Need help with my turtle! :(

[Tortoise]

Hi Angonzalez88:

Water turtles will eat bugs and worms, crickets, stuff like that. They will also eat some fruit and veggies. They particularly LOVE water hyacinth. Some cut up chicken or turkey. Any of the water plants. A leaf of romaine every so often. I give my pond the occasional zuchinni. And I use Trout Chow as a staple.

Welcome and I am so pleased to hear your turtle is feeling better-that must have been a worry for you.
This forum is full of great people with so much good advice and years of experience. I'm new here too-welcome

 

[Angonzalez88]

Glad the turtle is doing good.I was thinking of getting one at first but i heard they bite

Oh yes they bite and hard!

 

[dmmj]

I don't know why water turtles eat rocks. My main interest in in tortoises, so I've never done any research on the rock-eating. I do get many water turtles in through my rescue, and I keep them in water troughs with no rocks in the bottom, only fresh water. After a day or two there is always a few pebbles on the bottom of the trough. Its just something they do.

I'm so glad you were able to help the turtle.

I have been told it is similar to birds when they eat rocks and gravel it is supposed to aid in digestion. Without teeth to grind up their food they sometimes eat rocks to mash the food up better. Sadly there had been very little research done but so far this makes the most sense to me, anyone else got any other ideas?

 

[Angonzalez88]

Thank you all for the welcome and advice. I was recently at the beach so I'm replacing the pebbles with large sea shells once they're done soaking to remove the salt. Would they possibly try to eat the shells even though they're big?

 

[dmmj]

In my experience with RES they will try and eat anything, whether or not they are successful is another story. They may try and nibble on them but as long as they are strong and not fragile it should be ok.

 

[jeffbens0n]

I think sometimes when they eat pebbles it is by accident. My DBT is constantly picking up anything at the bottom of the tank to see if its food, then he spits it out if its not, I guess it stands to reason that some pebbles may be swallowed accidentally in the process, I have never had a problem with it though. My gravel is very fine so anything he may eat likely passes right through.