Turtle Tuesday: Food and Supplies

There are literally tons of products out there for turtles. I'll mention some of the ones I have and use and some alternatives.

First things first, FOOD!!!

If you have an aquatic turtle, there is one thing that love, and that's eating. Since the most common aquatic turtle for a pet are those in the slider family (that includes common sliders, cooters, maps, etc.) they all have similar needs over various times in their lives. As hatchlings they require a lot of vitamins A & D, calcium and protein. As they grow older they don't need as much protein. If you want to make it all simple, just use various turtle diets. For hatchlings I prefer the Hagen pellets due to the larger amounts of calcium and vit A it contains. But as they get older I like to vary it, so I use about all the different types of turtle food and rotate. Turtles love freeze dried krill and plankton. DO NOT GET THEM USED TO THESE. They will demand nothing but these little buggers before long. Since these dried treats have little nutrition, your pet will certainly suffer in time.

Vitamins.

As a hatchling, I recommend using a lot of vitamins in your pet's diet. An easy way to go would be taking a few pieces of turtle food, spray with liquid vitamins and then roll in powdered vit's. Even if the coatings dissolve into the water, the turtle will see some benefit. As turtles mature, you don't need to do that so often. You may notice the two plaster turtles, those aren't decorations. Those are homemade calcium blocks. If you have a hatchling or juvenile turtle, they are required equipment! Luckily they can be made at home easily and cheaply. Plaster of Paris is calcium carbonate. Just mix up a batch and pour into some mold. I have molds of turtle and frog shapes, but you can do the same with an ice cube tray. Keep one in tank at all times.

Water Treatments.

I don't care where you live, your tap water is no good for your turtle. It will need some conditioning. The first enemy, chlorine. If you are dealing with a hatchling in a small container, you have options. Simply letting an open container of tap water sit over night will be sufficient to bleed off chlorine content. But when you are dealing with over 100 gallons like I do, you need an additive. Reptisafe is one, I think there may be others. Introducing this into the water will make the chlorine evaporate faster. Add each time you drain and refill the water in your tank.

Biotizer. When you introduce this into your water, you are really setting a bacteria loose into your tank. Don't worry, it's a good bacteria. It degrades food particles and waste in the water faster, and keeps the water from getting too smelly too quickly. Add each time you add fresh water.

Salt. This is the tricky one. Salt is healthy for your turtles, just like you, up to a point. Our herp vet recommends 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. I like to use even less since I have a diamondback terrapin in my tank. (They are brackish by nature, but can live in fresh water provided they are never introduced to salty water.) For my 125 gallon tank I will dissolve about 3-5 tablespoons of aquarium salt into a separate container and pour it in periodically as I refill the tank after a thorough cleaning. Do not add between water changes.