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The ABCs of Turtle and Tortoise Feeding
By Susan Tellem
Depending on the age and species, there
are many variations on what to feed turtles
and tortoises. To have a healthy animal, the
basic rule of thumb is to try and feed your
turtle or tortoise something similar to what
he or she would find in the wild. Turtles
need live food, while tortoises are vegetar-
ians.
Turtles
In general, turtles are carnivores. In the
wild, they like to hunt and bring home
live food. Worms, snails, bugs, and other
creepy crawlies all taste delicious to a turtle. So, we must provide live food for our cap-
tive turtles. Even if you are a vegetarian or are squeamish, you owe it to this little wild
animal to provide healthy food. At American Tortoise Rescue, we feed snails and super-
worms to our turtles. We hunt down snails that have never been exposed to snail bait or
pesticides. If you are not sure, keep the snails in a bucket with a mesh lid and feed them
peanut butter for a few days. If they are not dead after a few days, they are OK to feed to
your turtles.
If you don’t have the time to hunt down snails, you can purchase superworms for adult
turtles and mealworms for babies. We purchase superworms in bulk, but you can buy
small containers of them at your local pet store. Feed as many superworms as your
turtle can eat in one sitting (which might be as many as 12 to 15). Then, do not feed the
turtle for a few days. The reason for this feeding schedule is that, in the wild, they do not
eat every day; we are trying to mimic conditions in the wild and not overfeed them.
Turtles also like bananas, strawberries and greens like turnip greens, romaine lettuce, or
dandelion greens. Don’t feed your turtle cat or dog food because it has too much protein
and can cause long-term damage to your turtle’s health.
Water turtles are a different story – they can only eat underwater. While they enjoy some
of the above, the best diet is a prepared turtle food like ReptoMin. Feed your water tur