Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a commopn snapper that is about 5"-6" in carapace lenth. I am not sure of her weight. I think it would maybe be 500 grams (but don't butcher me on that if it sounds way off because it could be. I'll weigh her when i get home) I'm also not remembering exactly what her age is. (3?). i feed her once a week.

She gets everything from fish, mice, pellets, cockroaches, extra crickets from the other animals, sometime crayfish. She has an extremely varried diet and is growing like a weed.

Anyway, my question would have to be, how often should I truly be feeding her? I get mixed messages. Again, I can get better weight and carapace length tonight. If any of you can help me, that would be awesome.

I got her measurements, she is 6" and 584 grams ( i know she is fat, this is why I am asking this question.)

This photo is a little over a year old

Very nice looking snapper and not fat as all. Take note to the fact that snappers typically look fat and beefy under normal weight of a healthy snapper. If your turtle truly is 3 years old then its no where near "growing like a weed". Snapper are known for their rapid growth in captiivty and can easily reach length of 4.5-6 or even 7+ inches by 12 months of age. You can expect the first year to be the most rapid growth with nice stead growth for a few years to come following that (some my have same growth right off the back yet I'd expect this to be a 4.5 incher not a 5.5+). A 3 year old can reach length or 8'' to 10-11'' easy. I personally have a male snapper produced in 31 August 2002 which is already 14.6'' and grew .3'' this past 2.5 months. He reached 5.6''(4.1'' in 12 months) and grew steady for 4 years following his first averaging 1.9'' a year and then his 6th slowed down to only .95''. Yet this past summer he started a growth spurt which helped him reach that size and continuing still. If he manages to continue growth at 1 inches + a year he could easily reach in excess of 18'' by his 10th B-day. Yet likely the nice growth spurt will end at some point and it might be his last significant one. I would still expect nice steady growth for a few years to come maybe that just under an inch a year or slight less. I enjoy documenting his growth and look forward to watching him grow up.

Xavier

I feed mine pellets, or some form of animal matter 3 times a week mostly pellets. Once or twice a week he gets greens and various veggies with fruit every now and then.

Xavier

Thanks for replying. This forum seems to be pretty dead. I'm not really sure how old she is, but at least 2. I know that much.

I seem to have the same problem. Mine looks fat but I hear that's normal. But it eats ALL THE TIME. He even tried to eat my other snapper! Biting the tail and worm like toung (other is an A.Snapper.) I did get some nice info here on the forum. Will try vegatables. What kind of 'pellet's do you use? How do you feel about rodent chow? Approx. one inch biscuts.