
The following foods are quite popular as staple vegetables and plants for painted turtles:
- Red-leaf lettuce
- Kale
- Duckweed
- Anacharis
- Water lilies
How much should I Feed my painted turtle a day?
- What Do Baby Painted Turtles Eat? 1. Commercial Turtle Food Foods 2. Small Fish 3. Worms 4. Insects 5. Tadpoles
- Quick Tips for Caring for a Baby Painted Turtle
- What Do Painted Turtles Eat?
- Frequently Asked Questions Can Painted Turtles Eat Fruit? What Do Painted Turtles Eat in the Wild? How Often Should You Feed Your Painted Turtle? ...
- Final Thoughts
What kind of fish can live with painted turtles?
What Kind of Fish Can Live With Painted Turtles?
- Quick and Agile Fish. While painted turtles are skilled swimmers, they rarely catch extremely quick and agile prey. ...
- Large Fish. Painted turtles typically prey on relatively small fish, although they may readily feed upon injured or dead fish of any size.
- Armored Fish. ...
- Tips and Tricks. ...
How often does a painted turtle need to be fed?
How often do you feed a painted turtle is important for its health. Like most reptiles, the painted turtle does not eat every day. In captivity painted turtle diet should not be fed every day. Vets recommend feeding the adult painted turtle once every 2 to 3 days. However common vegetables for painted turtles in small quantities can be offered ...
What do painted turtles need to survive as pets?
- Vitamin A deficiency. ...
- Respiratory illness. ...
- Often appearing on the turtle’s heads in their ears, abscesses are hard, pus-filled swellings and often closely related to vitamin A deficiency.
- Shell infections. ...

What should you not feed a painted turtle?
What don't painted turtles eat?Veggies that don't include calories, like celery and iceberg lettuce.Pet food such as dog and cat kibble, because it's too salty.Dessert, including chocolate and sugary snacks.Dairy, since turtles can't break it down in their digestive system.
What human food can painted turtles eat?
Shredded carrots, squash, and zucchini are great foods that turtles can eat, too. You can also go with edible aquatic vegetation such as water lettuce, water hyacinth, and duckweed. “For fruits, consider shredded apples and melons, as well as chopped berries,” recommends Dr. Starkey.
How often feed eastern painted turtle?
once every two to three daysFeeding Your Painted Turtle Adult turtles should only be fed once every two to three days or so; daily feeding will cause them to become overweight. Painted turtles are omnivores, meaning they enjoy eating meat as well as plant matter.
What are painted turtles favorite food?
What Do Painted Turtles Like to Eat MostVegetables, including spinach, kale, celery, red-leaf lettuce, beets, carrots, and tomatoes.Grass.Par-boil leafy vegetables.Fruit, like banana, cut melon, shredded apple, and berries.Water plants, such as duckweed, anacharis, water lettuce, water lilies, and water hyacinth.More items...
Can I feed my turtle lettuce?
Is Lettuce Safe for Turtles? There isn't any type of lettuce that should be poisonous to a turtle. They can eat all kinds, and many varieties — like romaine and radicchio — are both nutritious and delicious for them. Iceberg, on the other hand, is basically just crunchy water.
How long can a painted turtle go without eating?
A so-called “sub-adult” turtle (six months to one year old) can't go more than a day without eating. An adult turtle should eat, on average, every 2-3 days.
Can painted turtles eat bananas?
Yes, bananas are a safe food for box turtles and other turtles as well, but they should only be fed in moderation.
Can I keep a wild painted turtle?
0:071:36How to Care for a Wild Turtle | Pet Turtles - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipAnd it's actually legal for you to take that turtle home and attempt to make it a to turn it into aMoreAnd it's actually legal for you to take that turtle home and attempt to make it a to turn it into a pet they also don't make particularly good pets they're not used to captivity.
Can painted turtles eat celery?
The answer is yes, turtles can eat celery. However, it's important to know that celery doesn't provide the essential nutrition turtles need to stay healthy. Let's delve into the turtle's dietary needs, celery's nutritional make-up, and some other foods you can give your turtle that are better choices than celery.
How long can a painted turtle stay out of water?
Generally speaking, a turtle can go about 8 hours without water in a warm and dry environment.
Is water lettuce safe for turtles?
What kinds of plants do turtles like? Turtles will most likely try to eat anything green in your tank but these plants are their particular favorites: azolla (fairy moss), anacharis or waterweed, water hyacinth, duckweed, frog-bit, and water lettuce. They also eat java fern, hornwort, and amazon sword.
What do painted turtles need in their tank?
The ideal painted turtle tank setup would include a big enough tank that is full of water, a basking dock or area for the turtle to completely dry off and soak up some healthy UV-rays, as well as a good filter and an underwater.
What household food can turtles eat?
Animal food sources. Animal-based food sources for turtles can include processed pet foods like drained sardines, turtle pellets, and trout chow. You can also feed them cooked chicken, beef, and turkey. Live prey can include moths, crickets, shrimp, krill, feeder fish, and worms.
Can painted turtles eat bananas?
Yes, bananas are a safe food for box turtles and other turtles as well, but they should only be fed in moderation.
Can painted turtles eat watermelon?
Absolutely! While there's debate about whether you should give them watermelon at all since it's not a part of a wild turtle's diet, there's little doubt that they can eat it. In fact, most experts recommend adding fruits like watermelon to your turtle's diet. But you still should only give them fruits in moderation.
Can turtles eat bread?
Turtles Can't Digest Bread Since turtles eat animal and plant-based matter, you might not think about dairy being such a bad choice. However, dairy products contain lactose, which your turtles cannot break down in their system, as their bodies do not have the correct enzymes to make that happen.
What do painted turtles eat?
Painted turtles in the wild are natural predators and they eat snails, slugs, tadpoles, dead fish, tiny fish, crayfish, insects or worms. A turtle reaches adulthood after five years of age. And as they grow older than five years, painted turtles become omnivores and after that they may subsist on a wide variety of plants and animals.
What do turtles eat?
At home, you can feed these turtles with crickets, fish, cockroaches, worms, bull minnows, crayfish, fruits, squash and vegetables in addition to commercial turtle food. However, you need to be extremely careful with their food as poor diet (especially one that is deficient in calcium) will certainly lead to health issues such as metabolic bone ...
How long do painted turtles live?
The turtle measures 4 to 10 inches when completely grown-up and has an average lifetime of twenty years. Wild painted turtles predominantly live in freshwater ponds, streams, creeks and lakes. The turtles usually live in large group.
How long can a painted turtle stay out of water?
Painted turtles can stay out of the water for many hours, but ideally, they should not be out of the water for more than eight hours. Painted turtles need water because their natural habitat is always in or near rivers, lakes, streams and ponds. Therefore, if you want to keep a turtle you must provide water to it.
How do you catch salmonella from a turtle?
They are also known to carry salmonella bacteria. People can catch salmonella by touching turtles and carelessly washing their hands after contact. While taking care of your own health is easy, taking care of the turtle’s health may not be that easy.
Do painted turtles like being picked up?
No. They are among the least friendly animals, but they aren’t any less friendly than other breeds of turtle. Wild painted turtles like living alone, and they would never welcome being picked up or being handled by human beings. They don’t like to be stroked or cuddled.
Do painted turtles have parasites?
Moreover, wild painted turtles are not accustomed to being touched or cared by human beings and to be kept in captivity. They only know freedom and they only know survival in the wild. Also, wild turtles are known to carry parasites such as tapeworm. They are also known to carry salmonella bacteria.
What Are Painted Turtles?
Painted Turtles are one of the many types of aquatic turtles. They are known for their black, oval-shaped shells with yellow or red marks along their legs, tail, neck, and head.
What Do Baby Painted Turtles Eat In The Wild?
A Painted Turtle isn’t considered an adult until they are at least five years old. So, they are carnivores for the first five years of their life, eating only live food.
What Do Painted Turtles Eat As Pets?
What can Painted Turtles eat under your care? What do Painted Turtles like to eat?
Frequently Asked Questions
How often Painted Turtles eat will depend on their age. For instance, a baby Painted Turtle under five years old will need to eat every day.
Conclusion
So, what do wild Painted Turtles eat? Overall, Painted Turtles will eat most things they find in the wild. When they’re under five years old, they’ll eat more live food for the animal protein. They know what they need to grow big and strong.
By Jason Williamson
Jason is a huge animal lover with many pets of his own. He loves sharing all his knowledge of all creatures here and learning more whenever he can.
Can turtles eat duckweed?
You may not think of duckweed as being an adequate food source for turtles, or even a food source at all for that matter, but that is actually not true. Painted turtles love eating this stuff a whole lot and it contains many different vitamins and nutrients which turtles need.
Can you feed a painted turtle?
As you can see, feeding a painted turtle is really not all that difficult at all. There are many different foods that they enjoy and many prime choices for purchase. As long as you give them a varied diet of protein, veggies, and water plants, they will be perfectly happy.
Can you freeze brine shrimp for painted turtles?
If you want to provide your painted turtle with a big protein boost and a tasty snack, you might want to go for these freeze-dried brine shrimp. Yes, your turtle would probably like live shrimp better, but these are freeze-dried, which means that they are totally free of harmful bacteria and parasites.
What do painted turtles eat?
Painted turtles are omnivorous, this means that they will eat fruits, vegetables as well as meat. Here is a list of what painted turtles will normally eat: Fish. Meat. Worms. Bugs. Vegetation. Fruits. Vegetables.
What kind of insects do painted turtles eat?
What Kind of Insects Should Painted Turtles Eat. The best way to feed your painted turtle insects, is to give it dried insects. The most popular dried insects that you will find are usually dried crickets. Dried crickets are great for painted turtles because they contain a lot of protein and very little fat.
What kind of plants should I feed my turtle?
What Kind of Water Plants Should Turtles Eat. Painted turtles will basically eat any kind of water plant. Until know I bought one water lettuce and some anacharis. Initially I bought them as decorations, but in two weeks my turtle ate them. All aquatic plants that you can find at the pet shop are good for your turtle.
How much protein should I put in a turtle pellet?
A good pellet should contain a good amount of proteins, usually between 25% and 30%. With my turtle I tried to keep things a little diversified so I choose to occasionally switch different types of pellets. So I usually give him Zoo Med Natural Aquatic Turtle Food and Mazuri Aquatic Turtle Diet.
How long do painted turtles live?
As pets painted turtle live between 40 and 50 years. But in the wild where they are faced with a lot of challenges, and don’t have access to very good conditions they usually live between 25 and 30 years.
What is the most abundant food source for turtles?
The most abundant food sources is probably insects and water plants. Most lakes, ponds and rivers are full of water plants. And insects are basically everywhere, so there is no shortage, especially in areas with a dense vegetation, like the ones where painted turtles live.
What fruits are good for painted turtles?
Most fruits are beneficial for painted turtles, but there are a few exceptions. Those exceptions are citruses, and fruits with a lot of potassium. Citruses contain citric acid which can irritate the stomach of the turtle, and fruits with high potassium are not healthy for the shell.
What do you feed a painted turtle?
And since the shell of a turtle is made out of bones, the calcium is even more important for turtles than for any other animal. Vegetables are one of the main sources of calcium that a painted turtle has, so making sure that you feed them vegetables with high amounts of calcium is important.
Why doesn't my painted turtle eat?
The only reason it doesn’t eat is because it’s used to other types of food, that are not as healthy, but a lot more tasty. After a couple weeks or a month of using this method, your painted turtle will start eating vegetables soon enough, and in the end it will also start to enjoy some of them.
Why do turtles have a lot of phosphorus?
Phosphorus is what gives turtle shells a little flexibility, which is great because this little extra flexibility makes them more resistant to bites and other types of impact. But too much phosphorus can also make the shell too soft, and as a result much weaker when it comes to defending the turtle from predators.
How to stop turtles from eating meat?
Start by reducing the amount of food that you give it and replacing it with vegetables. If it still doesn’t eat, replace more of its food with vegetables. Do this until it starts eating the vegetables.
Can you give a painted turtle salad?
For example instead of giving your painted turtle iceberg salad, you could give it greenleaf salad which contains ...
Do turtles eat vegetables?
In general vegetables are regarded as great food sources that can help any person or animal maintain good health, but turtles don’t benefit in the same way from vegetables as we do. Some of the vitamins and nutrients from vegetables that help people remain healthy have little to no beneficial effect for turtles.
Can painted turtles eat vegetables?
Painted turtles can eat almost every type of vegeta ble, the only ones that should be avoided are those with a high volume of phosphorus and those with little nutritional value.
What do Eastern Painted Turtles eat?
Care Requirements. Eastern Painted Turtles prefer an omnivorous diet, so they will enjoy eating green leafy vegetables and aquatic plants, such as water hyacin th, duckweed, elodea, and water lettuce. They also like to eat fish and insects like crickets and earthworms. You can also provide a commercial pelleted turtle diet.
How much water should I give my painted turtle?
This translates to at least a 15 or 20 gallon tank filled with 10 gallons of water. If you plan on adding more baby turtles, add 5 gallons of water volume for each one. A single adult turtle should have at least 20 gallons of water volume, and each additional turtle should have another 10 gallons of water volume.
What is the carapace of an Eastern Painted Turtle?
The carapace of an Eastern Painted Turtle is oval, keelless, flattened, and smooth. The widest and highest points of the carapace will be in the center. This turtle’s plastron will not typically have a pattern, but some turtles might feature dark figures that vary in size and design and border the midline. Also, the plastron will be hingeless and ...
What temperature should a turtle tank be?
For basking, you should also have a light that warms the basking spot to around 85-95°F. The depth of the water in your turtle’s tank should not be any less than roughly twice the width of your pet’s shell.
What temperature should I use for a painted turtle?
In terms of temperature, the water should be heated to 75-80°F, and the ambient air should be 80-85°F. Eastern Painted Turtles typically showcase a pleasant disposition, and they are energetic and active.
Where can I find painted turtles?
Native Habitat. Eastern Painted Turtles can be found in environments from Maine all the way down the northeastern coast to North Carolina. These animals have also been found even farther south in South Carolina and in Georgia, but they are typically found to the east of the Appalachian Mountains.
Can you have more than one painted turtle?
You can house more than one Eastern Painted Turtle in the same enclosure, and you can even include turtles of other species if they have similar requirements. Both males and females, however, can be dominant or show aggressive behavior over territory, so you have to give them plenty of space and hiding places.
