what to feed baby red eared slider turtles

What Do Baby Red Eared Slider Turtles Eat?

• Protein Diet. Turtles of all sorts can consume the same nutrients, including snails and earthworms. If your local pet...
• Vegetable Diet. You can offer carrots, squash, and other dark leafy greens vegetables in an aquarium. Make sure you cut...
• Fruit Based Diet. Baby turtles can only eat a limited number of fruits, but it’s worth...

Full Answer

How to take care of a baby red eared slider?

Provide your baby turtle with 1 to 2 leafy greens daily. Young red-eared slider turtles may not show interest in vegetables, but you should introduce them to their diet early. Lettuce, dandelion plants, and water lilies are safe to give your young turtle every day along with its protein and pellets. Method 3

How do you feed a red eared slider turtle?

Drop food into your turtle's tank to feed it. Since red-eared slider turtles are aquatic turtles, they eat and swallow with their heads underwater. (In comparison, land turtles or tortoises are herbivores and eat on the ground.) Gently drop your turtle's food into their tank, and they'll happily eat and digest it there.

What do Baby slider turtles eat?

Before adding your turtle to its tank, make sure the temperatures are holding steady in their normal range. Omnivorous Diet: Baby sliders eat vegetation, moths, earthworms, crustaceans, tadpoles, snails, and any other small animal they can catch in the wild. Their diet is not limited to one thing, so you should not feed them just one prey.

Can You Buy Baby red eared slider turtles?

The sale of turtles under four inches long is illegal in the United States, and has been since 1975. Purchasing a healthy baby turtle will increase the chances of it growing into a heathy adult. You will also need to decide on what morph of slider you want. The most common red eared slider baby is the wild-type.

What can I feed a baby red-eared slider?

Baby red eared sliders eat a combination turtle pellets, insects, and some vegetables....A baby red-eared slider would definitely eat any of the following animals/insects:Mealworms.Earthworms.Gut-loaded crickets (crickets that have eaten carrots or other vegetables).Small fish.Dried shrimp.Other small insects.

How do you take care of a baby red-eared slider turtle?

0:555:01Basic Baby Red Eared Slider Turtle Care 2020 - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipAlways use a treatment such as rough to safe which gets rid of chlorine. And make sure that theMoreAlways use a treatment such as rough to safe which gets rid of chlorine. And make sure that the water is more safe for a turtle. It might seem like five gallons is not enough space for swimming. But

Can baby red-eared sliders eat vegetables?

An equal mix of protein-rich food items, dark leafy greens, and vegetables is ideal for a baby red-eared slider. Their diet should be 30% plant based and 70% meat. Any vegetables you feed should first be boiled and chopped into pieces small enough to fit into the turtle's mouth.

Can baby red-eared sliders eat fruit?

Some experts recommend fresh fruits such as bananas, berries, apples, and melons. However, this isn't a natural staple in the red-eared sliders diet, and it may cause diarrhea. If you offer any fruit at all, limit it to very small quantities as a special treat. Don't feed frozen fish, or at least not very often.

What do baby sliders eat?

What Do Baby Red-Eared Sliders Eat?Mealworms.Earthworms.Shrimp.Snails.Tadpoles.Crickets.Small fish.

How old is my baby red-eared slider?

Usually, the rings form twice a year because turtles generally go through two natural feast and famine cycles. So, counting rings and then dividing by two can give you some idea of the turtle's age. However, older turtles can have rings that are very close together, resulting in counting errors.

How many pellets do you feed a baby red-eared slider?

Feed them as much as they can eat in 15 to 20 minutes. Give them enough food that would fit inside their head, if it were completely empty.

What can red-eared sliders not eat?

Avoid These Red-Eared Slider FoodsFeeder fish.Crickets.Earthworms.Crayfish.Ghost shrimp.Krill.

Variety

Commercial pellets are fairly nutritious, convenient, and beneficial since they contain a good mix of vitamins and minerals. However, as the saying goes, variety is the spice of life. Offering a wide variety of foods is better than just dropping in a commercial turtle pellet for your little guy.

Nutritional Supplements for Red-Eared Sliders

A vet may recommend that a good reptile multivitamin with calcium and vitamin D3 be mixed with the turtle's food a couple of times a week. Also, an excellent way to provide additional calcium is to put a cuttlebone in the turtle tank.

Tips

Catching wild prey can be dangerous if they have pesticides on them and they can carry intestinal parasites. 1 The same goes for vegetation like dandelion greens that you pick outdoors.

2. Baby Red Eared Slider Habitat

Baby red eared sliders need a proper and safe habitat to stay healthy and happy. Before getting a turtle make sure you can provide them with everything in the list below:

3. Baby Red Eared Slider Tank Setup

For every inch of your turtle’s shell length you will need to provide them with a minimum of 10 gallons of space. For adult sliders, this can mean purchasing a tank up to 120-gallons.

4. How To Care For Baby Red Eared Slider Turtles

Babies are more likely to get sick because of their developing immune system.

5. Baby Red Eared Slider Diet

Adults and babies eat the same food items, but the ratio of meat to plant and feeding frequency is different.

6. Why Is My Red Eared Slider Turtle Not Eating?

It is very common for a baby red eared slider to refuse food during the first three days. This is due to the stress of being introduced to a new environment.

7. Is My Turtle Male or Female?

In very young turtles it can be difficult to accurately determine their gender.

8. Handling

A red eared slider baby should be handled only when necessary. Turtles are usually not adaptable to being held, it can cause stress.

Having a Baby Red Eared Slider is Exciting!

If you are in the process of learning how to care for your red ear slider hatchling, you are probably already enthralled by the cute wonder of your new tiny pet. But as cute as baby turtles are, they are also more fragile than an adult turtle ever will be.

There Are Two Main Challenges in Caring For a Hatchling

shell is one of the challenges. Your hatchling turtle’s new shell is still a bit soft, as it was designed to be for hatching. So now your turtle needs access to precise levels of full spectrum UV-A/B lighting plus an appropriate natural protein-rich diet in order for its shell to begin hardening as it should.

The Right Diet in the Right Environment

One of your biggest responsibilities in providing the right type of red eared slider turtle care for a hatchling turtle is offering the right mix of foods in the right quantities. The first thing to know is that, even as a baby, your turtle will likely want to do just about everything (feeding, hiding, excreting) in water.

What To Feed a Baby Red Eared Slider

They might look gross to you, but mealworms will make your turtle smile. The folks at Gimminy Crickets & Worms sell 1100 Count Live Mealworms that are organically grown on Amazon. Their worms are around an inch to an inch and a quarter long.

Provide The Right Minerals and Vitamins for Your Turtle

As you are learning the ropes of baby red eared slider care, there are three main ways to ensure your tiny charge gets all of the vitamins and minerals required for optimal health and shell growth.

Maintain Water and Ambient Aquarium Temperature

Even the most general red ear slider care sheet will likely mention the importance of maintaining the correct temperature – both ambient and basking – for your turtle tank. This is twice as important for baby turtles, which have a stricter, narrower temperature tolerance range than adult turtles.

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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