PLEASE- No water or box turtle questions. If you have a question about Red-ear Sliders, Painted Turtles, or other turtles, please try a different expert or http://www.turtleforum.com. It is free and very good.
My specialty is tortoises, especially Red-foot Tortoises. I will gladly try to help with any tortoise-related question I can. I will also help with general questions about things like behavior of wild turtles, etc.
I am not a vet or a breeder, herpetologist, etc. I'm just a guy who studies tortoises. I reserve the right to send you to a website if they have a better answer than I can offer rather than doing long cut-and-pastes, etc. I also will not second guess a vet or recommend home surgery or self-prescribing prescription meds.
Question what types of fruit do red ear sliders eat? mealworms and pellet
food are what we are feeding now? they are about 2 inches across
shell. Put small goldfish in tank but they just chase and cant seem
to catch. looking for variety of food for them. any food not to feed
them? thanks Vikki
Answer Red-ear sliders (RES) are almost totally carnivorous when young- they eat almost nothing but 'aquatic meat'- fish, worms, bugs, small crustaceans, etc.
As they get older, they will add some vegetation- mostly dark green leafy veggies.
High-quality pelleted foods are a good foundation for the diet- but you get what you pay for here. Cheaper foods are far less nutritious than the good stuff is. I generally feed mine a combination of a couple different brands of pellets and supplement it with 'bait', depending on the size of the turtles- crickets, small fish, worms, etc.
Some key points in feeding to remember include:
- NO fatty foods (hamburger, hot dogs, most other pet foods), no light green head lettuce, no milk products, no sugars, no fruits (until it is older, and then only a little)
- No packaged foods that are just light-weight dried insect parts or cheap flakes.
- Trout chow and certain other 'meaty' fish foods are fine.
- Feed young RES daily, then every other day when they hit about 3-4", then every 3 days when they are about 6". Overfeeding and obesitiy are bad for turtles, too.
- Turtles select food based on size. They will not pursue a fish to eat it, for example, unless it is big enough to bother with AND small enough fit in their mouth. Try 'feeder guppies'- especially the small ones. (Note- they will chase and nip bigger fish even if they can't or won't eat them!)
- Diet is just one part of an all-over care program. Making sure they have plenty of clean, warm water in their tank, good lighting, etc. are others.
