pictus gecko, 1.1.0 CA banded gecko, 1.0.0 Hondo, 1.1.0 corns, 1.0.0 dog, 1.1.0 cats, 0.1.0 wife, 2 SW tanks - 20H, 55

The darker greens do have more nutrition in general (in relation to the crappy iceberg lettuce), but are not considered high in calcium. In fact, many, such as kale and spinach bind calcium into unusable oxalates. These are still great foods, but a variety is always key. For your snapper, make sure to include whole body prey to complete the balance. Small fish are also great to stimulate natural turtle behavior, and prekilled, appropriately sized rodents are great to round things out.
To answer your question though, parsley and dandilion leaves are high calcium vegetables.

Ian

Hello

All i know is that spinach should NOT be given as food for turtles and other reptiles, since it binds calcium.

I would also say dark green leaves. I cant suggest anything specific; I live in Denmark, so the native plants in our gardens are probably not the same species. I usually feed carrots, fruits and wild plants to my turtles.

My alligator snapper likes grapes, but this should not be fed to often i guess. Alligatorsnappers in the wild has been found to eat wild grapes and acorns.