Turtles can be picky eaters, and figuring out why these animals are picky eaters, and solving this problem, is a must. If not your pet may develop a vitamin deficiency.
This article is a look into why your turtle may be a picky eater
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Why is my turtle a picky eater?
Humans aren’t the only ones who can be picky eaters, your pets can be picky eaters as well. Your turtle, for example, can be a picky eater.
Here are the reasons why your pet turtle may be a picky eater:
They are young:
If you’re raising a juvenile turtle, and it prefers meats and shies away from veggies then this may be happening because of the animal’s age.
Juvenile turtles need to grow, and protein helps with their growth. For this reason, juvenile turtles will be picky eaters and will prefer to eat meats like dried shrimp and dried bloodworms over veggies.
What to do:
It’s perfectly normal for younger turtles to prefer meat and pretty much refuse all veggies on offer, they need to grow quickly.
You can still offer vegetables to your pet and then wait and see if your pet will eat them. You can alternatively, mix some veggies in with the proteins and see if your pet eats this.
If the above doesn’t work then you’ll have to leave vegetables and pellets in the tank, no meat, for the animal to eat.
Your pet won’t choose to starve if there is food around, so, use this method to get your pet to eat veggies when it is being stubborn.
Giving your pet variety when it comes to protein is also recommended, variety will deliver different types of nutrients to your pet’s body.
Include other foods like live crickets and small mealworms in your pet’s diet. Turtles generally love and gravitate towards wiggly things so they will like these.
Addicted to meat:
If your pet turtle is an adult, and it seems to only be interested in eating treats like shrimp for example, then the animal may be somewhat addicted to it.
Shrimp is more so meant to be a treat to turtles, turtles enjoy shrimp just as humans enjoy sweet treats and junk food, and they will prefer it over healthier foods
In some cases, your pet may even refuse other foods while waiting to get shrimp
What to do:
If this is happening with your pet you’ll have to leave healthy foods, and healthy foods only, in the tank for a while. Only leave pellets, fruits, and vegetables in the tank.
At first, your pet will ignore the healthy foods and wait to be fed shrimp, this may go on for weeks and weeks.
The animal should start eating the healthy foods soon enough, it will not resort to starving if it knows that there is something edible in the area.
Make sure that you only feed your pet shrimp sparingly in the future to keep this same thing from happening again.
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: Why Does My Turtle Hiss At Me, Why Does My Turtle Pee On Me?, Why Is My Turtle Swimming Frantically?, Why Is My Turtle Panicking?, Why Does My Turtle Have A Lump On His Neck?, Why Is My Turtle Digging In The Rocks?, Why Does My Turtle Move His Rocks?, Why Is My Turtle Digging In The Sand?, Why Is My Turtle Burrowing?