Hatchling was born a week ago (Saturday). I've had him in incubator with wet paper towels waiting for yolk sac to fall off. It's been absorbed fully 2/3 days. I keep some live mealworms, and turnip greens in the container with him. He hasn't eaten a thing. When do they normally start eating?
When will hatchling eat??
- Thread starter AmandaS
- Start date
Usually around now to a couple weeks. I've rarely had any Eat meal worms and definitely not greens. The wee guys will typically devour red wigglers and or small crickets. Only greens or veggies they will take at that small size are berry leaves and berries, raspberries are a wild diet for these guys. But usually they won't take green things until about a year or so is when they start to transition over to omnivore diets.
Angel Carrion
Well-Known Member
If the egg sack is completely absorbed, you can go ahead and move them over to their hatchling home. You can get red wrigglers at bait shops (along with nightcrawlers which you would have to cut up for these tiny guys, and other good food sources), pet chain stores like Petco and Petsmart, etc. I think you can get them at gas stations and even Wal-Mart as well. If you can't find red wrigglers, trout worms are basically the same thing.
I soak my baby box turtles daily. Into the soaking water I drop a pinch of black worms. Black worms are those tiny worms you buy to feed your tropical fish. Then I get out of sight. While the babies are soaking, I am chopping up the daily baby tortoise food, which includes many different kinds of weeds and leaves from outside. I chop this up into very tiny pieces. I place a couple spoonfuls on the baby box turtle feeding tile, add a tiny bit of chopped up fruit, then put some wiggly food on top of the pile - usually cut up night crawlers or red wigglers. Then I place the babies in front of the food and quickly step out of sight. They bite at the worms and also get a bit of greens. This helps them to realize they can eat greens too, and some days I don't put the worms on top and they eat anyway.
I have heard that bait worms are raised in a medium you don't want your turtles eating, so I raise my own. I save used paper towels or newspaper, egg shells, potato peels, carrot peels, and mix it all up into a container of dirt that outside in the shade. I keep the dirt moist, but not wet, turning it every so often to keep it oxygenated.
I have heard that bait worms are raised in a medium you don't want your turtles eating, so I raise my own. I save used paper towels or newspaper, egg shells, potato peels, carrot peels, and mix it all up into a container of dirt that outside in the shade. I keep the dirt moist, but not wet, turning it every so often to keep it oxygenated.
