Watching your turtle eat only one type of food, namely lettuce, will have you wondering about the animal’s dietary needs and its overall well-being.
Watching your pet only chomp on this food is sometimes endearing, but it is worrisome at other times.
This article looks into why your turtle only eats lettuce.
Table of Contents
My turtle only eats lettuce:
While lettuce does have a nutritious component, your pet only eating this food will make it impossible for the animal to get all the nutrients that the animal requires to be healthy and function normally
Here is why your turtle only eats lettuce and what to do about it:
Lettuce and turtles:
Lettuce has its pros and it’s cons and if it is the single food group that your pet eats, it can be dangerous.
This food, especially iceberg lettuce, is mainly water and isn’t exactly packed with nutrients, if eaten exclusively it will starve your pet of essential nutrients and minerals like calcium and protein causing malnutrition in your pet
But it isn’t the turtle’s fault, turtles value water-rich foods like lettuce, because these types of foods are not abundant in the wild where they usually live, this makes the animals love it so much.
Unfortunately, lettuce simply does not contain enough nutrients to be a main part of the animal’s diet.
What to do:
Feeding your pet a varied diet would be the best way to tackle this issue, there are a few ways to go about this:
Mix the pellets:
Mixing some shredded lettuce into your pet’s pellets should get it to eat the lettuce and the pellets.
You can also mix in other greens into the pellets for more variety in your pet’s diet.
Greens like dandelions, clover, turnip greens, endvine, collared greens, escarole, mustard greens, chicory, and so on will work. Dark green leaves like, romaine lettuce, are also ok.
With each day leave less and less lettuce in your pet’s food, the animal will likely not notice that this is happening and will end up eating a more varied diet over time. The animal will also get used to this varied diet over time.
Go cold turkey:
Your pet turtle is only eating lettuce because you’re giving it lettuce, if you simply stop giving your turtle lettuce, and only give your pet pellets, then it will be forced to eat the pellets.
Drop one pellet in a day and see if your pet eats it, if the animal does eat its pellet of the day then scoop the pellet out and provide a fresh pellet the next day.
These animals can be quite stubborn but they won’t be stubborn enough to starve themselves to death when there is food around.
You as the turtle owner will have to be more stubborn than the turtle in this case and not give in when it doesn’t eat
These animals can go days without eating so don’t be worried that your pet isn’t eating enough food if it doesn’t initially take the pellets.
See a vet:
If your pet does not respond to the above solutions then your pet may be in a bad way and may need to see a vet for an examination and diagnosis.
The vet will be able to establish its current level of health and determine if the animal needs any treatments or medications as well as instruct on dietary requirements for your pet
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other turtle/tortoise related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: My Turtle Has A Hole In Its Shell, Is My Turtle Underweight?, Can Turtles Overheat?, My Turtle Keeps Scratching His Eyes, My Turtle Is Spitting Up Blood, My Turtle Only Laid One Egg, My Turtle Only Eats Shrimp, My Turtle Tank Smells Bad, Why Does My Turtle Tank Smell Bad After Cleaning?