General Care Discussion :: help! my turtle wont eat greens!

[mommaturtle89]

Hi, I'm a newbie to the forum and turtle mommyhood. I just got my yellow belly slider about a month ago, maybe less, and he's only 1 1 /2 inches. He eats everyday, that's not the problem, the problem is that hell only eat the protein diet. Shrimp, guppies, worms, snails...he loves em! But carrots, romaine, and pellets: not so much. Hell spit out the pellets and completely ignores the beggies. I noticed what looked like pyramiding on his shell....I don't want it to get worse, he's only a baby. Anyone who can help me with toulouse, I would be forever in your debt. Thanks for your time!

[steve]

Don't give in to it. Try some aquatic plants which can live in the tank even if he doesn't eat them. Also look into a good pellet like the Omega One. Don't be afraid to give him less... turtles are expert beggars.

[VeipaCray]

Welcome to the site.

The first thing I would do is get your turtle to eat quality pellets like Mazuri, Reptomin, or the Omega One steve mentioned. You can try soaking them in tuna juice to entice it to eat the pellets. Pellets usually have some calcium and a balance of nutrients that are better for your turtle than strictly high protein stuff like shrimp, guppies, worms and snails. The good news is that its at least eating.

Juvenile turtles don't take to greens right away. Keep offering them daily and eventually your turtle will acquire a taste for them as it grows.

One suggestion might be to try the turtle jello shots which are a concoction of greens, calcium and protein. If your turtle will eat these you'd introduce some greens into its diet. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17486

In your signature you have "male?". Its a bit young to try and sex the turtle yet. When the shell is about 4 inches, we can more accurately figure out its sex.

Thanks for posting and we hope to see you on this forum regularly as your turtle grows

[mommaturtle89]

I just found out that the food he's been favoring( freeze dried shrimps) are like CANDY to him! So I've decided: when he's outside during the day he gets his veggies and pellets, and inside his tank, only live ghost shrimp and feeder guppies. And he's been eating the romaine!! Not into carrots yet, but at least he's had greens the last few days. I can't reaally tell if he's eating the pellets or not... but its a start!

Tomorrow I'm going to try the tuna soaking with the pellets, see if that'll get him into them again. Its getting colder here, so I just got him an exoterra tropical uvb bulb to go with his 75w basking bulb. So my question is, should the basking light be on all night while the uvb lamp only 12 hrs during the day?
I don't want it to be too cold... but I want him to be able to sleep. His heat bulb blew 2 days ago, and he wouldn't leave the water, so I dry docked him last night for about 9 hours... was that ok to do?

I got rid of all his gravel, but it made the ghost shrimp easier to find, which worries me... will sand be ok at the bottom? I've heard its hard for cleaning the tank... if not, what else beside grass will help them hide so its not so easy for him to gorge?

[steve]

The basking light and the UVB should be on at the same time, usually on at sunrise and off at sundown. Sand is fine to use as a substrate as long as he doesn't constantly eat it.

Are you measuring the water and basking temperatures?