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My yellow mud is nearing 10 years of age, yesterday he really surprised me because he's never done this before.

I don't feed my turtles cooked meat except once a year on Thanksgiving they get one bite each of turkey, for a treat.
This year was different I cooked a turkey yesterday too.
Apparently the mud could smell it and remembered getting that bite a month ago because he was out of his hide staring at me. He was well fed on Friday so I know he wasn't starving in there.
When he does come out of the hide to stare at me he's telling me he wants food.
I tossed him a bite of turkey & it was gone as soon as it hit the water.
How interesting that he seemed to put two & two together.. he knew what that smell coming from the kitchen was.
Neat.
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PHRatz

I don't feed much cooked meat to my muds either. That is something that they can get too much of in a hurry.
But I do feed them cooked shrimp or chicken (small amounts!)about once a week or so. I will also shave the soft bone of the knuckle part of a chicken thigh for them too. They really seem to go nuts for this and I don't worry about them getting splinters since this 'spongy' bone.

>>I don't feed much cooked meat to my muds either. That is something that they can get too much of in a hurry.
>> But I do feed them cooked shrimp or chicken (small amounts!)about once a week or so. I will also shave the soft bone of the knuckle part of a chicken thigh for them too. They really seem to go nuts for this and I don't worry about them getting splinters since this 'spongy' bone.

I usually buy boneless chicken so I hadn't thought of that.
Shrimp is so expensive here in the desert that I don't buy it very often. I do have a turtle food recipe that includes mixed shellfish, I've made that food for them in the past but the mud doesn't like it. It has too many greens in it lol.
Between his live fish & bugs... maybe he would like more cooked birds?
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PHRatz

Sorry for my post above...I had forgotten that you also feed whole fish and 'roaches'(feh!). You probably do not need to feed the chicken or shrimp as much as I do.
One benefit of living near the beach and being a diver is that my turtles can get lobster on occasion.

My eastern muds LOVE hissing cockroaches. A friend lets me come over to her house and take a few juveniles from time to time. You can only feed the juveniles because the adults have such thick exoskeletons.

Katrina

>>My eastern muds LOVE hissing cockroaches. A friend lets me come over to her house and take a few juveniles from time to time. You can only feed the juveniles because the adults have such thick exoskeletons.
>>
>>Katrina

I think my mud would be afraid of the adult hissers lol. They are sooo large but he does love to eat the smaller cricket sized ones too. We also have lobster roaches for him, he loves those just as much. They're cricket sized as adults & have a much softer body than a hisser.
The only problem with them is that they breed too fast!
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PHRatz

Your experience with the yellow mud sounds like my mud turtles too.
When I am feeding one, the other turtle across the room sees this and starts going nuts. But it could also be like your turtle in that he SMELLS what I am feeding. In any case, I think they are more perceptive than we might think.

>> Your experience with the yellow mud sounds like my mud turtles too.
>>When I am feeding one, the other turtle across the room sees this and starts going nuts. But it could also be like your turtle in that he SMELLS what I am feeding. In any case, I think they are more perceptive than we might think.

Oh I think so too, they've got it going on in those brains but you have to stop & pay attention to see how much is there.
It's a sight thing too.
Before I started breeding mealworms myself I used to buy them in those little white tubs. My mud recognized that tub & every time he'd see me with it in my hand he'd go nuts. Now he doesn't reconize any particular mealworm container so he never knows when the mealies are on the way. I kind of miss watching him go nuts. lol
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PHRatz