Feeding and Nutrition :: My turtle will not eat cuttlebone

[WendyByTheBay]

I have had my turtle for almost two months now. I am guessing he's about 11 months old and about 3inches long. First he didn't want to eat anything, but now I got him on a pretty good diet of a few small pellets a day and red leaf lettuce.

But he will not touch the cuttle bone. I tried soaking pieces of cuttle bone in tuna juice and he will suck a piece in his mouth for a few seconds then spit it out. It's like he's just getting the tuna flavor off of it. Does this mean he doesn't need it??? I am just worried he's not getting enough calcium.

is there another food that would give him calcium?

[laurapa]

I have always had this concern with my turtle, too. I figured out how to offer it in the way he likes best: suspended above the water with just the tip of it in the water. I think it looks more like food to him when there is just a tiny piece floating on the surface. Sometimes, when it is offered like this, he'll take a bite, but mostly just to explore it. Once he knows what it is, he never touches it again.

I don't know if this is because he just doesn't need the calcium (he eats dandelion greens most of the time, and red lettuce when dandelion isn't in the store). Or if he does need the calcium but just hates the cuttlebone.

I am wary of powdering his food or feeding him gut-loaded crickets, because I know that eating too much calcium is bad for people and I'm afraid it's bad for turtles, too. I wish there was a way to tell (other than waiting for him to get soft-shell) if he actually needs more than he is getting from the dandelion and pellets.

Plus when I powder his food, even if I soak it first, he is such a messy eater that most of the calcium ends up in the water, not in his belly.

So I'm anxious to hear the answer to this question, not just about how to offer calcium more subversively, but also the bigger question of "if he's not eating it, does it mean he doesn't need it?"

[WendyByTheBay]

I'll have to try the holding above the water trick. We hand feed him pellets so he's used to taking food from us.


**edit** just tried to hand feed it too him. Spit it right out once he figured out what it was. Could have swore he just gave me an ugly look, lol!!!

[VanishingReality]

Mine refused and still refuses cuttlebone.

I took the turtle jello shots recipe and modified it to mostly calcium. He loves it and it works really well plus it is less messy.

[novroz]

have your turtle eat fish or shrimp?? kame finds cuttlebone as equal as those because of the smell