Food for the red-eared turtle. Common questions for red-eared sliders. What to feed little red-eared turtles

Pond slider refers to predators. Proper nutrition depends appearance reptile, its state of health and life expectancy. main reason reptile diseases - overfeeding. Therefore, you need to know how often and how much to feed the red-eared turtle.

The danger of overfeeding and underfeeding

Overfeeding the red-eared turtle can cause:

abnormal growth of young individuals, in this case they have a disproportionately large carapace and fragile, small paws;
obesity of adult reptiles, they can see fat on the sides when they pull their paws into the shell, visible skin folds that look like bubbles;
pyramidal shell, in which you can see tubercles on it, such a pathology provokes various diseases internal organs at the turtle;
tympania, in which the reptile does not sink in water and falls on its right side, undigested food is visible in the feces, it can blow bubbles from the mouth, vomiting may open.

The lack of food will lead to the exhaustion of the pet, in which there is exfoliation of the skin from the paws of the reptile.

Therefore, it is so important to know how much and how often to feed red-eared turtles.

Red-eared slider turtle feeding frequency

How often you need to feed depends on the age of the pet and the type of food, the time of year.

Little reptiles whose age less than a year or size up to 10-12 cm (the red-eared turtle is measured by the abdominal shield of the shell), it is necessary to feed 1-2 times a day every day.

Serving sizes depend on the activity of the pet. Experts advise that in order to find out the amount of food for one feeding, you need to track how much the animal eats in half an hour and give how much each time. The approximate amount of food is equal to half the reptile shell.

If a young turtle ignores food and does not eat, then it is worth reducing the portion size and keeping the pet hungry for 1-2 days.

If the red-eared turtle older than a year, then feed it should be 2-3 times a week. At the same time, the terrarium should have plant food that the pet could eat whenever he wants.

The older the red-eared turtle, the less often it needs to be fed, up to once a week.

But keep in mind that the appetite of reptiles is different, so it is important to carefully monitor your pet: the turtle communicates what he wants to eat with his behavior. She is active at the sight of the owner, different ways tries to attract attention to himself, beats the water with his paws and flops, but as soon as you feed her, she calms down. Thus, a reptile can ask for food every day, or maybe once every 7 days.

When an adult refuses food, it is advised to reduce its amount and give less often.

It must be remembered that the red-eared turtle leads daytime look life and its metabolic rate depends on temperature, so you should feed it in the morning or afternoon, but if you give it food before turning off the lamp, then there is a possibility that the food will not be digested, but will settle in the stomach and begin to rot.

How much red-eared turtles eat depends on the time of year: in spring and summer they eat more, and less in winter, as they hibernate.

If the turtle is exhausted, then it should be fed every day, the food should be as much as the pet will eat.

How long can a turtle go without food?

Adults, if they are healthy, can not eat without harm to their body for 2 weeks, young reptiles - up to a week. When a pet is too small, it can live 3-7 days without food.

Therefore, if the owners have to leave, then you can leave adult turtle nothing will happen to her alone for 7-10 days. However, it is desirable to run in a terrarium small fish, snails and algae, if the reptile gets hungry, she can eat them.

A turtle may not eat for several reasons:

because of the cold;
due to stress;
during the breeding season, if the terrarium contains individuals of different sexes, then during the mating games they do not eat, but after they are over, the appetite will return to the reptiles;
due to too early transfer of the pet to an adult diet, small turtles should not be given fish and boiled eggs;
because of illness.

When you first got a reptile, it needs some time to get used to the change of scenery. If the turtle refuses food for more than 3 days, but is mobile and does not have visible signs disease, then you may not be properly caring for it.

When the pet is passive, he has nasal discharge, sneezing, swelling of the eyes, the turtle blows bubbles, then it should be shown to a specialist.

It is important not to overfeed the red-eared turtle, but you should not starve it either. Feed should be thrown directly into the water, but at the same time, make sure that the remnants of food do not start to rot in the terrarium. To avoid this, you can put the pet in a separate container with water for the time of feeding, and then return it back to the terrarium.

If you are going to start some animal, especially an exotic one, you need to find out as much as possible about the conditions of its maintenance, what should be its diet. The red-eared tortoise is a carnivore. She needs to be given animal products. But even without plant food, the reptile will get sick. In order for an animal to grow up healthy, you need to know what red-eared turtles eat.

Animal products

Lean meats. It can be beef, poultry or rabbit. I like reptiles and horse meat. But giving pork and lamb to a pet is not worth it. These meats are very fatty and digestive tract reptile is not designed to digest them. Some individuals may eat small mice. Meat can be raw or cooked. Before giving to a pet, it should be cut into small cubes.
Offal such as heart, liver and stomachs.
Fish. You should choose low-fat varieties of sea fish that do not have large bones. It can be hake, sprat, cod. To prevent a lack of calcium in the body of a reptile, fish should be given along with the bones. You can also put live fish into the aquarium, for example, guppies, which will serve as food for the red-eared turtle. Along with the fish, you can also let in snails, which the reptile can also eat.
Seafood such as squid, octopus, green shrimp. They should be given raw.
Insects. You can buy flour beetles at the pet store. IN warm time year you can catch grasshoppers and beetles. Suitable for feeding turtles at home bloodworm. Do not give domestic cockroaches caught in the apartment, as they can be poisoned.
Gammarus. It can be live or dried. To diversify the diet, it is periodically allowed to give daphnia and coretra, while turning off the filter for a quarter of an hour.

It must be remembered that if you give the animal only raw meat, this will provoke a deficiency of vitamin A in the turtle's body and the development of rickets, which is characterized by softening of the reptile's shell, lack of appetite, and possibly impaired coordination of movement. If these signs appear, the pet should be given vitamin D.

herbal products

In the diet of any red-eared turtle, plant products should be present, but the older the animal becomes, the more their number should increase.

You can give your pet:

Field plants: dandelion leaves, peas, clover, plantain, coltsfoot. In the menu of the animal, you can include forgiven seeds of oats and barley.
aquarium plants. In the terrarium, you can plant duckweed, watercress. But you can not plant a "water plague" or elodea, as the plant contains poisonous juice, which is dangerous for animals. It is better to plant pond algae in the aquaterrarium.
Fruits and berries, such as plums, apples, pears, citrus fruits, apricots and melons, Victoria, raspberries. They need to be cut into small pieces. In this case, the bones should be removed, otherwise the turtle may choke. Citrus fruits should not be given to reptiles along with the peel. Reptiles like to sharpen their teeth, for this purpose it is recommended to place a stick in the terrarium fruit trees.
Vegetables. It is allowed to feed the animal with legumes, tomatoes, pumpkin pulp, cucumbers, zucchini, sweet peppers, radishes. In winter, these vegetables are expensive, you can replace them with beets and carrots, various varieties of cabbage (white cabbage, broccoli).
Edible mushrooms. They can be fed to the pet no more than 1 time in 7 days.

Factory and homemade food

In pet stores, you can buy ready-made food for the red-eared turtle. But, unfortunately, in some of them, the dosages of protein, vitamins and minerals do not meet the needs of reptiles. Sometimes reptiles may refuse artificial feed due to pungent odor. But some individuals eat only ready-made food. Quality products are produced, for example, by Tetra.

You can cook your own food. To do this, you need 50 g of cabbage and apples, 70 g of carrots, 100 g of squid, 145 g of low-fat fish.

Pass everything through a meat grinder. Add 2 eggs and 150 g of milk. Dilute 30 g of gelatin in hot water. You will need 150 g of liquid. Mix everything, cool and add 20 drops of Tetravit. This food can be stored in the refrigerator for a maximum of 7 days. Before you give the turtle, it must be cut into pieces. If the size of the reptile's shell does not exceed 15 cm, then it will have enough food for 10 times.

When a pet is sick, a medicine prescribed by a doctor can be added to such food. To prevent the cubes from melting so quickly in water, agar-agar can be used instead of gelatin.

Red-eared turtles do not salivate, so they need water to swallow their food. In order to have a number in the terrarium at the time of feeding, you can put the reptile in a separate container with water.

Small turtles need to be fed daily, if the pet is older than 2 years, the number of feedings is reduced 2-3 times a week. To determine the size of 1 serving, you need to look at how much food the reptile will eat in 30 minutes and give this amount each time.

You can not give food from the human table, food for cats and dogs. It is possible that the turtle will eat the foods offered to it, but this will negatively affect its health, in particular on the liver, and may even cause death. It is forbidden to feed the pet with cereals, dairy products (except cottage cheese), bread.

To compensate for the deficiency of minerals, the animal is recommended to give bone meal. Instead, you can give crushed eggshells. After consultation with a herpetologist, multivitamins can be given to turtles.

Both underfeeding and overfeeding are dangerous for reptiles. If she eats too much, then this will provoke obesity, diseases of the internal organs, pyramidal shell. Lack of food can cause malnutrition and beriberi. If you do not take action in time, then everything can end in the death of a pet.

IN last years It has become popular to keep exotic species as pets. Many people keep reptiles at home. Turtles are in great demand because they are unpretentious and safe. These representatives include the red-eared turtle, which is not only a rare animal, but also a devoted pet. How to care for her at home and how long she can live with proper care?

What is a red-eared turtle?

This animal refers to freshwater reptiles. It owes its name to the oblong orange-red spots located behind the eyes. This species of turtle does not have ears, and despite this, it hears well. It is also called yellow-bellied because of the ventral shield. bright yellow. She has excellent eyesight and sense of smell.

Females differ from males in larger sizes. The average size of the shell of individuals can be from 18 to 30 cm. In young red-eared turtles, the color of the shell is juicy green, but with age it becomes olive color it can also be brown-yellow with yellow striped patterns.

The red-eared tortoise is considered a long-liver. At home, with proper care, she can live long enough - 30-40 years. Its level of intelligence is several times higher than that of many other types of reptiles. It perfectly perceives sounds at very low frequencies.

Choosing a terrarium for a reptile

With improper maintenance or poor conditions, the red-eared turtle is doomed to death. It is believed that this type of turtle is ideal for keeping at home. They are very hardy and in order for them to live comfortably, it is necessary to pay great attention to:

nutrition;
microclimate;
water.

It is best to keep such reptiles in a 150 liter aquarium, it must be spacious. The turtle does not spend all the time in the water and periodically appears on the surface to breathe air. The animal grows over time and the water level in the tank should correspond to the size of its shell. The reptile should move freely in the aquarium. It is believed that the more space and water in the tank, the better it will feel.

It is very important that before placing a red-eared turtle in an aquarium, properly plan the area in him. It is not difficult to do this now, because most pet stores sell aquariums ready for keeping reptiles. Buying it, you only need to add right amount water.

The optimum water temperature should be at the level of 21-25 o C. The land level in it should be 25%. Reptiles need freedom of movement so that they can roll over easily.

The container requires settled water, and it is best to provide the aquarium with filtered water. You need to change the water 1-2 times a week. If this is not possible, then it is better to equip the container with a special filter. In this case, you can change the water once a month.

The land area for the rest of the reptile must be equipped with a lamp so that the turtle can warm itself. So, she used to do in vivo a habitat. The temperature of the island should be 10°C higher than the temperature of the water in the container. One piece of sushi must be flooded with water. The reptile will crawl out of the aquarium and the safe island will serve as a great place for him to warm up and rest. Its surface should be textured and the red-eared turtle will move freely from water to land and back without getting stuck.

Nutrition

Such an exotic animal needs to be selected proper nutrition. If you follow all the conditions of keeping at home, the red-eared turtle will feel great and long years live in a family.

IN young age these animals are carnivorous, but later they prefer plant foods. IN young age young turtles need many vitamins, such as calcium and amino acids. This will allow them to fully develop. Adult individuals try to save their energy and accumulate it.

The diet of red-eared turtles is very diverse, but you need to take into account the age of the pet. As food suitable for a variety of foods:

Turtles have a good appetite and prone to overeating. The task of the owners of reptiles is to provide the animal with a balanced diet with high level calcium. Pet stores have special food for turtles on sale. Experts recommend diversifying your pet's diet and feeding them food that is close to natural conditions.

Sometimes turtles are given beef, poultry, horse meat, preferably boiled. It is cut into small pieces. Fish is a favorite food for reptiles. It is usually given boiled and raw. Often, fresh-frozen is bought for this, but it should be thawed beforehand and only then given. Fatty fish should not be given to turtles to avoid digestive upset.

guppies;
carp;
swordsmen;
goldfish.

Snails and squids will become a real delicacy for red-eared turtles. They also prefer daphnia and freshwater crustaceans. Insects are a good variety. It can be crickets, grasshoppers and other non-poisonous insects. Many people have a question, how much plant and other food do they need?

Plant foods should make up at least 60% of a turtle's diet. adults willingly feed on aquatic vegetation:

hornwort;
ceratopteris;
lidwigia.

Also, reptiles do not refuse dandelion leaves, cabbage, lettuce, clover, carrot and beet tops. They also eat indoor plants - hibiscus, aloe, basil, hyacinth. Red-eared turtles can eat grains, such as sprouted wheat, beans, seeds.

Pet stores sell special foods for red-eared turtles, so they also need to be bought for pet reptiles. Be sure to follow the recommended dose of such feeds and fortified supplements.

Young turtles under 2 years of age should be fed twice a day. Adults need to be fed every 2-3 days. You need to feed the turtles in a special tray and give the pet fresh, high-quality and warm food.

Features of care and maintenance

This type of turtle is great for beginners. If properly maintained, they live a long time, so such a pet will be able to live in a family for many years. There are several basic rules for proper maintenance and care at home.

You can not let the turtle on the floor. There she can find something to eat. There may be drafts on the floor, which will greatly harm the health of the reptile.

Meat is a heavy food for turtles, so you do not need to give it often.

When the animal is overgrown with small algae, it cannot be brushed. It can damage the surface of the shell and injure the skin of the reptile.

If the aquarium is not equipped with an island, there is no land in it, the animal may die because it needs air.

Various vitamin supplements should be in the diet, but used without abuse. Otherwise, they will have a detrimental effect on the condition of the red-eared turtle.

In order for a reptile to become a real member of the family and bring pleasant moments of communication, it is not enough for her only food, care and pure water in aquarium. The animal needs the contact and care of people, and only then it will grow up as a true friend, and how many years it will live always depends on the family it gets into.

- not too frequent guests in our homes. Pets are quite unusual, because they will not meet you from work, joyfully wagging their tail, scratching your neck, experiencing insane tactile pleasure.

However, contrary to what has been said, they themselves are able to give pleasure to their owners. Watching their leisurely grace is extremely pleasant. Turtles get into apartments in different ways, but all newly-made owners are concerned about the question of how to feed the red-eared turtle.

80 percent of people who started reading this article will think - what is the purpose of preparing, bought an aquarium and went for a turtle. Easier nowhere. But it turns out that everything is not so simple. And we will focus on the importance of preparing for the purchase of a turtle on the example of a particular family from the city of Moscow, whose life was invaded by a small green cute thing named Rafa.

The appearance of the animal caused unthinkable delight, and, of course, it is urgent to solve the housing issue of the turtle. The first aquaterrarium was bought and furnished on the same day, and Rafa rushed to master new house. Why first? Some nuances should have been known about reptiles, as it turned out a little later.

Not a single seller of terrariums on the market told the buyers that a 30-liter container would not be enough for a turtle after 2-3 years. After all, animals grow to the size of a good bowl of soup in the size of a shell.

No one said, they say - not hamsters, living 2-3 years and the owner is allowed to choose a new pet. In captivity, red-eared turtles live up to 50 years. And you should approach responsibly the question of whether you are ready to take care of this pet for half a century, or is it not for you.

Well, and the most interesting, when asked a question about feeding, the sellers called different types feed, but forgot to mention the main point - if you feed the animal with meat, then the turtle will develop the habit of biting. And with a high degree of probability, by the age of 5, it will become simply dangerous to pick up a creature and try to play with it.

Still not left with the desire to acquire such a pet? Then let's figure out how to feed the turtle.

baby turtle

A little turtle that has appeared in the house needs an extremely rich diet and a lot of nutrients and minerals for their development. WITH young age you should decide on the vector of nutrition of the turtle. There are several options: granular food sold in pet stores, and natural products- fish, shrimp and meat.

Both types of feeding allow you to provide your pet with all the necessary substances for life and development, but the diametrical difference in them was described a little higher. There will be no particular problems with jars: they came to the pet store, showed the approximate diameter of the pet's shell, the seller gave a jar and feed the turtle, following the instructions on the food packaging.

Deciding to walk the path natural feed, the basis of the turtle's food should be 80 percent small sea or river fish. The remaining 20 percent will be crustaceans, insects and molluscs.

Livebearers are used as top dressing and some entertainment. aquarium fish: guppies, swordtails or mollies. For this food, the pet needs to run, although this wording sounds very cynical. But this will allow you to somewhat diversify the menu of your ward.

forbidden

First of all, I would like to save readers from the mistakes made by many inexperienced owners of exotic pets.

The harmful ones include the following:

poisonous plants;
spinach, peas, rhubarb;
tomatoes;
oily fish;
radish;
asparagus;
citrus fruit;
nuts;
mushrooms.

All these ingredients in the diet are harmful to the turtle. Spinach and peas, for example, contain a large number of oxalates, which is fraught with the development of some dangerous diseases in the pet.

Tomatoes interfere with the absorption of calcium, as a result, it negatively affects the formation of the bone structure in young turtles. And citrus fruits are not at all intended to feed turtles in any variations.

Big turtle love natural

We want to say right away that it is fish products that should prevail in the diet of the red-eared turtle. Suitable for both river and sea fish. The main thing here is to take into account the fact that the turtle must be given low-fat dietary varieties of fish. This is very important because it can directly affect the health of your ward.

So, to the preferred representatives of the ichthyofauna for lunch, the turtle will include the following, namely:

European hake;
whiting;
zander;
mullet;
pike;
flounder.

The fish should not be butchered as it usually swallows the prey whole. She needs all those useful material contained in skeletal system fish. Without them, your pet is likely to have problems with the strength properties of the shell and skeleton as a whole.

You also need to remember that raw fish contains thiaminase, so before you give the turtle raw fish, you need to hold it in hot water for a couple of minutes.

You can also give the turtle mixed seafood, such as:

mussels;
oysters;
squid and octopus;
all kinds of shrimp.

Other feed

In addition to fish, feeding reptiles is easy to diversify with other products. And the list is pretty long.

Meat

If you want to pamper the redhead with meat, lean beef, rabbit or poultry pieces are perfect. It is undesirable to give lamb and pork - these reptile products are difficult to digest. The meat is served raw and boiled, and offal is also used: liver, navel, heart.

Some turtles are happy to eat a small mouse, even if this fact does not bother you. But do not forget, the constant feeding of meat leads to hypovitaminosis. The food of the animal must be diversified.

Insects

Summer is a tortoise's paradise in terms of a variety of insect menus. Bugs, grasshoppers, non-poisonous caterpillars, bloodworms served to the table are perfectly perceived. However, a cockroach or a fly caught in the kitchen should not be fed to the turtle. In addition to the fair image of carriers of diseases, these insects are able to get into the apartment already poisoned and such a meal will not end in anything good.

It is necessary to include live and dried gammarus, as well as daphnia, in the diet.

Vegetarian component

As a rule, omnivorous "tortillas" quite willingly eat not only protein foods, but also plant foods.

Plant food usually makes up no more than 20% of the total diet of our pet, and red-eared turtles should be given greens and fruits no more than 1-2 times a week, if we are talking about a young individual.

Elderly armored reptiles are quite capable of eating plants in large quantities, since they no longer need a set of those substances responsible for growth and development.

So, a plant-based diet consists of the following products:

cabbage;
lettuce leaves;
watercress;
dandelions;
seaweed;
dill;
parsley;
plantain;
apples, pears, melons, bananas.

In general, with age, the reptile makes a solid roll towards a vegetarian diet. A little less meat, a little more vegetable.

Outcome

If you want to get a pet out of the terrik and play with it, then you should not feed the animal with the meat of fish and animals. In any case, you need to feed your pet with gammarus, vegetables and fruits. Be sure to include fresh grass in your diet if it's summer.

How often should a red-eared turtle be fed? While your pet monster is still very small, it will require feeding several times a day, and when the turtles become quite adults, it will be possible to feed it 1-2 times a week, but thoroughly.

And tell us what you usually feed your red-eared pets, and what is the history of the appearance of such a pet in your family?

Red-eared turtles are unpretentious pets, but in order for them to feel good, you need to provide them with suitable conditions. very important and proper feeding. It is worth remembering that individuals different ages their preferences: young pets need to be given more food of animal origin, the diet of old turtles will consist of 80% of vegetation, vegetables and fruits. So, what to feed the red-eared turtle at home?

What can be included in the diet of the red-eared turtle?

Meat and offal. You can give turtles pieces of meat (chicken, beef, horse meat), pork and lamb is not desirable, it is too fatty. The meat must be well frozen. Also, offal can be included in the diet - liver, heart, this is the main source of vitamin A, given once a week;
Insects. Can be given once every 1-2 weeks, turtles eat tubifex, snails, grasshoppers, crickets, wood lice, gammarus, daphnia, earth and flour worms;
Fish and seafood. It is advisable to give the turtle sea fish without large bones - hake, cod, sprat, pangasius and other species. Fatty fish like capelin are pre-soaked in water. You can run live fish into the terrarium - swordsmen, guppies, crucian carp and others (they are grown as food in a separate aquarium). They love pets and seafood: crab meat, shrimp, squid, mussels;
Plants. You can give algae to red-eared turtles: riccia, duckweed, ludwigia, ceratopteris, hornwort, spirogram, edogonic, anacharis. From indoor plants give peeled cacti and aloe leaves, hyacinth, hibiscus, tradescantia. You can also give the turtle meadow grasses, plantain, dandelion, clover, coltsfoot. Animals willingly eat carrot or beet leaves, leaf lettuce, hay, basil, parsley, germinated wheat and oats;
Fruits. You can give your pet pieces of apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, bananas, melons, tangerines, oranges (all citrus fruits are pre-peeled). Of the berries, you can recommend strawberries, watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and others;
Vegetables. Cucumber, tomato, white cabbage, broccoli, spinach, zucchini, carrots, beets, radishes, pumpkins, bell peppers. Sometimes legumes and asparagus can be given to turtles;
Other. Red-eared turtles love to sharpen their teeth, so it would be nice to place branches of fruit trees in the terrarium. You can give them pieces of mushrooms, sunflower seeds, compound feed;
Vitamin and mineral supplements. It can be bone meal, finely ground eggshell, calcium sulfate or phosphate, liquid or powder vitamins.

ONTO Biotechnology launched the production of feed canned crickets. This is a unique product that contains only whole, fresh crickets, which do not contain any preservatives, chemicals, or medicines. Insects are grown on our own eco-farm, under the strict control of specialists. Therefore, cricket is very useful for reptiles.

The dietary house cricket (Acheta domesticus) goes into canning, useful product containing a lot of protein, calcium, chitin, 9 amino acids, OMEGA-3 and OMEGA-9 polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin B12, oligosaccharides. These insects contain little fat, so the animals will not gain excess weight.

Red-eared turtles should not be fed table food or dog or cat food. Tomatoes, legumes, cabbage, spinach, fatty meats or fish should not be given in large quantities. The terrarium must have a fresh water bath, as turtles often drag food into the water to soften it. Red-eared turtles do not produce saliva, so wet food is easier for them to swallow. Drinking water should be changed daily.

Young individuals are fed once a day, adults - once every 3-4 days. Do not overfeed your pet: give him a portion of food, wait half an hour and remove the leftovers, obesity has never brought anything good to anyone.