Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've read several postings about folks feeding sowbugs to their spotted turtles on here. Haven't tried that yet. I'm wondering what other sorts of wild collected foods people have tried feeding to their spotteds (and had good success with). I've always fed my turtles wild food like crayfish with good results. Has anyone run into trouble with parasites resulting from this? I've never noticed anything, but I know crayfish commonly carry parasites. How about snails? I know they enjoy them and they should be a great source of calcium... I'm concerned about parasites though. I suppose you can always freeze the foods (or microwave?) but I like the idea of my turtles capturing/eating active prey items. I think its good stimulus and more attractive to them.

I also tossed a couple Hexagenia mayflies in with my little female (I live near Lake Erie) earlier this summer and she loved them! I only wish there had been more to offer them (their populations have been down here).

Here's a pic of the little lady catching some artificial rays after a nice meal of krill soaked in cod liver oil. anyone else use cod liver oil?

there's not much my spotteds won't eat.crawdads,grass shrimp,fiddlers and little marsh crabs,various varieties of small fish,insect larvae(esp. dragonfly),etc.i haven't tried snails yet,though.i'm "lucky" enough to live in sc,where i can catch lots of stuff to give them.
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1.1 cb spotted turtles (parker(f),stinky(m))
0.0.1 cb baby red cheek mud (pickles)
0.0.1 cb baby chiapas musk (chomper)
0.0.1 cb ally snapper (gamera)
1.0 cb homo sapien(kaelan,5)

"my name is inigo montoya...you killed my father.prepare to die."

Being landlocked, I don't have much access to "wild" crustaseans, so I pick out the snails in petsmart's tanks and my spotted loves them. Also this summer I collected June bugs for my box turtles and also my spotted and painted and both relished them. I've also collected and fed my spotted roly polies (pillbugs) and she gobbled those up to. Isn't catching free wild food great?

Here's some pics... they love these suckers!

I catch crayfish,snails and tadpoles for my spotties.They feast on all of them,and the best part is there free.I take a net with a 6ft pole, and just drag up a bunch of weeds around the edge of a pond.Big clumps are full of all different things.Baby fish,and baby crayfish all go into a 10 gallon tank I set up.I put a cpl small cat fish (about 1 inch long)in the spotty tank and they clean up the bottom and the turtles don't even look at them for whatever reason.I wouldn't worry to much about parasites,seeing these things are all part of there natural diet in the wild.Great looking spotty by the way!

What a benefit too, for some of you that live in spotted country to know that anything you catch wild would actually be in their diet naturally.

And there's never a shortage either Curtis.You can do the same thing in Texas I would think.Maybe some different bugs down there than there is here but tadpoles and such. Check out the indian spotteds in the classifieds.Was just about to grab 1 or 2 but only shipping to Fla.(never thought I'ld wish I lived in Fla. again)

Talk about spots!