Turtles need a variety of food sources to meet their nutritional requirements, including insects, fish, plants and vegetables.
This turtle food option comes in pellet form and contains ingredients such as sword prawn, squid and wheat germ, as well as non-toxic aquatic plants like anacharis, water hyacinth and azolla that turtles often enjoy eating.
Contents
Protein
Turtles consume various animal proteins. This may include processed pet foods like sardines, ReptoMin or crickets; live feeder fish such as feeder worms or shrimp may also be fed occasionally to their turtle. When purchasing or raising such species, feed sparingly to avoid overfeeding and nutritional imbalance.
Provide your turtle with a range of vegetables and fruits to maximize its nutrition. Grated carrots, squash and zucchini are particularly good examples, while leafy greens such as collards or kale provide more comprehensive nourishment.
Dairy foods should be avoided because turtles don’t possess the enzymes to digest them properly and may lead to digestive issues and even indigestion. Furthermore, salty foods are usually harmful and should be avoided.
Vegetables
Turtles require a range of vegetables for optimal health. Leafy greens such as collards, kale and romaine lettuce are great choices, as are turnip greens, dandelion greens, mustard greens carrot tops or squash leaves. Turtles may also consume aquatic plants such as water lettuce and water hyacinth as treats.
Other vegetable foods for dogs include grated carrots, zucchini and squash as well as various fruits such as apples, berries and bananas – and giving your dogs pieces of chicken, turkey or fish can provide essential protein sources!
Many owners opt to supplement the veggie part of their turtle’s diet with turtle pellets. You can find these at most pet stores or save yourself some cash and make them yourself at home.
Fruits
Turtles enjoy eating a variety of food items to meet their nutritional needs, such as commercial turtle pellets or multivitamin tablets with calcium and vitamin D3. Some veterinarians recommend offering reptile multivitamin tablets every two or three days to add an additional supplement.
Most aquatic turtles are carnivorous and should consume fish, insects, shrimp, crabs, snails and amphibians for sustenance. Turtles also require plant-based foods like greens like kale, collard greens mustard greens romaine lettuce; as well as fruits like apples pears bananas (with skins), mango star fruit raisins peaches tomatoes guava kiwis melons. Always wash vegetables and fruits thoroughly prior to feeding them to your turtle as some plants such as avocado leaves/seeds/gardenia flowers can harm him/her ingestion – such as avocado leaves/seeds/petroleum/amaryllis flowers among many more!
Minerals
Turtles need an ample supply of minerals such as calcium, vitamin D3 and phosphorous in addition to protein for health. Some species of turtles are also omnivorous and will require plant matter such as fresh vegetables such as collard greens, kale, mustard greens and zucchini as food sources.
Live feeder fish and worms provide some turtle species with protein. Unfortunately, however, their consumption can introduce bacteria or contaminants, so many pet stores avoid providing live foods altogether; freeze dried flakes may provide an acceptable alternative option.
Frozen and freeze-dried foods such as spirulina enriched brine shrimp, frozen thawed feeder fish, and trout pellets provide some protein but aren’t as high in vitamins and minerals as live or fresh food. Re-hydrated commercial brands like ReptoMin are good options, however these don’t always meet species specific diet needs, don’t provide balanced meals, and may lead to calcium deficiency for omnivorous turtles.
Vitamins
Though commercial turtle pellets provide valuable nutrition for their turtles, fresh produce such as leafy greens such as collard greens, kale, mustard greens and dandelion greens; grated carrots and zucchini; as well as fruits such as berries, orange slices bananas and tropical fruits can be even more nutritive for turtle health.
Some omnivorous turtles enjoy small feeder fish and worms (with care taken to avoid contamination by bacteria, parasites or funguses), as well as vitamin supplements like A, calcium phosphorous and multivitamins.
Hikari produces ReptoMin, a high-quality turtle food product available in four pellet sizes that is specifically formulated to meet the dietary requirements of different turtle species. Packed full of essential vitamins and minerals necessary to maintaining healthful turtle populations, ReptoMin can be purchased either online or from pet stores across North America.
