The reason is that in the wild, a red-eared slider is an opportunistic eater. They do not get the luxury of eating pellets, dried shrimp or mealworms in a relatively small aquarium where their prey cannot easily escape. In the wild, they are left with primarily aquatic vegetation, insects and the occasional stray fish that happens to come near as well as decaying organic matter from dead fish or frogs.
Like I wrote above, you can absolutely feed your red-eared slider every single day or most days of the week, but what you will feed it will be based on how old your turtle is. Moreover, the method itself is very problematic. Loosely determine the age of your turtle based on the size of its turtle shell, and to a lesser extent, the coloring. To measure its shell, take some measuring tape or a ruler and measure from the top of its shell just behind its head down to the middle of the bottom of its shell.
You will typically feed a hatchling and juvenile turtle at least once a day. Adult Red Eared Sliders only need to be fed every other day. In the wild, Red Eared Sliders usually eat aquatic plants, small fish, crawfish, and worms. In the past, I have had turtles that will not eat fresh vegetables. Providing a variety of foods in their diet is key to keeping a healthy appetite. Feeder fish are good enrichment for turtles as they will have to chase it down to catch it, but they can also contain parasites.
If you decide to feed feeder fish then buy them from a local pet store. You should never feed wild-caught prey. A powdered calcium supplement that also contains vitamin D3 is the best. This calcium supplement will help prevent diseases and shell deformities. Another option is to throw in a cuttlebone once or twice a week. Baby red-eared sliders need a diet that is higher in meat and protein. Babies should be offered some vegetables, but the majority of their diet should be carnivorous.
As your red-eared slider ages you can begin offering less feeder fish or insects and replace it with a variety of vegetables or aquatic plants. Baby red-ears need to be fed much more frequently than adults. They also need a diet high in protein.
Babies should be fed every day as they need a tremendous amount of energy to grow at the proper rate. An equal mix of protein-rich food items, dark leafy greens, and vegetables is ideal for a baby red-eared slider.
Let your turtle have a 15 minute feeding session. Use a feeding schedule to track what you are feeding in the event that your turtle becomes sick. You can find a good feeding schedule below:. A big handful of leafy greens, a pinch of turtle pellets, and a couple worms or insects should be plenty. Adults eat a lot less meat, so make sure you offer plenty of dark leafy greens, vegetables, and aquatic plants.
To prepare vegetables for feeding, you should first boil them until they are soft enough to be easily pierced by a fork. This will help remove any bacteria or bugs and will also soften it to make it easier for your turtle to eat. Their food can be shredded and offered all at once. You should be sure to remove any food that does not get eaten after 15 minutes to ensure that your water stays clean.
Most keepers choose staple foods that they rotate every week. For example, you can choose kale as a staple green for one week, and then swap between supplementing with bell pepper, carrots, earthworms, a couple of minnows and turtle pellets.
This makes feeding red-eared sliders a varied, enriching diet simple. For any age slider, it is a good idea to stock their tank with aquatic plants that they can munch on if they are hungry after feeding, maybe even add a few freshwater fish or shrimp too. The animal portion of the diet should be invertebrates, worms, or commercial fish food.
Offering it early on could make it less likely that you slider will shy away from trying vegetation as it ages. That is useful because vegetation should make up a significant portion of the adult red-eared slider's diet.
Commercial pellets are fairly nutritious, convenient, and beneficial since they contain a good mix of vitamins and minerals. However, as the saying goes, variety is the spice of life. Offering a wide variety of foods is better than just dropping in a commercial turtle pellet for your little guy. A variety of fresh food offers a wider range of nutrients in different forms. Feeding a variety of items is also more stimulating to the turtle and a good form of enrichment.
Live prey items are especially desirable because they give turtles an opportunity to exercise by hunting just as they would in the wild. Generally try limiting pellets to about 25 percent of the diet, making up the rest with items from the following options:. A vet may recommend that a good reptile multivitamin with calcium and vitamin D3 be mixed with the turtle's food a couple of times a week. 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.
They even have been observed scavenging on dead carcasses! For pet pond sliders, however, here is a good list of appropriate animal-based foods to reference. It is best to provide whole feeders rather than pieces of meat, as animal parts are not nutritionally complete. Avoid feeding wild insects to your turtle, unless they were caught in a chemical-free area and you know exactly what it is and whether it is safe to feed. You can also give live fish to your red-eared slider.
However, some are safer to feed than others:. Generally speaking, livebearing types of fish are going to be a safe bet. Avoid offering pieces of fish rather than the whole fish, as pieces are not nutritionally complete. These fish contain thiaminase, which breaks down and inactivates vitamin B1.
If fed in large doses or over a prolonged period of time, it can cause severe vitamin B1 deficiency , which can be fatal if untreated. That being said, they are okay to use every once in a while as a treat. In the wild, red-eared sliders and other pond sliders are known to eat algae and the leaves, stems, roots, fruits, and seeds of both aquatic and terrestrial plants.
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