Feeding and Nutrition :: My picky RES baby.

[Ekoskotzi]

My turtle started off great! As soon as I put him in his 10gal tank, he started eating the pellets and loved them! I bought some shrimp if for about a month I would give him several pellets and a shrimp at the end. Recently, though, he will not each the pellets. He would at first go after them, bite them, and spit every bit out, but now he just ignores them.
I've already researched around and tried the "tough love" method. It didn't work. I got too worried about him not eating that I gave him a shrimp.
I tried soaking them in tuna water and that didn't work, either.
I just got back from the petstore after purchasing the Omega One turtle sticks and he seemed to really like them at first but he couldn't bite them at first and now he wont try after they've been soaking for a while.

Any suggestions? He's been acting a lot slower and he hasn't been swimming like he used to. I'm getting worried.

[penelope]

How long ago did he get smart and hold out for the shrimp?
How long did you try the tough love?
I don't know how old your RES is, but they can go several days without food, thus the question about the length of his tough love stint
There was a time when my gal didn't want to eat her greens and held out for nearly 5 days before she realized it was greens or nothing.
In my opinion, as long as I was offering her healthy sustenance, I was not starving her (it was there for the taking).

But...

Don't confuse being finicky with loss of appetite altogether. That would be a different story.

If he eats some things like a mad man, and refuses others then I say hold out on the tough love. He will be OK.
If he won't eat anything, we'll tackle that another day,

[CactusJohn5]

Okay first and formost. I think people have been miss-understand the "tough love" method.

Tough love is for ADULT and older juvenile turtles ONLY not hatchlings(under 1 year old)

A hatchling should be a 75% protein to 25% greens diet. So as long as he is eating something protein, its okay.

[penelope]

Well I stand corrected --- didn't realize it was a hatchling

[PridgNYC]

Well, if it is a hatchling, the OP should be using hatchling food, you know, the tiny pellets. Omega One is going to be too big for a hatchling. If they can't swallow it whole or take manageable bites out of it, they won't eat it. Most pellets are too hard to take manageable bites out of until it gets soggy, then they are just gross and mess up the tank.