That Reptile Blog – Reptile, Amphibian and Exotic Pet Care and Information

Three of the 4 species in the genus Terrapene – the Eastern, Three-Toed and Ornate Box Turtles – as well as several of the 10 subspecies, have long been popular in the pet trade.  However, they should not be classified as “beginner’s turtles”…in fact, their dietary and other requirements are quite strict, and most captives die long before their time. Today I’ll discuss feeding, and will focus on other aspects of their care in future articles.

Note: Box Turtle populations everywhere have declined drastically due to habitat loss and over-collection, and they are now legally protected in most states. Please be sure to determine that box turtles offered for sale have been captive bred, and are legal to keep in your state.

General Considerations

The first step in providing a proper diet is to accurately identify the species and subspecies that you are dealing with (please see article below).  The following recommendations will prove useful for most of the commonly-kept types, but please write in for specific info, as certain subspecies have unique requirements (this applies to temperature and other care aspects as well). Read More »

Please see Part I of this article for information on our prepared box turtle diets.

Natural Food Animals
Live mealworms, waxworms or earthworms mixed into canned or pelleted food should encourage your turtle to take a bite. Earthworms are a box turtle favorite and a highly nutritious food in their own right…they can comprise 25% or so of the diet. An occasional pre-killed pink mouse is usually a great hit with box turtles, but is not a necessity.

Canned Snails and Insects
Canned insects and invertebrates offer an excellent means of increasing dietary variety while adding to the attractiveness of commercial turtle foods. Box turtles avidly consume snails and slugs in the wild…canned snails are nearly always well-accepted by pets. Canned silkworms, grasshoppers, crickets and mealworms should also be offered.

Fruits and Vegetables
Commercial diets should also be supplemented with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including apples, pears, berries of all kinds (berries are a favorite, but should form only a part of your pet’s salad), cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms and others. Sweet potatoes are usually a favorite. Avoid bananas, as turtles often eat these to the exclusion of all else, and they are not a natural food item.

Vitamins, Minerals and UVB Light
A vitamin/mineral supplement should be provided once weekly for adults, three times weekly for youngsters.

Box turtles should always be provided with a source of UVB radiation (via a fluorescent or mercury vapor bulb ) so that they can properly utilize the calcium that is contained in their diets. Please see my article on Reptisun UVB lamps  for further information.

Wood Turtles

Wood turtles can be fed as described above; although some individuals can be picky feeders, they tend to accept a wider range of foods than do most box turtles.

Further Reading
Please see my article Providing a Balanced Diet to Reptile and Amphibian Pets for further information on reptile and amphibian nutrition.

You can read about ongoing field research projects involving box and wood turtles in the Northeastern USA at http://www.turtleconservationproject.org/projects.html.

Box and wood turtles are well-known for both their suitability as pets and the unusual degree of intelligence that they display.  Unfortunately, they often put their brain power to use in thwarting their owners’ efforts to provide them with a balanced diet.  More so than most other species, box turtles (and, to a lesser degree, wood turtles) very often become fixated upon certain foods, and can be very stubborn about switching.  As a result, they sometimes end up living on inappropriate diets composed of 1 or 2 favored items, such as strawberries and cooked chicken.

Prepared Box Turtle Diets

Prepared foods formulated specifically for box turtles, supplemented with a variety of natural foods, provide the best means of assuring that captive box turtles are consuming a balanced, nutritious diet.  Zoo Med’s Canned  or Pelleted Box Turtle Food, or Bug Company’s Box Turtle Pellets should form the bulk of your pet’s diet. Taste is a big factor with box turtles, and each of these foods has a different fruit-base and taste, so be sure to experiment a bit.

Tricking Your Turtle

Keeping turtles a bit hungry is useful when attempting substitutions, but most captives carry plenty of reserve fat and so can usually wait out their owners.  There are a few tricks that can be used to increase the palatability of prepared box turtle diets.

Especially effective is spreading blueberry or strawberry jelly over the prepared diet.  The fruits themselves can also be used, but turtles tend to be very good at picking out only what they want and leaving the rest…covering the food with jelly forces the turtle to consume everything.

Canned Snails and Insects

Canned insects and invertebrates offer an excellent means of increasing dietary variety while adding to the attractiveness of commercial turtle foods.  We’ll take a look at using canned and live invertebrates, as well as the importance of fruits and vegetables, in Part II of this article.

Further Reading

Please see my article Providing a Balanced Diet to Reptile and Amphibian Pets  for further information on reptile and amphibian nutrition.