Hey everybody, I have one 5 month old eastern painted turtle and 1 baby eastern turtle and 1 mississippi map turtle and I was wondering, aside from reptomin and turtle food, what else can they have or what can they not have? Can they have cabbage? thanks for your help
RE: diet do Commercial turtle foods are ok for the aquatics - in very moderate amounts. 2-3 times a week, not every day. The rest of the week should be veggies. For the baby box turtle, it's better to balance out insects and vegetable meals. Again, insects are only to be offered a few days of the week, not every day. Too much protein and an unbalanced diet will lead to your box turtle looking deformed, improper shell shape - pyramiding and even face deformation. To start with the vegetable nutrition http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html and http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm are nice charts to use. Obviously, don't feed any vegetables the charts suggests to avoid. A good start are greens - turnip, collard, mustard, endive, chicory, and dandelion. NO LETTUCE and no cabbage. Winter squashes are also good - acorn, butternut, spaghetti, and kabocha. No canned cat or dog food, these are not formulated for turtles of any kind. Any care sheets that suggest this are outdated. Also any care sheets that suggest you feed a reptile cheese, dairy, are outdated. Reptiles do not have the capability to properly digest dairy, it will cause diarrhea. You need to supplement all 3 turtles with calcium, calcium with D3, and a multivitamin. Offer plain pieces of cuttle bone to all of your turtles, this will help some with calcium and give them something to wear their beak on. And since your turtles are indoors you must use UVB lights. Any other questions? You can search back through a lot of the threads in this section for good information as well. :lol:
