picky RES hatchlings

Posted:
Fri Jun 26, 2009 12:37 am
by jet654
my hatchlings wont eat pellets or vegetation, they only eat meat such as baby shrimp, crickets, and feeder fish. i am worried that they are getting too much protein and not enough of everything else like calcium. i understand that hatchlings usually dont eat vegetation but they dont want to eat pellets either. i have bought wardley reptile sticks and zoomed turtle food but they are not interested. i also put small pieces of cuttlebone in too but they didnt seem interested in that either. they only are interested in meat. i am most worried about them not eating pellets.what should i do


Posted:
Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:08 am
by jozzep
Try putting a small amount of pellets in and nothing else.if they don't eat it within 10 min, take them out and don't give them anything else to eat.Try it for 3 days and i bet they will learn to eat the pellets.
Also i recommend either mazuri or reptomin pellets.My turtles love em

Posted:
Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:00 am
by theartbook35
I found a type of pellet recently, called Rep-Cal, on this online pet store: petdiscounters.com
Now, I've given this to my turtles a lot. Granted, they had already been on pellets, but the pellets they had they were actually becoming sick of, and wouldn't even finish them all. This new food made them go crazy, and seems to be more "filling". They also smell very strong, and have every single vitamin and nutrient in them that a turtle needs. You still need to give your turtle veggies and cuttlebone, of course, but this food has a very nice balance to it.
You could also try dipping veggies, like romaine or leaf lettuce, in tuna juice, cat food sauce, since these two things smell very strong. This may entice your turtles to eat veggies.

Posted:
Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:35 am
by tammi
My hatchling is tthe same with pellets. So I bought the hatchling sized ones and I mix them into a little tuna a few times a week and they get eaten with the tuna.
You can also gut load your crickets and dust them with calcium powder.