Feeding a turtle should be done with caution as over-feeding your pet can lead to obesity in the same way that eating too much can make humans grow fat. There haven’t been definitive studies on the actual effects of obesity on turtles as yet but it’s safe to assume nothing good is going to come out of it. For one, since these animals have to stay in their shells for the rest of their lives, they will probably need to keep within a specific size to protect their internal organs from being squashed. Just as with humans, feeding your turtle a lot may lead to more serious health issues.
Scheduled feeding
Most experts recommend that you establish a schedule for feeding your turtle to prevent overdoing it. You will want to monitor your pet’s consumption. If you have more than one turtle to take care of, it’s a good idea to feed them in separate containers so you’ll be able to gauge how much each one is eating. Turtles have to be fed more frequently as compared with other reptiles. Hatchlings need to be fed daily until they reach eight to ten months and feeding your turtle every other day is a general rule of the thumb for grown ones.
How much
When feeding your turtle, you will want to give it food that is just enough to fill his head and neck. Try not to overfeed your pet as this can cause a lot of problems later on. Another alternative is to try feeding your turtle as much food as it can consume in just a couple of minutes. It’s pretty easy to find out if your pet is already hungry because when it is, he’ll start going around his place searching for the spot where you fed it.
Turtle diet
The trick to feeding your turtle the right food is identifying what type of pet you have. Turtle diet varies across different species but all of them generally need to have salads or vegetables in their regular meals. They are omnivorous by nature so greens aren’t the only things that you can feed them.
You will want to try feeding your turtle with meals consisting of about seventy percent vegetables and thirty percent non-vegetarian food products. Pet shops usually sell commercialized turtle food such as food sticks. Ideally, these products contain all the essential nutrients that your pet needs.
However, you can also opt for a more natural way of feeding your turtle – that is, preparing food for your pet from scratch. Another rule of the thumb when it comes to feeding turtles or any other pet for that matter is to not feed them anything that you wouldn’t eat yourself. Don’t give your pet leftovers or rotten food. Depending on the type of turtle that you have, you can even feed it live prey such as earthworms, fish and insects like crickets and mealworms.
Feeding your turtle is quite simple especially if you make sure to follow closely on a prescribed diet recommended by your veterinarian.
Pet Turtle Care Tip #1
Turtles are members of the Reptile family and they are some of the oldest living creatures on the planet. They have been around for more than two hundred million years. This makes them as old as the dinosaurs. There are hundreds of different kinds of turtles all over the planet.
Pet Turtle Care Tip #2
Sea turtles are the most popular of all of the turtles. These are also some of the largest creatures—some sea turtles can grow to more than six feet in length and weigh hundreds of pounds. Scientists think that sea turtles are actually land creatures that went back into the water and never came out. Over time their limbs evolved to make them stronger swimmers and to keep them in the water: their front appendages are actually flippers.
Pet Turtle Care Tip #3
All turtles, even sea turtles, are air breathing creatures. While some turtles can stay under the water for hours at a time, they all must surface at least once a day to stay alive. There is one turtle, the giant turtle that only has to surface once a day to take in air. There are some studies being done to see if some species of turtle might be able to draw oxygen from their cells much like some fish use their gills to breathe.
