Feeding and Nutrition :: Vegetables.

[Matryoshka]

VEGETABLES.
For my turtles, this word spells 'doom'.
They dislike vegetables/plant matter. How do yours react to vegetables? Any tips for getting them to eat it?
I like to rip up the pieces of vegetable till it's as big as my thumb or so, then drop freeze dried shrimp on top. In attempt to get the shrimp they get a few nibbles of vegetable too. Sunny seems to like day-old ones - I was taking the old ones out and placing fresh ones in when she bit my finger, causing me to drop the vegetable, and ate it.

[VeipaCray]

Have you tried different vegetables? Some turtles will take to carrot or something sooner than they'll eat lettuce. There's a jello shot recipe on this forum that includes vegetables and many have gotten their RES to start eating veggies like this.

For me personally, I've been fortunately graced with a non-picky eater. My RES will eat anything offered.

[texasreb]

The jello shots worked wonderfully for me.

[Caphits]

I can't add much here. My turtle LOVES lettuce, carrots, whatever. Have you tried leaving the lettuce in for more than one day, and see what happens (on purpose)?

[vear]

Let's see... Tomi hated vegetables... he'd try them, then spit them out. Kinda funny actually. So I just kept trying and trying different ones. He finally started eating Romaine lettuce and now he devours it!! There are some things he doesn't like though, so you just have to try different kinds and don't give up... always offer.

[Turtletime]

I just discovered that turtles should not be fed a steady diet of Reptomin pellets :-/ That might explain why 4 year old Turtle is on the small side and his shell is probably not in the best condition (I also just discovered they shed scutes and I swear I've never seen one in the tank). We got a Henrietta for Turtle and he now is focused on her all the time and he's stopped eating his pellets. In two weeks he went from 299 grams down to 287 grams. I dropped in a few shredded carrots and he loves them. He won't touch red lettuce. Henrietta is still eating pellets and as she is still new to the tank (6 weeks), and Turtle is still pestering her, I'm just trying to find something she'll eat. Her first weighing is 388 grams and she's only about two years old according to my LBS.

I'm going to try some cuttlebone to help calcium levels. I'm also going to try the jello shots; I might have to make them with fewer vegetables and increase the veggie content over time.

[steve]

There isn't anything necessarily wrong with a turtle being on the small side, you do want steady and consistent growth. A steady diet of any pellet is not a good idea, but it's great that you're trying other things in their diet. If Turtle is starting to harass her, then you need to consider some type of separation.