What Do Turtles Eat? What do turtles eat? Well, that really depends on the type of turtle you are asking about. Most turtles are carnivorous when they are young, but grow in to omnivores when they mature. Some feed mostly on plants while others, like the snapping turtle, actively hunt small creatures for their food. A turtle's diet depends on what kind of turtle it is, where it lives and what it has access to. If you have an adult turtle as a pet, here are some of the foods you can feed it to keep it healthy: Protein: There are many sources of protein that are safe to feed turtles: small amounts of cooked fish, turkey or chicken are okay; boiled eggs are okay; mealworms, waxworms, earthworms and silkworms are okay; slugs are fine, as are shrimp, snails and crickets. Don't give them raw meat, though because it can contain a lot of fat and could become contaminated by the time the turtle decides to eat it. Vegetables: leafy vegetables are best: grape and fig leaves, red clover, carrot tops, dandelions, lettuce (red and green are okay), turnip greens, water lettuce, duckweed, collards, endive and plantain weed are all okay. Regular vegetables like corn, green beans, beets, carrots, okra, green peas and some squash varieties are also okay. Flowers: some turtles love flowers! Roses, pansies, petunias, lilies, carnations, hibiscus, hyssop, borage, nasturtium and geraniums are all okay as turtle food. Fruit: some turtles also like fruit: kiwi, apple, mango, strawberry, cantaloupe, blackberries, bananas, grapes, tomatoes, blueberries and some citrus fruits are all a fine to feed a turtle. Of course, there are some foods that should never be given to a turtle: Turtles cannot digest milk or dairy products because their stomachs do not carry the enzymes needed for the breaking down of lactose. Feeding dairy products to your turtle is a good way to make sure it gets very sick. It is also a bad idea to feed any sort of canned or processed food to your turtle. These usually have large amounts of salt and preservatives and people don't yet know what these ingredients will do to the digestive system of a turtle. What do turtles eat from their natural habitats? Some turtles have been known to eat poisonous plants that are a part of their natural habitat—they do this as a way to make themselves inedible by predators. Unfortunately, especially in the case of pet turtles, you won't know exactly what kind of plants are a part of its native habitat, so it is best to keep poisonous plants (like poison ivy, rhubarb plants and avocado plants) out of their reach and out of their tanks. What do turtles eat? The turtle's diet depends on what kind of a turtle it is and how old it is. While they are babies, turtles are almost completely carnivorous, though they change into omnivores or even herbivores when they get older (depending on the turtle species). If you are buying a pet turtle from a store, the pet store will likely have food you can feed it.

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.