Feeding and Nutrition :: Hand Feeding

[TerrapinStation]

In an effort to give each of our three RES a fair shake at eating time, I have been been hand feeding the guys by hand, two sticks each 2x a day for these 9 month olds. You know, holding a food stick in front of the turt until it takes it from my grasp.

Do others do this? Has anyone found that it is bad in the long run, or are we OK?

[emma]

Feeding them by hand probably is a good way to have them become more used to humans and make them less afraid (if they were shy before)

[worldpeace]

It's perfectly alright. A little advice though: if you care for your fingers you might want to start using a pair of tweezers or something similar.

[untsmurf]

worldpeace is right. There's nothing wrong with feeding by hand except when the turtle misjudges and bites you instead of the pellet. My turtle did that accidentally while I was feeding him, he wasn't hand fed after that.

If you get tired of hand feeding, you can try taking each turtle out and feeding them in feeding bowls.

[TerrapinStation]

worldpeace is right. There's nothing wrong with feeding by hand except when the turtle misjudges and bites you instead of the pellet. My turtle did that accidentally while I was feeding him, he wasn't hand fed after that.

If you get tired of hand feeding, you can try taking each turtle out and feeding them in feeding bowls.

Yes, that happened the other day, one of the fellas got my finger during feeding and I pulled it about 8" out before it dropped off back into the water. It didn't hurt too bad, but sometimes I wonder with this particular turt if it isn't trying to bite me instead of get the food. And as a side note I was "cupping" the same guy in my hand the other day, showing it to our little neighbor girl - and the thing bit me on the pad of the hand beneath my thumb. That actually hurt enough to speak up about it.

Unfortunately, I don't have time for the split feeding method. That's a good idea though.

[untsmurf]

Then your best bet is to get some metal tongs. That'll save your fingers some hurt down the way.

[Gimli]

I use baby spoons. Gimli loves eating from them!!

[KatieSmeltzer]

my filbert loves to eat pellets out of my hand! even if i drop them in (if i'm in a hurry/not paying attention), he still looks at my fingers like "welll....."

[rsour24]

i used to hand feed, but i got tired of the nipping atmy fingers

[Turtle Mummy 101]

I hand feed Charlotte all the time, and she loves it. She actually comes to expect it now. It's cute and everything, but I must say it does hurt when she accidentally nips my finger!

[rmpbklyn]

I hand feed mine also. Mainly b/c as others have stated, for the turtle not to fear me. Mine is 6 months old.
But I do wonder when he gets larger. My mother has a 15 year old turtle and he has a 7 inches long shell.

[novroz]

I handfeed mine too, both my turtles act differently to handfeed. I have to give food longer than 2 cm to Kroten because she can't measure distance and over excited when seing food. Kame is much better, I can give a 1cm long food ans she can eat only the food without biting my finger.

[TurtleKeeper48]

All three of ours are hand feeders. 4" to 6" turtles in the 2.5 to 8 year old range.

IMO - YES, sometimes they are biting your finger instead of the food on purpose! Our biggest turtle is the biggest piggy about her food, and if she's really hungry because we fed a day late - she'll be mean and bite your finger instead of the pellet every time... or if she's "mad" at you for any reason - you spend all afternoon cleaning the tank, get it all done and get her back in, and then give her food in the nice new clean tank and she bites because she's mad she spent the last 4 hours in her little "vacation home" she goes to during tank cleaning.

Also, once they get used to hand feeding, they almost demand it. When ours are hungry, you can dump a whole bunch of food in the water right next to them, and it'll be floating all around their head, and they won't eat it - it's like they don't even know it's there and the still agressively beg to be hand fed. Of course if you just walk away, they'll start eating the food from the water, but if you hang out - they'll keep splashing and begging to be hand fed. It's really quite cute.

So, in the long run, hand feeding can be a pain. They will bite and as they get older, it will hurt. I've never had one break the skin, but all of my fingers tips are pretty hardened with callusus from working and playing guitar and bass. I could absolutely see it breaking skin on some people.

Be carefull!

[mosowner]

About 80% of the time I put my pellets in and my RES just follows my finger to where the pellet is and eats it, but sometimes she gets into such a frenzy when it's feeding time that if I don't give most of the pellets to her by hand, she'll flail around and they'll all end up at the bottom of the tank. I find holding them mostly with your fingernails and not your actual fingers helps from getting bit. I have been bit a couple times, but Mo immediately lets go of me. The feeling I can relate it to is like being clamped with a binder clip. But not so bad!

[bigG]

My turtles love to be handfed. However, I think my female is a little farsighted and will occasionally nip at my fingers. Also, she will often not see food floating right in front of her. The male is much more accurate in retrieving food when handfed and will see food floating nearby. I might have to get my female some reading glasses.