Turtle Question

[Mikey]

What, if anything, do I need to feed slider turtles?

A couple of weeks ago I was given what I believe is a yellow slider.  Yesterday I noticed a couple of large lily leaves floating quite a ways from their mom.  At first I thought, "my goodness they have long stems" and then remembered someone complaining about a turtle eating the stems of the tropical flowers.....  So I checked and sure enough, the turtle had chewed off the stem.  I have plenty of plants for it to prune, so that doesn't bother me.  Do I need to supplement this turtle's diet with anything or will it do fine just living off the land...err, pond....

I built the little guy a turdle island..... no typo here.....  I posted my turdle island on another forum but I will share it here as well in a separate thread...

[miguynmkoi]

I keep my 8 red ears away from my lilies in their own aquarium.  I feed them pellets - some fish and turtle kind.  I supplement this with veges and fruit I have at home.  they're also my new composters as they eat vege ends.  They love fairy moss and other greens from the pond too.

I love to watch them eat.  Mine are still young and eat feeder fish once in a while.  Any survivor GF get to go to lily ponds to live out their days 

[El Jefe]

I had turtles at one time but they do not stay. The neighbor kids found some newly hatched River cooters (they get BIG) and decided they need a cool home. They threw the new hatchlings into my pond and even said "be free" it was a sight to watch, those little girls were so happy to see the little turtle swimming in the big pond where it had it's pick of lillies  But then they ran away screaming...... My bass wasn't going to have any of it, all they saw was a flash and a swirl and one large mouth swallow that turtle whole    My Bass is the guardian of the lillies.

[Mikey]

Thanks Annette.  I put some fish pellets out on Turdle Island.

El Jefe: I take it that cooters are a type of turtle.  Funny story about the learning experience for your neighbors....  My back yard is typical of so many homes here and is pretty much sealed .....unless they can climb a 6' cinder block wall....

[Julles]

Learn all you want to know about sliders and cooters (the most common water turtles, and the Red Ear Slider is about THE most common) at the site of the Gulf Coast Turtle & Tortoise Society www.gctts.org.

I have a lot of turtles, too, and I keep them AWAY from my koi pond.  Turtles' natural diet is, naturally, FISH.  To be healthy, they should have fresh fish (frozen fish loose nutrients - something about the Vitamin A).  I feed mine feeder goldfish (the bones are good for calcium - good for the shell) once a week, and commercial turtle food or trout chow the rest of the week.  My turtle club stresses that these commercial foods are NOT good nutrition for turtles, but they are cheap and easy to feed.  They're OK as long as you supplement with live fish or worms or bugs or snails, and lots of veggies and fruit, too.  My turtles are very well fed, but they still destroy any vegetation I put in there.

Turtles must have a place to get out of the water and completely dry off.  They must have access to sun and shade.  They cannot swallow food on land - must be under water.  They must have access to land to lay eggs, or they can become egg-bound and die.  They are escape artists and will dig or climb their way out of anything, just about.  Females get really big. 

Never let an animal out into the wild that is not native to that area, and, if it's been in captivity for a while, you shouldn't release it at all - it may harbor parasites or diseases that could wipe out the native wild population.