How to Feed Your Musk Turtle
- Ensure the Water is Warm Enough. Observations in the wild have found that musk turtles do almost all their eating in the...
- Place Food into the Water. Placing food onto dry land very rarely elicits a feeding response in musk turtles. Instead,...
- Remove Uneaten Food. Turtles are messy feeders, and this can quickly start to soil the water. To...
How to feed a musk turtle?
How to Feed Your Musk Turtle 1 Ensure the Water is Warm Enough. Observations in the wild have found that musk turtles do almost all their eating in the water – not on land. 2 Place Food into the Water. Placing food onto dry land very rarely elicits a feeding response in musk turtles. ... 3 Remove Uneaten Food. ... 4 Keep Records. ...
What can I feed a baby turtle?
To feed a baby turtle, start by figuring out what kind of turtle you have since different varieties of turtles prefer different foods. If your turtle is an herbivore, provide it with a variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as aquatic plants like duckweed and water lettuce.
What size water filter do I need for a musk turtle?
Most water filters are tested in tanks that contain fish, but musk turtles are considerably messier. So for a 30 gallon musk turtle tank, you will need a 60 gallon water filter. Two other important things that you want from a water filter are for it to be silent and clog proof.
How do I care for a baby turtle?
Take your baby turtle to a vet with experience handling turtles to help with the identification process. Administer the food properly. A high-quality turtle pebble can be the base of a healthy diet. But other foods might also be options, depending on your turtle's specific needs. If so, be sure to expose your turtle to these other food sources.
How do I get my baby musk turtle to eat?
2:424:14Feeding BABY Musk Turtle BIG Worms - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipIn fast flowing streams they'll just typically. Be a pond or just really still water if you thinkMoreIn fast flowing streams they'll just typically. Be a pond or just really still water if you think mustard oils are awesome and you want to buy.
How much should I feed my baby musk turtle?
Musk turtles less than 6 months old should be fed twice daily and turtles over 6 months old should be fed once every other day. These animals must be fed in the water to facilitate swallowing as their tongues are not meant to push food to the back of the mouth for swallowing.
How do you take care of baby musk turtles?
Keep lighting on a 12-hours-on/12-hours-off cycle to mimic natural conditions. A submersible heater should be used to maintain water temperature at 72 to 78 degrees. A frightened musk turtle may be inclined to nip a handler, so hold it near the rear of the carapace and be wary of the long neck.
What human food can musk 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.
Can you hold musk turtles?
All turtles should be handled with care and respect. To ensure you are not at the end of a nasty nip, you should be especially careful if you have to handle the stinkpot. Picking them up towards the rear of their shell can help. There is a risk that aquatic turtles can carry the Salmonella bacteria.
Do musk turtles get lonely?
I suggest you keep just the one musks, its nonsense that they become lonely, in the wild they are solitary creatures only coming together to bask or mate. By keeping two, you may well encounter aggression, meaning 2 set ups.
Do musk turtles need light at night?
Many turtle owners wonder if they need to keep the light on in their turtle's tank at night. Luckily, the answer to that is no. Your turtle will be just fine if the light is turned off during night time hours.
Can baby musk turtles swim?
Musk Turtles are fairly good side to side swimmers but really struggle swimming upwards. They are mainly bottom walkers.
Do musk turtles need sunlight?
All Turtles require additional UVB lighting. Musk turtles require UVB light in order to synthesise vitamin D. Without vitamin D (in particular D3) musk turtles are not able to metabolise calcium properly causing problems with bone growth. A spot light and UV tube can be used over the basking area of the turtle.
Can you feed musk turtles cucumber?
Avoid feeding your turtles vegetables that contain little to no nutritional value, such as mushrooms, cucumbers, and eggplants.
How deep should the water be for a musk turtle?
Babies should be kept in a smaller aquarium and moved as they grow. Due to them being a ground walker rather than swimmer, provide a shallow water depth of 10-15cm (4-5 inches); increase this depth as they grow.
Can musk turtle eat grapes?
Turtles are low-maintenance pets who'll eat pretty much anything you give them. So, if you're wondering whether you can feed turtles grapes, the answer is yes. Grapes are both good and bad for turtles since they have valuable minerals and vitamins that are important for their growth.
How much water should be in a musk turtle tank?
Housing musk turtles An aquarium of 80 liters (20 gallons) is enough for one, and to keep two make sure you have an aquarium double that size! When your turtles are small, make sure your water is not too deep. This is because musk turtles are not great swimmers.
What size tank does a baby musk turtle need?
Tank Size. One thing you'll notice about the common musk turtle is that it really loves to swim. Because of this, they need a bigger tank than you would think, considering their size. We suggest going with a tank size of 30 gallons for one adult turtle and a 40 gallon tank for a pair.
Can baby musk turtles swim?
Musk Turtles are fairly good side to side swimmers but really struggle swimming upwards. They are mainly bottom walkers.
How long can musk turtles stay out of water?
Generally speaking, a turtle can go about 8 hours without water in a warm and dry environment.
How to make sure a baby turtle eats?
Create a food-friendly environment. Turtles need to feel comfortable to eat. In order to make sure your turtle will eat in its tank, create a food-friendly environment. To keep a clean home for your turtle you will typically want to feed it in a separate cage. This is not as imperative for baby turtles.
Why is it important to feed a baby turtle?
It is the time when they most need vitamins for growth and development. It is vital to establish that your baby turtle is fed in a comfortable, safe environment so that it will eat and get all of the nutrients it needs.
How old do turtles have to be to be considered adults?
Turtles are not considered adults until they are at least 7 years old. However, after three years their appetite should taper off naturally. When you notice your turtle eating less, it may be a sign that it is ready to transition to a new diet. Talk to your vet first, however, when you begin changing feeding frequency.
What happens if a turtle stops eating?
If your turtle stops eating, keep an eye out for other common turtle problems. Watch for shell problems. A turtle's shell is an indicator of health and wellness. Changes to the shell can indicate poor nutrition, especially, though not exclusively, too little calcium in its diet.
What do turtles eat?
If your turtle needs a meat-based diet, you can feed it mealworms, earthworms, crayfish, minnows, snails, slugs, and wax worms.
Why do turtles have a runny nose?
Change in a turtle's appetite, energy, and weight might indicate a parasite. Respiratory infections can be caused by a vitamin A deficiency. A runny nose or drooping eyelids can indicate a deficiency. Serious infections are marked by mouth-breathing, mucus in the mouth, or wheezing.
Is a turtle omnivore or carnivore?
Other types of turtles remain strictly carnivores or strictly omnivores their whole life. Snapping turtles, for example, will always need a primarily carnivorous diet while loggerhead turtles will always need a combination of meat and plants. Figure out what kind of turtle you have.
How to feed a musk turtle?
Placing food onto dry land very rarely elicits a feeding response in musk turtles. Instead, drop the food into the water infront of your turtle. If your turtle is hungry then it should start feeding rapidly. Note that some musk turtles can be quite shy.
What do musk turtles eat?
While musk turtles may eat the odd piece of pond weed in the wild , their diet is almost exclusively made up of meat. In captivity, this carnivorous diet can be supplemented with a number of specially-made turtle foods, which can make feeding your musk turtle much easier. Here are some of the best foods for your musk turtle:
How long does it take for musk turtles to eat roaches?
A better alternative here is known as “gut loading”. A mineral-rich supplement is fed to feeder insects like crickets or roaches for 24-48 hours, before the insects themselves are fed to your musk turtles. When your turtle eats the insect, they also benefit from all the nutrients inside the gut. Sale.
What kind of worms do turtles have?
Also available from aquarium shops are live bloodworms. These small, red aquatic worms are typically bought in a sealed plastic bag. Just snip the corner off and pour the bloodworms into your turtle tank.
Do musk turtles eat in water?
Observations in the wild have found that musk turtles do almost all their eating in the water – not on land. Furthermore, studies have shown that when the water temperature drops below 18’C musk turtles simply stop eating. The first step in feeding musk turtles is therefore ensuring that their water is warm enough.
Can musk turtles eat mussels?
Some keepers have found that bivalves like cockles and mussels are also readily accepted by musk turtles. Once again, however, be sure to limit the intake to avoid increasing sodium levels too rapidly.
Do musk turtles crawl?
An interesting observation is that musk turtles seem to crawl along the bottom of their cage looking for food, so food that sinks tends to be far more readily accepted than anything that floats.
The Diet of a Musk Turtle
Musk turtles are omnivores, which means that they will eat fruits, vegetables, as well as meat, insects, and pellets. A well-balanced diet for a pet musk turtle will be mainly based on pellets, with the occasional fruits, vegetables, and dried insects.
How to Set Up the Tank of a Musk Turtle
The tank is where your musk turtle will spend most of its life so it’s important to make it as comfortable as possible. Luckily for us, musk turtles don’t require too many things in their tank, but the things that they require are completely essential.
Musk Turtle Size and Lifespan
On average most musk turtles live between 40 and 60 years and reach sizes between 2 and 4.5 inches.
How to Determine the Gender of a Musk Turtle
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to tell the gender of the musk turtle, as most of the distinctive signs only appear when they reach maturity. So if you own a baby musk turtle you could try to figure out the gender, but it’s usually impossible.
Possible Strange Behavior
After a while, you will start to know the normal behavior of your musk turtle. You will get to know how your turtle swims, when and how it will play, and all sorts of different things. And as a result, you will also notice some occasional strange behavior.
Final Thoughts
This article should cover everything that you should know about how to care for a musk turtle. But if you still have questions you can always leave them in the comment section below and I will answer them as soon as possible.
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What do musk turtles eat?
What Vegetables Can Musk Turtles Eat? Written by Phyllis Kramer in Care Guides, Turtle Facts. Musk turtles love to eat, usually they will eat everything that you put in front of them, and this includes vegetables. But just because they can eat them, it doesn’t mean that every vegetable is good for them.
Why doesn't my musk 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 musk 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 musk turtles salad?
For example instead of giving your musk turtle iceberg salad, you could give it greenleaf salad which contains a lot ...
Can you feed musk turtles iceberg salad?
If in the past you used to feed your musk turtle some of those less nutritional vegetables, there is no problem, as I said they won’t harm your tulte.
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.
MuddyBob
I have had many mud and musk hatchlings and they always respond to live earthworms. You have to cut the worms up into smaller pieces for hatchlings, but the wiggling gets their attention. A distant second best is fish, probably due to the odor. Some hatchlings will eat pellets right away if you are lucky.
winnerbaldwin
I feed my musk Hikari Carnivore Pellets and Hikari Algae Wafers and have done since he was a hatchling. I break the algae wafers up as they are HUGE! The ittle fella hoovers them up! These are great too, as they sink. Hope this helps. C.D.B
MuddyBob
Hatchlings are easily stressed. In the wild they would normally hide in dense vegetation. Everything from large birds to snapping turtles are a threat to them. Do you have a photo of your setup? Temperature is important too. Musk hatchlings should probably have water set around 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
julesb
The Reptomin have never worked for me as well. Everytime I throw them in, I find it all by the filter. I have a baby Common Musk and I have started feeding meal worms. At first I would wait for him to finish one before iving another, now I just toss a few in and their gone the next day. They tend to lurk the bottom so its easy.
Grubb
I wouldn't recommend feeding only meal worms, they aren't very healthy and should be fed mostly as a treat. It is hard to get some turtles to eat pellets but they will eventually - it just takes some patience. Reptomin and Mazuri are both high quality pellets and are a healthy staple in a turtle's diet.
julesb
I sometimes throw reptomin in their anyway, but he just doesn't eat it. I've read that musk turtles, any young turtles in general are carnivorous. But like Britt_Brat, we just want them to at least eat something.
