What do sea turtles eat at home. Photo of a land turtle. How to feed water turtles

Each turtle owner is interested in what the reptile eats in nature and how to make a diet as close to natural conditions as possible. Of course, the nutritional conditions at home and in nature are significantly different, but if you try, you can create a diet that is almost identical to the natural diet of a reptile.

What does a turtle eat in nature?

If you want to know what turtles eat in nature, the answer is extremely simple - these reptiles are omnivores. They can eat both plant foods and small representatives of fish, insects and other animals. Naturally, for the most part, the diet depends on the type of turtle, respectively, on its habitat.

As a rule, what turtles eat in nature, living in the depths of the sea, mainly consists of representatives of the animal world. So, the main delicacy for sea turtles are small crustaceans, various mollusks. Fish fry, tadpoles and frogs can also become prey for the reptile. Some types of turtles large sizes, even hunt for fairly large fish, they can also eat smaller relatives.

Land turtles are less aggressive. What a turtle eats in nature, which is most of the time on land, directly depends on the region of its habitat. The main diet of land turtles can be plant leaves, some fruits, and mushrooms. However, land reptiles are also not averse to tasting small insects, tadpoles, medium-sized frogs and toads.

It is worth remembering that turtles do not have teeth, so they can choose the carrion of fish or animals for eating.

What do turtles eat at home?

Every reptile owner wants to know the home? Naturally, we want to create best diet, which would contain all necessary elements. As mentioned earlier, turtles are omnivores, so making a complete diet for them is not difficult.

As in nature, domestic turtles must eat meat - raw and boiled. Before you give your pet lunch, you need to hold the meat for a while in hot water. Horsemeat, poultry, and lean fish are ideal. As a supplement, you can give small shrimp or fish fry. Turtles can also eat some types of aquarium and river snails. Plant food can be aquarium plants, during the flowering period you can give young dandelion leaves. Offer your pet clover or lettuce.

In no case should we forget that the pet needs calcium, so bone meal or foods with a high content of this element should be present in the diet. In order to diversify the diet, you can give insects, their larvae, tadpoles and small frogs. You can sometimes pamper your pet with fruits and vegetables. If you really want to ensure proper diet, it is not recommended to feed the turtle all the time what is sold in stores. It is necessary to make the diet as varied as possible.

Ideally, what turtles eat in nature should be fully present in the diet of a domestic reptile. However, this will not be easy to achieve. But when compiling proper nutrition you are provided with joyful communication with your pet, his good health and activity.

Forget that this is a living being that needs careful care and attention to health. First, decide if you like it better - or water? According to the choice, you will need an aquarium or terrarium in which the animal will live. The opinion that the turtle can move freely along is erroneous. Not having own place, the reptile runs the risk of catching a cold in a draft, getting under your feet or your family and getting injured or climbing into places where it will not be easy for her to get out.

water turtle

The most popular species is the water turtle. To keep this animal, you will need a spacious aquarium, in which a small piece of land will be allocated so that the turtle has a place to rest after swimming. Water turtles are predators, so they will be happy to eat live food, such as bloodworms, insects or seafood, fresh fish, previously deboned and chopped.

Boiled meat or fish should not be given to turtles - this can cause frustration and malaise. The digestion of these animals is not intended for the digestion of thermally processed foods.

Despite their predatory nature, turtles do not refuse plant foods - lettuce, carrots and algae. Also in any pet store you can buy special granular food for water turtles.

land turtle

The land or Central Asian tortoise is a resident, and therefore must be kept in a terrarium with a lamp installed above it to provide sufficient heat and light.

Land turtles are vegetarians. Their diet should consist of fresh vegetables, fruits, berries and herbs. Turtles need food containing coarse dietary fiber, so cabbage, carrots, beets and apples should be the basis of the land diet. If you give greens, then it should be finely chopped and always fresh. Don't give your turtles overly spicy greens like cilantro or basil, limit yourself to more neutral herbs and leafy lettuce. In early spring, turtles can be pampered with young dandelion leaves.

Remember that food in the turtle feeder should not be more than three hours. If the animal has not eaten everything that you have offered it, do not leave it until the next feeding.

To feed the tortoise in a specialized store, you can also purchase food containing required amount fiber and useful substances, but you should not transfer the turtle only to dry granules, it needs fresh food.

Food restrictions

The stomach of a turtle, both water and land, does not contain enzymes that help digest dairy products, bakery products, boiled cereals or eggs. You may think that you are spoiling your pet, but such food can disrupt kidney function and gastrointestinal tract turtles.

Turtles are one of the least dangerous exotic reptiles that are easily adopted as pets and are especially popular. When choosing such a new occupant of your home, the first thing to do is to find out what kind of care and nutrition is needed for the type of this exotic animal you have chosen. In particular, it is important to know how to feed the turtle, because its health and longevity will largely depend on this. Most species of turtles are long-lived in their natural habitat, but can easily be on the verge of life and death when malnutrition at home.

How and what to feed the turtle: common features

Rational and balanced nutrition

Like the diet of other pets, the diet of any type of turtle should be rational and balanced. Harmonious menu from different types foods, including both plant and animal foods, are essential for turtles of all types. It is also important to ensure that these animals always have access to a shallow bowl of water, which must be changed daily.

Meal frequency

It is important to follow a regular diet. adult turtle average size should eat every day at least half a cup of salad or no less than the amount of other food. If your turtle eats almost nothing, you should definitely pay attention to this: it is likely that your pet is sick. It is advisable to get a scale and periodically weigh the animal, noting fluctuations in its weight in order to timely notice the occurrence of health problems in your pet.

The importance of having calcium in your diet

Turtles especially need the presence of calcium in the feed, which provides them with a strong shell and bones. Because in plants of this important element almost no, then it is worth buying vitamin supplements with calcium content and adding them to turtle food. It is important to observe the dosage of such additives, as their excessive use will have an adverse effect on the animal.

Feeding turtles at home

When wondering what to feed a turtle at home, you should first of all focus on the type of this animal, depending on which the choice of rational nutrition is made.

Choice not suitable for certain type turtle food can lead to metabolic disorders in the animal and digestive problems.

How to Organize Turtle Feeding

You can feed the turtle in different ways:

putting food in the water of the aquarium;
from tweezers;
leaving food on an island of land in an aquarium;
outside the aquarium if you do not want to pollute the water with food debris.

At first, it is worth feeding the turtle from your hand, so that the animal gradually gets used to independence and goes to eat to you. It is worth accustoming to new products gradually, and if there are several turtles, it is worth observing that food goes to all animals. Turtles do not eat cold food, so the food must be taken out of the refrigerator in advance and given to the animal to eat only when it reaches room temperature. It is advisable to feed the turtle in daytime when the animal is most active, or, alternatively, a couple of hours before bedtime.

Adult red-eared turtles should be fed once every few days, young ones - every day. A land tortoise should be fed once every 2 days - an adult and once a day - young. Dry food should only be used as a supplement to the main food. Young individuals and females, in anticipation of offspring, should eat every day, and their menu must certainly include calcium and vitamin D in significant volumes in such cases.

According to Feng Shui, the pet turtle is an excellent talisman, a respected and wise symbol that attracts success, longevity, financial well-being and good luck in the house. But if we are talking about the animal and not about the figurine, he will need to provide appropriate care.

In this article, we will look at how to feed a land and aquatic turtle at home, how to properly maintain and care for them.

Not all turtles are the same

They belong to the class, or reptiles (although here, given the presence of a hard, rigid shell, this name does not seem quite appropriate). These are ancient animals that arose more than 200 million years ago. The most important difference between turtles and other reptiles is the presence of a protective cover, a shell that protects the animal from external threats.

All turtles are not only divided into 2 large categories: land and sea. In addition, they differ in size and habitat. There are 2 main suborders, divided by the type of how they hide their heads in a shell:

cryptocervical- place the head inside the shell in the form of the letter S;
lateral cervical- hide the head towards the side paw.

By habitat are divided into:

maritime- live in salt water reservoirs;
ground They live either on land or in fresh water.

Accordingly, terrestrial are divided into land and freshwater.

In total, there are more than 300 species, which form about 14 families.

By size land turtles are divided into:

major- elephant tortoise (Galapagos), reaching a length of 2 meters and a weight of 400 kg; leopard (panther) tortoise - 1 meter tall and 50 kg of weight; Seychelles giant tortoise - 1 meter in length and up to 120 kg of weight, etc.;
small- Cape speckled (the smallest in the world), reaching 10 cm in length and weighing a maximum of 200 g; Central Asian - height up to 20 cm, weight up to 10 kg; Egyptian turtle - up to 10 cm in length, weight up to 6 kg, etc.

freshwater there are:

medium- caiman species (length up to 1 meter, weight up to 30 kg), red-eared (up to 40 cm in length, weight up to 20 kg), (40 cm in length and weight up to 15 kg);
small- painted turtle (up to 15 cm in length, weight up to 4 kg), black marsh turtle (up to 18 cm in length, weight up to 4 kg), card turtle (length up to 18 cm, weight up to 3 kg), etc.

Marine are also divided into large and small - in total there are more than 70 species.

Did you know? Modern research debunk the myth about the slowness of turtles: it is proved that sea views can move at speeds up to 40 km / h - with their dimensions, this is a rather high speed. The speed of movement directly depends on the severity of the shell: the heavier it is, the slower the animal moves.

By type of food are divided into:

predatory(they need up to 90% of food of animal origin) - this includes almost all aquatic animals (especially young ones); it is noteworthy that with age, predatory individuals can become omnivores;
omnivores(50% plants and 50% animal food) - both land and sea;
herbivores- (up to 90% plant food) - some types of land turtles.

Diet features: what to feed turtles

The diet of these pets will depend directly on what kind of turtle you have purchased. However, there are products that are strictly it is forbidden to give both water and land species. This is the meat of domestic and wild poultry and livestock (even boiled), any thermally processed food (i.e. fried, boiled, baked) that a person eats.

Such food is not processed by the stomach of the animal, causes stagnation and souring of food in the stomach, which, in turn, leads to a serious illness or even death of this creature. It is worth limiting the feeding of turtles with plant foods containing a high concentration of oxalates - these are spinach, peas, white cabbage. You can not feed turtles citrus and fruit fruits (unless it is a tropical species), as well as nuts, tomatoes and tomatoes.

Important! You can not give herbivorous turtles animal food, and sea turtles - a lot of vegetation. This can lead to their death.

What a turtle eats at home, and what kind of food can be given to it - let's take a closer look.

Water

For aquatic turtles, the main diet should be food of animal origin - these are mollusks, fish, aquatic insects, various larvae (daphnia, moth, tubifex), land insects: caterpillars, grasshoppers, fodder cockroaches, house flies - provided that they are not poisoned. You can give beetles - but there will be little nutritional benefit from them.

Such turtles willingly eat earthworms, small frogs and tadpoles, live rats and mice, raw beef heart. Small fish can be given whole, but large fish are best cut. Crab sticks should not be given to aquatic turtles - this is food that is harmful to them. In addition to these products, you can use special dry food - however, you cannot feed the animal only with it alone, just as you cannot feed the turtle with only one type of food for more than a week: the type of product must be changed at least once every 5 days. One of the most popular freshwater animals that people like to have as pet- This . It is noteworthy that they eat both animal and plant foods. Young or small individuals are fed only with animal food, not more than 1 time per day. Up to 50% of plant foods are introduced into the diet of adults - this indicates that red-eared turtles in young age are carnivores and as adults are omnivores.

Did you know? Turtles are long-lived animals: they can live for more than a century. Rings on the carapace indicate the age of each individual: every year a new ring appears on the carapace.

Land

Many land turtles are omnivorous- this means that their main diet should be vegetable, but at least once a month they will need to be given a live mollusk, fish, baby rat, etc. However, this will depend on the specific breed of turtle and its diet in the natural environment. Omnivores include Central Asian, Egyptian, Greek, flat and other species - they can sometimes be given food of animal origin.

However, among land turtles there are only herbivorous species, so it is important to know what you can feed them at home. Herbivores include most land species - among them are the steppe, yellow-footed, Balkan, panther, yellow-headed and red-headed turtles. They are saturated with dried, fresh or frozen (when not in season) domestic or wild herbs. Once every 10 days, you can give some vegetables - pumpkin, beets, red pepper. Remember that sweet fruits can only be fed to tropical turtles.

Herbivores especially love carrots, plantain and dandelion leaves. To provide the required amount vitamins in the body of turtles, you can give boiled protein once every 10-14 days (not more often). Please note - the older the turtle, the more plants should be present in its diet (this also applies to aquatic predators - with age, such species need more algae).

Do turtles drink water

The structure of the turtle's head and larynx is such that it is difficult for her to drink water: the drunk water immediately pours out through the nostrils. IN vivo some species of turtles can do without water; there are those who use it in small quantities. Turtles consume the main fluid from food, either through skin(during water procedures). To drink water, as such, the turtle can only in case of severe dehydration of the body.
Thus, when equipping a terrarium or an aquarium for a turtle, you should not attach a standard drinking bowl - the animal will not use it for its intended purpose, it can interfere and annoy the turtle. To provide her with sufficient water balance in the body, it is necessary choose the right diet- more juicy vegetables, fresh herbs, fruits (if it is a tropical species). Young dandelion and clover leaves are 85% water - thus, eating them, the turtle will receive enough moisture.

Is there a difference between nutrition in winter, spring, summer, autumn

What do turtles eat at home, and is there a fundamental difference in their diet in different time years - experts answer this question in different ways. However, everyone agrees that turtles, like other animals, are able to feel the changes of the seasons and weather, which is reflected in their diet. So, herbivorous and omnivorous turtles in summer time they prefer juicy fresh herbs and vegetables more, while in the cold months they prefer frozen or dried vegetables and soaked hay.

As for the volume of food consumed at different times of the year, the following trend was noticed: in summer, turtles eat more often, but in smaller quantities, but in winter - less often, but more.

How to feed a turtle: rules and features

So, we figured out what the turtle eats depending on its species, habitat and seasons.

Consider basic rules for feeding them:

Small turtles and young individuals need to be fed 2 times a day, adults - no more than 1 time per day.
The volume of food consumed at a time should be such that the turtle chews for half an hour. This will be enough for her to saturate for a day.
Pieces of food should be no more than half the volume of the turtle's head - otherwise the pet may choke on food.
You can not feed predators with plant foods, and herbivores with animals.
You can’t feed pets with only one type of food - mixtures will be the most optimal diet for them. For example, lettuce and vegetables, shellfish and a piece of fish, etc.
All essential vitamins aquatic turtles must be obtained from food, so it is important to correctly compose their diet. But herbivores can be fed with calcium powder - adding it to the food mixture. You can put a cuttlefish bone in the terrarium (it contains calcium in in large numbers) - an animal, with a calcium deficiency, will itself gnaw off the necessary pieces.

Important! A lack of calcium in the body of a turtle will lead to brittle bones, a violation of the integrity of the shell, which will cause its curvature.

Summing up, it is important to say: it does not matter whether a land or water turtle lives in your home - you must follow all the principles of nutrition, care and maintenance of a turtle, regardless of its type. This is the only way this pet can survive. long years while staying healthy and physically active.

Turtles are omnivores, meaning they readily eat both plant and animal foods. But the diet, that is, the ratio various kinds food is very different in different types of turtles and depends on their habitat and lifestyle.

Turtles are land and water. Land turtles are vegetarians, they eat grass, fruits, leaves and shoots of trees, flowers. But if the turtles that live in arid regions feed almost exclusively on vegetation, then their relatives, who live in more humid areas, like to eat snails, worms, beetles or small frogs.

Water turtles are, in turn, freshwater and marine. Freshwater turtles are mostly predators (they prefer tadpoles, insects, fish), but among marine turtles there are predators, herbivores, and omnivores. For example, the green turtle feeds only on algae, while the leatherback ones prey on jellyfish, mollusks, crustaceans and fish. There are also species of freshwater turtles that feed on animal food in childhood, and in adulthood, as growth slows down, they become vegetarians.

That's how big the variety is taste preferences these animals! Therefore, if you decide to have a turtle at home, be sure to study its biology: find out in what places the species of your choice lives, what it eats, what environmental conditions are favorable for your turtle.

Turtles will not eat from your table, they require special nutrition.

Land turtles need plant foods containing coarse dietary fiber. At home, they are fed with cabbage, carrots, beets, cucumbers, zucchini, herbs - for example, lettuce, dandelion, clover, plantain, nettle.

Sometimes (but not often!) You can diversify their menu with a small amount of apples, grapes, pears, seeds and even mushrooms - champignons, russula.

This turtle loves strawberries.

Water turtles, for example, the most popular of them - red-eared turtle- feed on insects, bloodworms; you can give them seafood (shrimp, squid), earthworms and flour worms, fresh fish, raw liver. But these predators also need plant food: leaves, algae ( sea kale), vegetables and fruits. In an adult red-eared turtle plant foods should already be 70% of her diet.

Red-eared sliders should have lean fish in their diet

Food for all turtles should be given in crushed form.

In no case should you give turtles dairy and dairy products, bread, pasta, cereals, eggs, boiled meat and fish dishes, canned food, citrus peel. From such food in a turtle, the work of the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys will be disrupted.

In order not to make a mistake with the choice of food for your pet, consult with experts: they know exactly what ratio different elements food is best for your turtle.