Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, I couldn't get the turtle to stop eating the plants that I had in my tank. Determined not to lose the battle to a creature that has a brain the size of my pinky finger, I tried getting smart. I researched bitter tasting plants that would be turtle safe. After a week of research, I bought an Amazon Sword. Its not anything spectacular, but its green and bitter and he wouldn't eat it, or so I thought.

Not three minutes after planting it, did he have it pulled out of the rocks and have all of the roots devoured. Then he set on eating the leaves, one by one. My turtle must have been born without any tastebuds. The only consolation to the whole ordeal is that he's too busy munching on the bitter plant to tear up the other ones I originally put in the tank.

Turtle 2, Jordan 0...

Keeping live plants with aquatic turtles is a hopless battle. If they dont eat it they will uproot it. I would stick with silk plants. You can go to a hobby store and get silk plants by the bundle. They are much cheaper than buying them from a petstore and you get much more for your money.
Chris
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0.1 Red Eared Slider, 1.0 Common Snapper, 1.0 Bearded Dragon and a 55gal Native Fish Tank with a 6in LM Bass, 3 Crawdads and a Pleco.
I use to have a collection of Leopard Geckos that I bred, but have sold them.

Gosh I'm jealous!
I have to bury my painted's greens in something meaty just to get him to eat his greens.

I'd be thrilled if I could put plants in my tank & watch him eat them.
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PHRatz

I gave it another go last night. I trimmed off the shreded leaves and still had about 6 good leaves left. I replanted the sword plant and he has finally decided to leave it alone. The other good news is that he hasn't touched the other two plants either. Hopefully this is the end of the plant shenanigans and I can feed him some fruits and other greens to feed his addiction.

Turtle 2, Jordan .5 maybe?

I'm jealous also. My painted won't touch greens of any kind. Even when I hide them in something yummy she spits them out.

Laure,
Alfalfa & Fluffy need to meet each other I guess.
After all they are in the same picky painted club together. lol
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PHRatz

They certainly are! But it would never work... he's a Western and she's an Eastern.

The really strange thing is that he's only a hatchling and from everything I've read, hatchlings usually eat more meat than vegetables. He eats probably 50% greens and 50% tetramin pellets. So far I know he'll eat banana, apple, potato, lettuce, and aparently sword plant, which is supposed to be bitter to the taste. I don't personally know, I didn't eat it myself.

Turtle 2, Jordan back to 0...

Right hatchlings are usually carnivores & then tend to want more vegetation as they grow older.
You are so lucky. I've raised mine from a hatchling, he's a CB who came from a breeder who was selling hatchlings at an all CB herp show in 1994.
Today I still have trouble getting him to eat something with veggies in it.
I would've loved it if he'd started eating more veggies as a hatchling.
I'm still so jealous!!!!
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PHRatz

>>They certainly are! But it would never work... he's a Western and she's an Eastern.

Oh yeah good point, East end girls & West end boys..
wasn't that a song in the '80s?
LOL
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PHRatz