Reptile & Amphibian Forums

first id like to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE! ... i was just wondering though how come lettuce is not good for box turtles ? i usually give my three toed romaine lettuce an she loves it ... its not the only thing i feed her though ... and i was just curious of what kind of food your boxies love so i can try to give them that ... thanks ...

>>first id like to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE! ... i was just wondering though how come lettuce is not good for box turtles ? i usually give my three toed romaine lettuce an she loves it ... its not the only thing i feed her though ... and i was just curious of what kind of food your boxies love so i can try to give them that ... thanks ...

Romaine is the best choice if you are going to feed them lettuce because it has more nutrition that other types of lettuce.
The reason why iceberg lettuce is bad is because there's not enough nutrition for them in the lettuce, it's mostly water. Feeding them iceberg lettuce is a waste of stomach space, you're filling them up with empty calories if you feed that.

Dark leafy greens like dandelions, turnip & collards are better because there is more nutrition in the darker leafy greens.
Then with the dark leafys you have to watch out for those that contain high amounts of calcium oxolates because the oxolates bind calcium absorption.
But then..
With omnivores like box turtles that eat lots of other food items, the calcium oxolates aren't as much of a concern as they are for herbivores but still you don't want to feed them too much of those foods that are high in the calcium binders.
Confusing enough yet? LOL
Have a Happy Thanksgiving too.
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PHRatz

Romaine is very good for them as part of a varied diet.
As PHratz said, its iceberg that isn't good because its mostly water, low in nutrition.

I also dig up dandilions and plant them in my pen, so they stay fresh for when the turtles want to eat them. I've had limited sucess with things like collards.