Before buying a new exotic pet, you need to learn more about it in order to know how to properly care for the animal and how to feed it. The red-eared turtle is omnivorous. She needs animal and vegetable food. To grow a healthy bug, you need to monitor the diversity of the diet. What to feed the red-eared turtle?
Animal feed
For red-eared turtles, animal food should be 70% of the total daily ration. Turtles adore meat (horse meat, beef, poultry), fish and seafood, not averse to eat insects.
It is preferable to feed lean beef, rabbit, pieces of poultry. It is not recommended to give pork and lamb, as this food is too fat and it will be difficult for turtles to digest it. In the diet should be present offal: heart, liver, navels. Meat can be given raw and boiled, pre-cut into small cubes.
Some turtles are happy to eat small mice.
But do not forget that the constant feeding of raw meat leads to hypovitaminosis A, rickets develops. Therefore, food should be varied.
Fish and seafood
Low fat varieties are suitable for feeding. Fish cut into pieces, take out large bones and put in the feeder.
Attention!
Raw fish contains the enzyme thiaminase, therefore, before feeding it to the turtle, it is required to put the fish in hot water for a couple of minutes.
In its raw form, you can make a "sea cocktail", which consists of green shrimp, octopus and squid slices. Snail meat (a large pond snail, reels, marises) and squid pieces are a good food supplement, but you should not make them the main food.
Turtles do not get along in the aquarium with the fish. Karasiki, guppies, goldfish, karpik, swordtails - serve as their food. Turtles eat them with pleasure.
In summer, grasshoppers, bugs, not shaggy caterpillars, bloodworms can be offered to turtles. Flour worm is sold in a pet store, so you can buy it and give it in winter.
With regard to feeding cockroaches, and even caught in the kitchen, it is better to refrain from such an undertaking, because these insects can crawl to you already poisoned.
The diet should include dried or live gammarus. From time to time, you can feed the horse and daphnia. At this time it is necessary to disable the filter for 15 minutes.
Aquarium plants
It is preferable to plant duckweed, spirogyra, aquatic beetle, pond algae. The turtles do not allow the plants to grow even a little - they eat them in an instant. Should refrain from planting elodey! The plant secretes poisonous juice and is dangerous to animals.
Bulgarian peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants should be present in the diet. Can not do without pumpkin, radish, legumes, carrots and beets. As an additional feed give broccoli, celery, dry sea kale.
Pieces of boletus mushrooms, champignons, syroezhek recommended to give the animals no more than 1 time per week.
Attention!
Turtles do not fit human food! They will also enjoy eating food intended for other animals, but it will not benefit the turtles. It is forbidden to feed on citrus peel, give berries with pits.
Artificial feed
In pet stores, pet owners are provided with a huge selection of feeds for land and water turtles. It is sold in capsules, granules, tablets and flakes. A large number of feed produced by manufacturers does not always meet the needs of a particular type. Often feed for turtles is a modified food for fish. Some animals are irritated by a sharp smell, and they defiantly turn away from it. There are foods in which the content of calcium, protein and vitamins does not meet the needs of turtles. But some animals are happy to eat only food. Of the manufacturers, JBL, Sera, Nutra Fin, Tetra have proven themselves well.
What fish is preferable to feed a small red-eared turtle?
As already mentioned, the fish should be lean. It can be pollock, blue whiting, hake, cod, navaga, perch and carp. Give the fish finely chopped and together with small bones. Remove rib bones from large fish. Raw or boiled fish give reptiles? Here, experts did not come to a common opinion. Some believe that the fish should only be raw, others insist that it is boiled. In our opinion, there is no need to cook fish. Enough to pour it with boiling water.
Twice a week it is recommended to add bone meal (available at the pet shop) or chopped egg shells to the feed of the red-ear.
Dry feed for small red-eared turtles
The turtle cannot get enough nutrients from dry food. It can be given to turtles from time to time, if it is not possible to organize intake of natural food. But in any case, the reptile diet should not consist of only one store food. Vitamins and trace elements should be received by the red-ear from natural food. Constant feeding of pet with semifinished products has a negative effect on digestion and metabolism, which can eventually lead to various diseases.
What can not feed the little red-eared turtles
It is not recommended to give large quantities of fatty fish and fatty meat (lamb, pork). It is strictly forbidden to offer turtles food from a person’s table (boiled and fried food, sausage, bread, etc.). It is forbidden to give reptiles dry food and vitamins for cats, dogs and other mammals.
Feeding mode
If adult turtles are fed 1 time in 2-3 days, then young individuals under the age of two years - 1 time per day. Food is given in the morning or afternoon. The amount of food depends on the activity of the young reptile. The amount of servings is recommended to be calculated so that the red-haired girl eats food for 15-20 minutes, without leaving anything uneaten. An approximate portion - 2-3 pieces (for example, fish) on 1 cm 3.
Animal feed
Young sliders should consume at least 70% of animal food in their daily diet. While the elderly reptiles can completely switch to vegetable food or save meat consumption in the amount of 10-25%.
The turtle can eat raw and boiled (without salt and spices) pieces of lean meat:
Another element of the diet are offal:
Also suitable for feeding small mice.
Fatty meats such as lamb or pork, the slider can not digest.
It must be remembered that if the diet consists only of meat products, this can lead to a lack of vitamin A.
From fish fit lean river fish, from which you need to extract the offal and bone. It is important to soak the fish in hot water for a few minutes before eating to destroy the enzyme thiaminase, in order to prevent the development of vitamin B1 deficiency.
In the feed can go aquarium fish. For example, swordtails, guppies, goldfish.
As a variety, a raw mix of squid, green shrimp and octopus is added to the basic diet. It is sometimes acceptable to give the meat of some snails - marizas, coils, pond snails.
You can diversify the menu with the help of insects. You can feed a red-eared turtle:
- crickets
- bugs
- bloodworm,
- grasshoppers
- and even tracks.
You can add live or dried Gammarus, daphnia and coretru - but this is rarely done.
Plant food
How to feed a red-eared turtle besides meat? Herbs, berries, fruits, vegetables are an essential part of your pet's diet.
In the aquaterrarium can be planted pond algae, spirogyra, aquatic fat, duckweed. They are well suited for food and decorate the home of reptiles.
From land herbs, turtles eat:
- germinated grains of oats and barley,
- plantain,
- clover,
- coltsfoot,
- dandelion leaves.
As an additional delicacy give:
- peaches
- apples,
- plums
- apricots,
- pears, after cutting them into slices.
But you should not abuse this delicacy.
Another source of vitamins can be pumpkin, celery, zucchini, broccoli, beets, carrots, eggplants, cucumbers, tomatoes.
Some experts allow the inclusion in the feed legumes and dry seaweed.
It is possible to give mushrooms several times a month. Add slices of champignons, syroezhek, boletus.
Ready feed
It is not recommended to feed the red-eared turtle exclusively with dry food, but you can include ready-made feed as an additive to the main diet. which should be no more than 5-10% of the total diet. There are several manufacturers with more or less balanced nutrition for turtles. These include:
A wide range of such food is produced in the form of flakes, tablets, granules and even capsules.
Often the content is a modified food for aquarium fish, so it will not be sufficiently balanced for the needs of the reptile.
Self-made turtle food
You can prepare food for the red-eared turtle at home.
For these purposes, the following ingredients are needed:
- 70 grams of carrots,
- 50 grams of apples
- 50 grams of white cabbage,
- 100 grams of squid meat,
- 150 grams of fish.
All this is passed through a meat grinder. Two eggs are added to the mixture; prepared gelatin (dilute 30 grams in 150 ml of hot water until completely dissolved), 150 ml of milk.
After mixing, allow to cool and add twenty drops of Tetravit correcting vitamin balance.
Such feed can be stored in the refrigerator for one week. Before use, it should be cut into pieces. This amount of feed will be enough for 10 feedings for a turtle with a shell fifteen centimeters long.
For the correct formation of the shell of a young turtle, it is necessary to use calcium. For his compensation, bone meal is used, which is added daily to young reptiles by a pinch. For adults, one teaspoon per week is enough.
Another option for a natural source of calcium is egg shell, which is pre-crushed.
How much to feed red-eared turtles
General recommendations on how much to feed a red-eared turtle can vary according to the age and preferences of a particular animal.
Feeding red-eared turtles up to one year old must be daily with a margin in the meat diet. After a year, the frequency of feeding is reduced. Giving food is allowed in one to two days. Adults can eat once every three days.
If the turtle prefers plant food, then it is not necessary to do large intervals between feedings.
It is important to observe the pet, to prevent overeating, and offer a pet a variety of foods.
Conclusion
What to feed the red-eared turtle at home, each for their pet individually. After all, there are no two identical turtles, and therefore the preferences of different individuals will be different. Watch your pet to understand that it is his liking for food, and then you will no longer have problems with feeding.
Food for eared turtles, cooked at home
If the purchased artificial food does not fit, you can make a delicacy for turtles yourself.
Feed composition:
- cabbage - 50 gr.,
- carrots - 70 gr.,
- fish not fatty varieties - 145 gr.,
- apples - 50 gr.,
- squid meat - 100 gr.
Cooking method. All ingredients should be minced, add 2 eggs, gelatin diluted in hot water (150 ml - 30 gr.) And milk in a volume of 150 gr. Mix thoroughly, let cool and add 20 drops of "Tetravity". The shelf life of feed in the refrigerator is 1 week. Before feeding the mixture is cut into pieces and give a turtle.
The prepared feed will be enough for 10 feedings, per 1 turtle with a shell length of 15 cm. If the animal is sick, a medicine can be added to the feed. Gelatin can be replaced with agar-agar. This will not allow cubes to quickly melt in water.
Do turtles need mineral and vitamin supplements?
Bone skeleton is formed in young animals and the shell is being built, so they need calcium. Milled bone meal should be added to food daily. One pinch will be enough for a little turtle, more adult specimens need to add 1 tsp. in Week.
Bone meal can be bought at the pet store. If this is not possible, the need for calcium can be met by adding crushed eggshells.
Special vitamins for turtles are recommended to be added to food in the doses or quantities indicated on the package.
Vitamin feeds have a short shelf life. Therefore, you should not give them turtles after the expiration date.
How often and at what time to feed the turtles?
A difficult question that cannot be answered unambiguously. Much depends on the age and size of the animal, on those feeds that feed.
Vegetables and artificial food are suitable for young individuals under 1 year old. Feeding should be daily.
From 1 year old and older you can feed in 1-2 days. If the turtle prefers plant food, feed is recommended daily. The amount of feed also depends on the age of the turtle.
Proper feeding is the main condition for the normal development of red-eared turtles. Every owner should feel his pet, choose the right food and give him what you like and what is useful.
