Feeding and Nutrition :: Donnie learned how to eat out of my hand!

[machina]

Been a while, I havn't posted on here since darko (one of my 2 turts) died.

Well, I've been trying to interact with Donnie more, and get her used to me.

I started by dropping her food in, and leaving my hand a few inches above the water. She was suspicious, but tolerated it after a few days. Then I moved them closer, risking her chomping on my fingers, but she got used to that too. Then, last week, I help one of her pellets and let the first half of it dangle in the water. She chomped it! Now I can hold the food a inch of so above the water, and she happily splashes the water until she can get to it! The funny thing is she doesn't bite hard; only hard enough to get the food, I know this because she has gotten my finger a few times trying to get the food. Apparently underwater she is accurate, but can't aim too well with her head out of the water, what with her eyes being on the side of her head.

Now, I've started picking her up, and giving her a pellet (which she happily hold in her mouth) and putting her back in the water.

I've even gone so far as to submerge my hand while holding the pellet; she only goes after the pellets

Just though I would share, I am sure some other people want their turtles trained to eat out of their hand lol.

[mzkitty23]

Awe cute! Mine eats out of my hand too..it's so cute how the spash around to get it!

[industrial_girl_2000]

That's great! I love it when they finally learn that the "person" has food in their hand and that it is ok to take it from the hand! Congrats!

[machina]

That's great! I love it when they finally learn that the "person" has food in their hand and that it is ok to take it from the hand! Congrats!

Maybe she realizes it's me, but I still tend to think that she sees my hand as food... it's just that the pellet doesn't run away and won't pick her up

[raverqueenage]

You are lucky! Hurley will eat from our hands, but if we go IN the water, he will munch on a finger or two. My hubby says it really doesn't hurt, but I have my doubts. I think he just being macho.

I fed Hurley banana today by hand and he went ape [----] for it, almost taking my finger along with the fruit. LOL.

[mzkitty23]

i guess mine understands b/c i can put my fingers or hands in the tank and he doesn't nip them at all, he just watches me to see what i'm doing, but when there's food in my hand, he just takes the food ( as long as it's something he likes). if it's something he don't like he still doesnt go for my hand, he just gives me a dirty look...lol. i always hold the food right above the water.

[machina]

You are lucky! Hurley will eat from our hands, but if we go IN the water, he will munch on a finger or two. My hubby says it really doesn't hurt, but I have my doubts. I think he just being macho.

I fed Hurley banana today by hand and he went ape [----] for it, almost taking my finger along with the fruit. LOL.

It really doesn't; she has gotten me a few times but I think she always does it just hard enough to grab and see what it is or get the food, so it's never an aggressive bite.

Now, if she gets me when I pick her up and she is pissy I am sure I would be singing a different song.

[mzkitty23]

cool! i'll have to try bananas with mine b/c he's so picky, it's SUPER HARD to get him to eat anything but protein.

[Azfar]

DRIED SHRIMP ROLL RECIPE a.k.a California Roll.. sushi thingy

Try this..

1 piece of lettuce
1 piece of small dried shrimp

First, tear a small piece of lettuce like big size of your thumb

Second, put the dried shrimp at the end of the lettuce and start roll

Make sure let some tail or head of shrimp out of the roll for your turtle can smell the shrimp.. hehe..

Why I make this recipe? First of all, before this I never feed my turtles anykind healthy food though vegies. ONLY pellets. One of my turtles have pyramiding problem which cause from a lot of protein from their diet. So I have to change their diet somewhat give variety healthy food..

My turtles hate vegies so much even though I have left all kind of leafy green vegies.. they just ignore it.. So one day I got an idea how to make them interested eat vegies by doing shrimp roll (actually after doing some research from this site how to entice your turtles to eat). Though I know shrimp also have high with protein but rolling it with lettuce could balance the nutrients plus after feeding them with atleast 6 rolls then I give them cuttlebone (my turtles favourite now)

Now my turtles eat everything~!! yeay.. but still give them pellet every other day. I'm so proud with my turtles.

*Note: must have a lot of patients doing this.. but you will give your turtle big benefit and you will proud with your turtle and feed them right away from your hand..

[marvonio]

My little Steve (2.75" now) is a HUGE beggar! All he needs is to see me and he's splashing around making a fuss...Funny thing is now he'll ONLY eat from my hand in the tank...spoiled thing is so busy looking at my hand that if I drop something in he doesn't see it. Generally I feed him in a separate bowl (keeps the mess down, especially when it's live minnow day) and in that case he doesn't look for the hand.

Oh, and he'll do funny tricks for a turtle stick, too! He'll climb up to the basking area, swim a lap, scale the side of a rock (his little outstreatched neck will quiver from reaching with all his might!)... Endless hours of entertainment Now my other turtle, Myrtle, is shy and isn't so keen on tricks. But Steve is a hoot

Have fun!

Melanie

[Callie]

That's funny, I was just going to make a thread on George (hatchling) deciding he prefered eating the pellets from my hand more than the ones floating in his tank.
I dip them in water first to avoid them being entirely dry, and then he splashes over (apparently thinking he can hoist himself completely out of the water to 'fly' to get the food), and then snacks on the pellet.

Depending on how I position it, he'll either be super nice about taking it, or try to chew off my finger in the process... I never taught him, he just...decided it seems.

Melanie - your Steve sounds very very much like my George!

[marvonio]

Awesome! How big is George, Callie? I can sit and watch Steve entertain himself for hours! Cracks me up - never knew turtles could be so entertaining.

My Myrtle is boring to watch (and quite sick at the moment - see "paraplegic myrtle" in urgent care...)