Feeding and Nutrition :: Cat food

[sikobarabasi]

Helo,

I live in Transylvania, Romania and I didn't find good pellets for my turtles, until now I gave them live fish, but I read on this forum, that it is much better if I give them some pellets and just as additional food some fish once a month. In the pet stores there isn't any quality food for turtles, so I bought some cat food which contains a lot of vegetable based ingredients. What do you think is it good? They like it a lot!

Thanks

[Tenodera]

No, cat food contains too much protein in it to be good.
You could order online for some good turtle food.

[sikobarabasi]

I noticed, that aldo they have enough space to swim and exercise, they are getting quite fat!!!

[SpotsMama]

It's that rich cat food! I think the turtles would be better off with the fresh fish, just limit the amount, and give them lots of green leafy vegetables or aquatic plants. Do they have a cuttlebone for calcium? Are you able to get a vitamin supplement for them where you are?

If you can't find an online store that will deliver good pellets to you, let us know.

[megcornell]

How much cat food are you feeding them? I think it'd be easy to overfeed that stuff. You'd be safer feeding something like fish or worms for protein and giving lots of veggies if you cannot get pellets.

[turboturtle8]

I wouldn't reccomend giving your turtle cat food

[Safdar]

Cat food is designed for cats. Turtles are reptiles
Catfood has too much protien

You can easily order quality brand pellets online

[SpotsMama]

Safdar, while it's true most of us can easily get good pellets online, this particular person lives in Romania, where it may not be so easy. Some companies may not deliver to Romania.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Maybe if you can feed the cat food once a week to your turtle (very little of it) Supplement with a lot of cuttlebone <- this stuff has got to be available where your at. Feed a variety of different greens and offer gutloaded (fed nutritious food before killed/fed to turtles) prey atleast twice a week, you'd probably be fine.

You can also, if they have any, buy vitamin supplements made for birds (might be more common than reptile supplements) and use it once a week to make sure the turtle is getting some good vitamins and minerals in it. And if that is not an option you can try centrum, a vitamin supplement for humans, according to melissa kaplan, it is safe: http://www.anapsid.org/vitamin.html

[sikobarabasi]

Thanks for the infos! In Romania there are a lot of pet shops and they are selling a lot of animals but just a few of them have good food ore equipment (aquariums, lamps...if they have something it is not good ore not as you need it. Most people don't know how to make an aquarium, ore how to organise it so your posts of pictures help a lot.)... Most of them are interested in selling their animals and that is it (Red Eared Sliders are among the favorites, they are been sold to all kind of people This territory is new for me, but I am starting to gather material and give to people who bought them. Not all of them understand English, so I am translating a lot what you people are writing, hope it doesn't bother anyone). In the capital, Bucharest there are probably good shops, but it is too far and our post is, how to say, not always perfect . I took Marcina and Feri from 2 different owners, because of the conditions they were capt and because those owners didn't want to have them. I have problems just with the food, they were used just to meat and even if they are hungry they do not eat greens except bananas, they like eggs (in their aquarium they have Duckweed but are not eating it. It will bee there for two more days when I'll move them {I'll finish the support table} ). A friend of mine who is a biochemist made for me, together with my father (he is a veterinarian), some vitamins (in liquid and in pellets), so this problem is solved, before I started with it, they had some spots on their shells, which were soft and had a reddish color. Now they look just fine! It contains all they need (all I read that they need). I saw a wet feeding his turtles with home made pellets, he is a prof. at the university and his domain is reptiles, wrote papers on turtles too, I will meet him and write you what he suggested.

Thanks a lot!!!!

PS.: I am probably writing a lot of nonsense ore not in the wright place, but I don't really have time for Internet so hope it doesn't bother you.

AlparS.

[sikobarabasi]

O, in Romania, paying on the Internet is getting just nowadays "in", and lot of people are afraid of using this method because we have a lot, I mean a lot of hackers.

[SpotsMama]

Sounds like you are doing a wonderful job of taking care of Marcina and Feri. It's very interesting to hear about how people in different parts of the world figure out the details - very creative.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Cat food should only be used as an occasional treat because it is very high in protein.

If you can't find the turtle pellets in your local petstore, ask if they would order them for you. If many people are starting to buy turtles, then they will also need the food for their turtles too! Or you can order online. Look for "Reptomin" floating food sticks. Or "Mazuri" turtle food. Check www.petco.com or www.petsmart.com (those are big retailers in the US).

If you are worried about hackers, I would get a Visa or mastercard "gift card" (it's like a credit card, but you put money on it & most banks have these gift cards for purchase). A gift card like this can be used like a typical credit card, but once the balance is zero, then you can not take any more money from the card. Put a limited amount of money on it (like $40 or 30 Euro), then only use this giftcard for online purchases. That way you never have to worry about someone getting your "personal information" from online-ordering.

[marisa]

Have you searched for European retailers of aquatic products on-line?

[sikobarabasi]

I found some pellets which are good, at least people say so and they like it too. Hope it works! I mixed a few kinds.