Turtle - Food, Vitamins and Supplements

What food to feed my turtle?

Got yourself a turtle and wondering what to feed him/her? What a turtle eats is based on their species, and a comprehensive well-balanced diet is necessary to ensure a healthy, happy, and long life. An omnivorous pet turtle is most often fed commercial turtle food, along with a few treats in the form of fruits, vegetables, and insects. Contrarily, herbivorous turtles feed primarily on commercial turtle food, alongside leaves, fruits, and vegetables. Irrespective of whether your turtle is omnivorous or herbivorous, commercial pelleted turtle food makes up a third of their staple diet. Commercial pelleted food provides a complete and balanced diet for turtles. They are scientifically developed formulas of natural ingredients, fortified with essential vitamins and minerals to ensure overall health and well-being. In addition to this, turtle food does not split up in the water and remains intact unlike other forms of food. When fed in adequate quantities, pelleted food improves digestion, promotes shell structure, increases immunity, accelerates growth rate, and increases lifespan. Turtles need to be fed 2 - 3 times a day at equal intervals of time. Ensure you do not overfeed them as this can cause digestive upsets along with contaminating the water if left uneaten. According to Dr Starkey, feeding turtles in a separate habitat, like a secondary aquarium, is best since most turtles defecate while or right after eating, contaminating the water and affecting its quality. The secondary aquarium can then be cleaned after every feeding session. 

Do turtles need vitamin supplements?

As important is food, so are supplements. In fact, most turtles are notoriously known to suffer from vitamin deficiency. Multivitamin supplements guard against hypovitaminosis and are required for bionomical and reproductive functions alongside acting as a skin, mucus and membrane conditioner. Whilst turtles require a range of different essential vitamins and minerals, vitamin A is the most important of them all. Hypovitaminosis A, or the dearth of vitamin A can start to cause red, puffy, swollen eyes and eventually lead to blindness. They can also cause respiratory infections, raw skin, peeling skin, ulcers, loss of appetite, deformities in egg embryos for female turtles, and a runny nose. Likewise, vitamin D3 is an equally important vitamin in your turtle's diet. Vitamin D3 is produced by pigment cells beneath a turtle's skin and shell when exposed to sunlight or artificial UV light. Vitamin D3 is responsible for the optimum use of calcium in the body, i.e. formation of healthy bones, shell, skin and so on. Without vitamin D3, a turtle will not be able to metabolize calcium in its body and can eventually suffer from metabolic bone disease. Vitamin supplements for turtles are most often fed directly, i.e. injected into the mouth using a disposable syringe. It is best to ask a veterinarian to show you how to administer a supplement to a turtle before attempting to do so yourself.