Adult Red-Eared Slider Turtle Feeding Schedule
| Day | Food |
| Monday | Large handful of kale, One chopped carro ... |
| Wednesday | Large handful of kale, Two earthworms, T ... |
| Friday | Large handful of kale, 2-3 aquatic ferns ... |
| Sunday | Large handful of kale, One chopped carro ... |
What do you feed a red eared slider?
Tips for Feeding Red-Eared Sliders. Catching wild prey can be dangerous if they have pesticides on them. They can also give your red-eared slider intestinal parasites. The same goes for vegetation like dandelion greens that you pick outdoors. Vegetables can be shredded to make them easier to eat.
How often do red eared slider turtles eat?
Adult Red-Eared Slider Turtle Feeding Schedule Adults should be fed a hearty amount of food once every two days. A big handful of leafy greens, a pinch of turtle pellets, and a couple worms or insects should be plenty. Adults eat a lot less meat, so make sure you offer plenty of dark leafy greens, vegetables, and aquatic plants.
Do red eared slider turtles need protein pellets?
Juvenile turtles still require pellets for protein, but not as frequently. You may feed a juvenile turtle some protein once a week rather than every few days. On the other hand, adults do not need to eat nearly as much. An adult red eared slider will need much more of a vegetable-heavy diet, and will need much less protein as they grow older.
What do baby red-eared sliders eat?
Baby red-eared sliders need a diet that is higher in meat and protein. Babies should be offered some vegetables, but the majority of their diet should be carnivorous. As your red-eared slider ages you can begin offering less feeder fish or insects and replace it with a variety of vegetables or aquatic plants.
What human food can red-eared sliders eat?
Sliders can eat many types of vegetables- such as green beans, tomatoes, lettuce, kale, and squash- but also a wide range of fruits – skinned apples, bananas, berries, melons, nectarine, and mango.
Can you feed red-eared sliders fish?
Feeding wild-caught fish and amphibians is not recommended, as they may contain parasites and other infectious organisms that may affect the turtle. Raw meat, fish, or chicken from the grocery store does not contain a balance of calcium and phosphorus for a turtle and is not recommended as a food source for turtles.
When should I feed my red-eared slider turtle?
To summarize how often to feed a red-eared slider:You can feed your turtle daily.Hatchlings can be fed protein daily.Juveniles can fed protein every other day.Adult turtles should be fed once or twice a week, less as they age.More items...
What do red-eared baby turtles eat?
What Do Baby Red-Eared Sliders Eat?Mealworms.Earthworms.Shrimp.Snails.Tadpoles.Crickets.Small fish.
What veggies can I feed my red-eared slider?
Leafy Greens: Collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, kale, and bok choy. Iceberg lettuce should never be fed because it is not nutritious enough,1 and dark green leafy lettuce such as romaine can be fed sparingly. Make sure you feed items with appropriate calcium-to-phosphorous levels.
Do red-eared sliders eat lettuce?
1. Leafy Greens: Collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, kale, and bok choy. Head (iceberg) lettuce should never be fed as it contains very little nutrition but dark green leaf lettuces (e.g. romaine) can be fed sparingly. Make sure you only feed items with appropriate calcium to phosphorous levels.
What foods are poisonous to turtles?
Plants containing oxalates (oxalate salts)Arrowhead Vine (Syngonium podophyllum)Begonia.Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata)Calla Lily (Zantedeschia sp.)Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)Dumb cane (Dieffenbachia amoena)Elephant's Ear (Colocasia)Firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea)More items...•
How long can a red-eared slider go without food?
Baby or juvenile red-eared sliders would not be able to last more than a week or so without food, whereas older red-eared sliders will be able to last a month or two. A well-fed adult will be able to live without food for up to two months, three at an absolute stretch, but that really is not advised.
Can a turtle eat a banana?
Fruit should be fed more sparingly than vegetables, since they are often preferred by box turtles over vegetables and tend to be less nutritious. Fruits to offer include apples, pears, bananas (with skin), mango, grapes, star fruit, raisins, peaches, tomato, guava, kiwis, and melons. Fruits that are particularly ...
Can I feed my red-eared slider carrots?
Adult red-eared sliders can be fed: Dark leafy greens: romaine lettuce, kale, dandelion greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, or swiss chard. Vegetables: bell pepper or carrots.
How do you keep a baby red-eared slider turtle alive?
If you do decide to care for a baby red eared slider, keep in mind that they are sensitive to water quality and temperature. Clean your baby's tank weekly to maintain pristine water conditions. They thrive in water and ambient air temperatures of between 75°F and 85°F. Basking temperatures should be 90 to 95°F.
How should I feed my red-eared slider?
What do red-eared sliders eat? Juveniles and adults can be fed a base diet of commercially available pellets or sticks that are made for aquatic turtles, along with vegetable matter such as dark leafy greens (dandelion, mustard and collard greens with chopped broccoli, carrots, squash and green beans).
Do red eared sliders need to be in water all the time?
The answer is, yes. Red-eared sliders need to be in the water. For starters, red-eared sliders lack saliva and need water to swallow their food. They can eat without water, it's just a lot more difficult.
Can you overfeed a turtle?
Don't Overfeed Your Turtle While it's hard to resist, overfeeding a turtle can lead to serious consequences. Coates warns that obesity and hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) are two conditions that are related to overfeeding pet turtles.
Do turtles need a light at night?
Night Lights They can also provide some heat, which can be important for hatchling turtles, who often sleep on the basking area at night. Adult turtles don't need night lights, and most turtles don't care whether they're red or blue as long as they're not too bright.
How much food should I feed my turtle?
You should feed your turtle one cup of food every day or every other day. I recommend you feed your turtle a combination of pellets, vegetables, and insects. Generally speaking, younger turtles under the age of 5 should be fed every day, while turtles over the age of 5 should be fed every other day.
What Red Eared Slider Turtles Eat
Since red eared slider turtles are omnivorous they can eat a huge variety of ailments. So to make things simpler I will divide them in 5 categories:
How to Properly Feed Your Red Eared Slider Turtle
Over the years I’ve read about countless methods of feeding turtles. But out of all of them two stood out the most, as being the most used and the most efficient. And they are the 15 minutes method and the size of the head method.
Red Eared Slider Turtle Feeding Schedule
The first thing that you have to take into consideration when thinking how often you have to feed your turtle, or when making a feeding schedule, is the age of the turtle. Baby red eared slider turtles need a different amount of food than juveniles, and juveniles need a different amount of food than adult red eared slider turtles.
Occasional Treats
Another thing that I want to address is that you can occasionally give your red eared slider turtle treats. As long as they are not too consistent, you can give your turtle a few live fish, fruits, vegetables or dried insects, without worrying that you disturb their feeding schedule.
Final Thoughts
While red eared slider turtles can eat a lot of things, not all of them can be good for them.
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What to feed a red-eared slider?
Good plants to feed red-eared sliders are dark leafy greens, aquatic plants, and vegetables. Feeder fish, invertebrates, and commercial turtle pellets are good sources of protein. Make sure your turtle is also getting a calcium supplement at least once a week and is not being handled after feeding.
How often should I feed my baby red ears?
Baby red-ears need to be fed much more frequently than adults. They also need a diet high in protein. Babies should be fed every day as they need a tremendous amount of energy to grow at the proper rate.
Why do turtles regurgitate food?
Turtles are very smart and quickly learn when it is time to be fed. Turtles and many other animals tend to move slower after eating, so regurgitating food in order to escape more quickly is a common tactic. Red-eared sliders may regurgitate their food if they are handled too soon after eating.
How long should I let my turtle eat?
Any vegetables you feed should first be boiled and chopped into pieces small enough to fit into the turtle’s mouth. Let your turtle have a 15 minute feeding session. After the feeding session, just remove anything that hasn’t been eaten to keep the water clean.
How often should I feed my slider turtle?
Turtles in the wild will eat whenever they can. However, pet sliders should only be fed every two to three days because they do not have to hunt. Many people like to feed their turtles fruit, but they are very high in sugar and can give your turtle diarrhea.
What do red-eared slider turtles eat?
Red-eared slider turtles are omnivores, so they eat both plants and animals. Adults mostly eat aquatic plants such as elodea, duckweed, water lettuce and water ferns. Adults eat so many plants they are considered herbivorous. They will only eat meat if it is readily available and there are no plants nearby.
How do red-eared sliders hunt?
Red-eared sliders hunt by either sitting motionless, waiting for a fish to swim by and then snatching it, or by chasing and snapping up any bugs that land in the water. Adults will also swim along the bottom of ponds or lakes and eat aquatic plants or algae.
What is the best food for a red eared slider?
Turtle Pellets. Turtle pellets should be the main food source for your red eared slider. The pellets are commonly made with Gammarus shrimp and crammed with vitamins and minerals. These pellets will give your turtle all the nutrients it needs for a healthy diet combining vitamins, minerals, calcium and proteins.
What do red eared slider turtles eat?
Aquatic Snails. Snails are an importantly part of a red eared slider turtles diet, as these are commonly what they would eat in the wild. Aquatic snails can be offered dead or alive. You can buy them both live, or canned from reptile shops or online stores.
What do turtles eat?
Sometimes turtles just aren’t fast enough to catch their own food, it’s that simple, so their diets consist of mainly pelleted foods. Turtle pellets are what should make up rough 70% of a red eared slider turtles diet. The other 30% is made up from live foods, vegetables and plantations. So after hours of research, ...
Can turtles eat lettuce?
Lettuce can be offered to your turtle regularly. Very similar to aquatic plants however lettuce should be offered in a feeding bowl. The lettuce should only be available for one day, then it needs to be changed. It will most likely become very unappealing to your turtle if its been sat there for a few days. Again, lettuce is high in vitamins and minerals so should be offered most days.
Can you feed a red eared slider turtle crickets?
Yes crickets can be given to your red eared slider turtle as a form of food every so often. Red ears will feed on small insects, and crickets come under this category. As long as the cricket is small enough to consume then your turtle should be fine eating it. Crickets are highly nutritious and easy to digest which makes them a great treat for your turtle. They high in protein which may otherwise be hard to get in a turtles diet. You can also freeze crickets and they will still hold off the goodness inside them, so you can offer these to outside turtles also, without the crickets hopping away.
Can red eared sliders eat lettuce?
There are manly other suitable foods for red eared slider turtles, which will be listed at the end of the article. It is also worth mentioning that Red eared slider turtles CAN NOT eat iceberg lettuce, so never offer this to your turtle. It contains too much water for a turtle and will cause an upset stomach.
Do turtles need live food?
First of all you should know that a turtle needs a variety of foods to stay healthy. But the main bulk of their diets should proteins, and what I mean by this is meat based foods. Buying live food can have its advantages as well as its disadvantages.
What to feed a red eared slider?
With adult red eared sliders, it is recommended that you only offer a source of protein around once or twice a week, depending on how old they are. The best vegetables for a red eared slider are kale, anacharis, red-leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce.
What do red eared sliders eat?
This includes worms, aquatic plants, fish and many other sources of food.
How long do red eared sliders live?
With proper care and attention, your red eared slider can live for up to 30 years ! YouTube. Alen's Pet Animals. 10.7K subscribers.
Do turtles eat all day?
Turtles will always beg for more food, and could probably eat all day if they were left to it. This does not necessarily mean that they are hungry, or are starving for food, they are just sometimes a little gluttonous. If you think that your turtle is pigging out, we have a handy guide of how often to feed a red eared slider.
Do red eared sliders need more protein?
Red eared sliders of different ages will require different diets. For example, young red eared sliders will need more protein in their diet every day, whereas older red eared sliders will need more of a vegetable orientated diet to keep them as healthy as possible.
How Often Do Red Eared Sliders Eat?
How often a red eared slider has to eat is closely related to how much it eats. Depending on the amount of food that your turtle eats, you can feed it once every day, once every two day,s or once every 3 days. The best practice is not to wait more than 3 days between each meal.
What Do Red-Eared Sliders Eat?
An improper diet is likely the most common cause of health problems in captive turtles and other reptiles.
What Types Of Plant Material Can I Feed My Red-Eared Slider?
The plant portion of the diet should be made up of vegetables, preferably ones that float and can be left in the water for the turtle to nibble on throughout the day. Leftover food should be scooped out of the tank daily to promote proper hygiene.
How Often Should I Feed My Red-Eared Slider?
The frequency of feeding depends on the age and size of your red-eared slider. Smaller or juvenile turtles will eat heartily every day. As they get older, adult turtles may be offered a good-sized portion of food every two or three days.
Do I Need To Give My Red-Eared Slider Vitamins And Minerals?
The key to proper nutrition for a red-eared slider is a diverse and varied diet containing a balance of vegetable and animal protein, depending on the pet’s age. Some veterinarians suggest adding a balanced, commercially available multivitamin once per week with an additional source of calcium, such as a calcium block or cuttlebone, twice per week.
What About Water?
Aquatic turtles, of course, swim in water and drink all day; therefore, the only water requirement for an aquatic turtle is to keep their tanks clean and at an appropriate temperature. Having a well-functioning filtration system that is cleaned regularly is key to ensuring good water quality.
How To Tell How Old Your Red Eared Slider Is
If you did not have your red eared slider from when it was born, or very young, then you will need to determine its age in order to feed it the proper diet that it requires. Some argue that you can find how old a turtle is by looking at its scutes, but this method is unreliable, and the scutes are hard to find on a red eared slider!
