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at petco the other day, i was discussing larry with the very helpful guy who works the aquatic life section and he introduced me to these little frozen food cubes. he says his res love them. they contain anacharis, other green leafy veggies(dont have box right in front of me) dried shrimp, worms, etc and larry loves them as a treat in addition to pellets, cuttlebone, and his own veggies.

larry isnt particulary fond of his vegetables and likes to stuff them up the filter tube then go after his algae eaters instead. but the little cubes gave me an idea, as well as a topic in the tortoise section. if i could hide more vegetation in the form of a "treat" would larry eat more veggies...hmmm.

so i went to the grocery store yesterday and loaded up on more veggies then brought them home and began mincing, chopping and grating. included were 6-8 large leaves of romaine, a handful of dandelion greens, a few carrots, a small apple(which produced a surprisingly small amount when grated), cauliflower(which larry hates), zucchini, a tiny bit of red pepper, and a few sugar snap pea-pod thingies(they were going to be part of my dinner). i mixed it all up then distributed it into ice cube trays and popped it in the freezer. we shall see if larry can be hoodwinked into eating vegetables this way...mwahahaha...

on a side note, i have some canned cat food that my cat hates. its meow mix market select or something like that. its got big chunks of salmon tuna and whole shrimp in it. it looks better than most of the stuff i eat...next time i make turtle food, can i add this to the mix? the batch i made earlier made about 2 quarts, so it'd be 1/2 cup cat food to 2 qt veggies. its not the recently recalled cat food! just so yall know im not trying to off my turtlino...

I think you can leave out the apple, cauliflower, and the peas next time and you can also make your own pellets too. For the catfood, I would say it would either be messy and look gross, or would be too much protein for your turtle and is not needed.

Are the frozen food cubes call San Francisco Bay Aquatic Turtle Diet? If so, Petsmart sells them as well. I give them to my turtles occasionally for variety, since they can be messy in the tank (feeding in a separate container is recommended).

I've heard of people using jello to hold the cube together so it doesn't just dissolve everywhere. You may also want to mince some tuna or other treat that your turtles are really attracted to so that it doesn't just smell/taste like veggies (since he doesn't really like those anyway).

he went to town on the one i dropped in there...then it started to thaw and he vaccumed up every little vegetable morsel...even the carrots, and he hates carrots! he would watch them start to fall and then catch them in his mouth. would the cat food in such a small dose be that bad for him? it would really be just for smell/flavor. but anyway i havent seen him this excited over food since...well ever...maybe this could be a new recommendation for picky eaters...smaller cubes for smaller turts tho

marisa wrote:Are the frozen food cubes call San Francisco Bay Aquatic Turtle Diet? If so, Petsmart sells them as well. I give them to my turtles occasionally for variety, since they can be messy in the tank (feeding in a separate container is recommended).

Beaker loves those things! She'll eat a whole cube by herself. She makes a big mess too, separate container is a must....

larry eats the san fransisco cubes by himself too. but they dont last long enough in the tank to make a mess. youd think he hadnt eaten in years the way he consumes food. i told a fib earlier, larry did not devour every morsel of vegetation. he left the apple bits. i havent figured out how he picked around them, but he didnt eat them.

im assuming it would be unflavored jello holding the cubes together correct? that doesnt seem like a very good idea. jello breaks down pretty quickly and in my experience, is a breeding ground for all things horrible. i wont ruin jello for everyone here, but its disgusting.

There is a recipe on ATP but there is no veggies in it:

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/care.htm

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