Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have been made aware that an ingredient in reptomin is vitD3 under a name i have never seen as vitD3. i have posted multiple times that reptomin didnt have vitD3 but will admit when i am wrong. it does and is therefore not a bad turtle pellet food. i apologize for posting false information that may have confused people asking the question and started some relatively heated debates. that ingredient is cholecalciferol, other names for vit D3 are D-activated animal sterol or some companies just say vitamin D3. i am sorry and retract all statements that i made that were false.

I'll accept your apology even though I wasn't mad at you.
and then I'll say this too.
Although I use Reptomin once a week or so, I personally don't care much for any pellet foods made for reptiles. I don't trust any of them to be the be all-end all diet for any of them.
I've always fed my shelled pets, be they aquatics or not, the most natural a diet that I can, lots of live insects, fish, and veggies.

I've known a couple of people who never fed their aquatics anything other than Reptomin. From the hatchling stage on that's all they got ever, just pellets & those turtles have odd shaped shells. Flared & lumpy shells that don't look right. While some pellet food is ok IMHO as part of the diet, it shouldn't be ALL of the diet. Variety is the key to good health for them.
That's just my 2 cents worth on that.
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PHRatz

i personally avoid live because of the risk of disease including parasites and bacterial infections. i vary diets with only pellets, as many types as possible, and mine are fine, but i dont disagree with you, i just like to avoid lives.

>>i personally avoid live because of the risk of disease including parasites and bacterial infections. i vary diets with only pellets, as many types as possible, and mine are fine, but i dont disagree with you, i just like to avoid lives.

I can understand your fear of parasites & diseases but I've never had any problem at all with contagious bacterial disease & like I've said before, parasites only one time.
There was a health problem with my mud turtle in the mid 90s. He had a gout like problem with some stones inside him that showed up on x-ray. My herp vet called several herp vets around the country at various vet schools... they all said cut way back on the commercial foods, he's eating too much of it. So I did.
He took medication & the stones came out even though the Walmart pharmacist laughed at my vet when she ordered the medication to be mixed with grape flavoring. The meds cured him he's never had that problem again & I never went back to feeding him very much commercial food even though he does get some.

As for other commercial foods though, have you ever tried things like frozen bloodworms, tubifex worms & other frozen fish foods? I use them as part of my variety, thawed out first of course. They love that stuff.
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PHRatz

when i was working at petsmart they had a frozen turtle food. it was dark green and i think the main ingredients were vegetation so that would be good for res and other herbivore/omnivores. i never tried it though. i havent tried frozen foods but would/will consider it.

>>when i was working at petsmart they had a frozen turtle food. it was dark green and i think the main ingredients were vegetation so that would be good for res and other herbivore/omnivores. i never tried it though. i havent tried frozen foods but would/will consider it.

I bought that one. My painted turtle does like it but the mud turtle won't touch it.
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PHRatz

its green so i think they geared it more for res but labeled it for all turtles. you know how that goes.

I have bought that stuff for my RES and they really like it.
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TurtsandTorts Discussion Group
2 Russians (Harley and Marley)
2 RES (Sunny and Fatty)
2 Gerbils (Sydney and Vienna)
1 Cat (Abby)

>>its green so i think they geared it more for res but labeled it for all turtles. you know how that goes.

Yes I think it is basically for slider type turtles but with the mud & painted.. I never know. Sometimes they both love a particular food, other times only one does, other times they both hate it. LOL
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PHRatz