Proceed to pull one of its legs as watch its reaction as a healthy red-eared slider will react vigorously. If it does, go ahead and examine the top and bottom of its shell. It should be smooth, hard, and free of any dark or light spots. If it has any soft spots on the shell, it could indicate shell rot.
Similarly, check if the turtle has any open wounds that require the attention of the vet. Have it tested for nutritional deficiencies, fungal infections or topical bacteria, and even overgrowth or any other physical deformities. Make sure you also check for eye and respiratory diseases. Providing your red-eared slider turtle with the appropriate stress-free environment and proper diet ensures that the turtle is healthy and strong, and in some cases, they are likely to outlive you.
Red-eared sliders are omnivorous animals as they enjoy feeding on aquatic vegetation, decaying material, like dead frogs and fish, and small fishes. While in captivity, they are likely to feed on just about anything you feed them.
However, you need to ensure that they have a proper diet that supports a healthy, long-lived, and strong turtle. You will have to feed them a variety of diets, including that of a juvenile and adult slider.
Keep in mind that adult slider eats more of vegetable matter than protein and eats once every two to three days, while the juvenile slider must eat daily. Ensure you give your pet enough food, and excess food just goes into the water and contaminates the tank.
Similarly, ascertain that you do not provide your red-eared slider with too much pellet food. The rest of its diet may consist of any of the following supplements. Green and leafy vegetables: Leafy greens like dandelion greens, collard greens, bok choy, mustard greens, and kale are excellent options for this category.
Avoid feeding them with head lettuce as they consist of minimal nutritional benefits. Look for greens that have good phosphorus and calcium levels. You may also opt to feed your turtle with other vegetables, like carrots, squash, and green beans. Aquatic plants: plant matter such as duckweed, water hyacinth, Azolla, frogbit, and anacharis are an excellent treat for these turtles.
Prey food: Foods like earthworms, crickets, silkworms, aquatic snails, krill, daphnia, mealworms, bloodworms, shrimp, and wax worms are perfect for this category. If you are feeding a small red-eared slider, ensure the prey food is cut into tiny pieces.
Adult ones can eat feeder fish or tadpoles. However, you have to exercise care when it comes to the type of feeder fish as experts say some of them carry parasites. Similarly, fish like goldfish are not to be given as food regularly as they are fatty. Zoo Med Natural Turtle Food. Available in three pellet sizes, Zoo Med Natural Turtle Food has sufficient protein levels for hatchlings, growth, and maintenance formulas.
Ideal for your turtle during all stages of its life, each recipe comes with the essential nutritional requirements for your pet turtle at their specific life stage. The hatchlings pack has a lot of protein since they need it for rapid growth.
Growing and mature turtles should feed on the growth and maintenance formulas. More so, these pellets float to the top of your tank, making it easy for your red-eared slider to locate them and eat. Mazuri Aquatic Turtle Diet. Ideal for the complete life cycle of your turtle, Mazuri Aquatic Turtle Food is specially formulated with premium ingredients that have a sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals to keep your red-eared slider strong and healthy. It is a healthy and well-rounded diet that does not require any extra mineral or vitamin supplements.
Wardley Premium Amphibian and Reptile Sticks are guaranteed to provide your red-eared slider with its basic nutritional requirements while making it feel like it is still in the wild. It is packed with sufficient vitamins for a healthy immune system as well as enough calcium for strong and healthy bones.
More so, not only is this commercial food ideal for your red-eared slider, but it is also suitable for other reptiles and amphibians. Tetra Reptomin Floating Food Sticks. For many years, the Reptomin Floating Food Sticks are a favorite commercial food among many turtle owners and breeders. Designed to make feeding your turtle super easy, this diet is rich in calcium, which promotes shell growth and health, as well as proteins for overall turtle health and growth.
It is also available in various sizes and stays afloat for easy feeding. Adult Turtle Food by Exo Terra. This turtle food from Exo Terra is specially made for adult turtles and contains premium ingredients such as shrimp and vegetables and has good mineral and vitamin content. It is also rich in calcium, which aids in ensuring your turtle has a strong and healthy shell, vitamin D3 for proper calcium absorption, and proteins.
Just like the other foods on this list, the pellet of this commercial food float on the water surface, making it easy for your red-eared slider to feed. Also, an excellent way to provide additional calcium is to put a cuttlebone in the turtle tank. These are often available in the bird section of your local pet store and can be affixed to the tank with suction cup clips or just floated in the water. Feeding Aquatic Turtles. VCA Hospitals. Kidney Disease in Reptiles.
Veterinary Partner. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. The first is the fact that when they enter a new habitat, some of the species that they crowd out of the ecosystem are those that perform jobs like mosquito control, for example which red-eared sliders do not help with.
Once these animals are gone or severely diminished, mosquito populations can explode, and that can lead to a corresponding explosion of disease in humans. The other massive risk that they pose comes from the Salmonella that they so often carry. You can get sick from handling them, and attempts to treat them have led to the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria, which is bad news for you if you do get sick. Just be careful to keep them inside your house, or else you could do more harm to the environment than you ever thought possible.
Quincy never intended to be a cat person. When his wife brought home a kitten one day, he told her she had one week to find it a new home. That week turned into 10 years his wife moves very slowly , and that kitten turned into three they got two more, the kitten didn't self-replicate. After a decade of sharing his home with the dogs and three cats, one horrifying realization finally set in: oh God, he's a cat person now too, isn't he???
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