A healthy turtle can go an extended period without food if provided access to clean water, however if its dehydration becomes excessive it will begin losing fat stores and become dehydrated.
Hibernating or brumating turtles may go months without food. Therefore, it is crucial that someone check on your pet turtles while you are gone. A friend or neighbor could check up on them regularly until you return.
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Access to clean water
Turtles, being aquatic creatures that spend most of their time swimming and basking under UV light, need access to clean water at all times. Going up to a month without drinking is simply not safe; their internal organs depend on it for nourishment.
As important as water is to their survival, they also require food. While they can survive without it for some time, without it they will begin to experience metabolic and physiological stressors that could alter their normal processes and lead to further disease development.
At least once every week and daily if possible during vacations, someone should check on your turtles to ensure they have adequate fresh water and UV light, as well as avoid overfeeding your turtles which can pollute their environment and pose health problems for their health. Overfeeding can pollute water supplies as leftover food degrades quickly into waste that pollutes it further causing health issues in both you and your turtle.
Basking area
Turtles in the wild often go weeks or even months without eating during brumation, although this should not be replicated in captivity. If you need to leave your pet behind for an extended period, consider asking someone you trust to check on it periodically and provide food when necessary.
Temperature can also play an influential role in how long a turtle can survive without food, as this will affect how much energy is expended trying to thrive in harsh conditions.
Turtles need a safe place to bask and ample UVA and UVB rays in order to dry their shell and get healthy doses of UVA and UVB rays. Regular cleaning will prevent build-up of bacteria. Clean water access is vital as it aids metabolism and hydration – without it, turtles would suffer more due to dehydration than food shortage.
Age
An aquatic turtle has the capacity to remain without food for several months as long as they have access to pure, clean filtered water, an appropriate basking area, and heated habitats – though their fat stores would dwindle slightly and their strength diminished, but no serious health risks would result from doing this, similar to how wild turtles hibernate.
Hatchlings and juvenile turtles should be fed multiple times a day or every other day to ensure they receive enough protein and calcium, with fruits like figs, dates, strawberries and leafy greens being good sources. Avoid giving your hatchling or juvenile turtle sugary fruits that could cause digestive distress such as bananas.
Small adult turtles in brumation (a state of reduced activity and metabolism) may go weeks without food; however, water must still be provided for dehydration purposes. As adults, turtles should eat a diet low in phosphorus but still moderate in protein; an example would include turtle pellets supplemented by Red-leaf lettuce, Romaine lettuce or water plants such as Anacharis as treats; additional options might include fresh fish, krill or feeder shrimp as treats.
Nutrition
As cold-blooded animals, turtles don’t require as frequent feedings than warm-blooded pets; in the wild they may go months without needing sustenance as their reserves deplete and their metabolism slows to conserve energy for hibernation.
Hatchlings and junior turtles require daily feedings of protein-rich food sources such as turtle pellets, dried fish or shrimp and vegetables for optimal growth. Once they reach six months old, you should reduce their protein consumption in half to prevent unnatural growth while continuing to offer vegetables and leafy greens regularly.
Be sure to use fresh, organic produce that is free from pesticides and chemicals, which could harm turtle health and their environments. If you must buy conventional foods, rinse thoroughly before offering sparingly; switch up what they eat on different days – this could include offering grated carrots, zucchini squash peas and peas on one day followed by mangoes berries and leafy greens on another.
