Your pet turtle’s appetite and how much it eats can tell you a lot about the animal, if your animal eats too little then you’ll be worried, if the animal eats too much then you may be worried too.
This article is a look into why your turtle eats so much
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Why is my turtle eating so much?
While it’s good to see our turtles eating and enjoying their food the animals eating too much will make us start to worry
Here’s why your turtle may be eating so much:
It is young:
If your turtle is young, if the animal is a juvenile turtle, then you may find that it eats a whole lot. Younger turtles may eat about two meals a day compared to the one meal very few days that adult turtles eat.
Young turtles eat so much because they need to grow, growing takes up a tonne of energy and the young turtle needs to eat a lot to get all this energy it needs
What to do:
This behavior is normal and is not something that you need to worry about, allow your turtle to eat as much as it needs to.
As long as your pet is eating and growing, and as long as it isn’t becoming overweight, then your pet should be fine.
Feed your juvenile turtles two small meals a day, feed your young adult turtles once a day, and feed your adult turtles every other day.
Access to food:
Another reason why your turtle may be eating so much may simply be because the animal has free access to food.
These animals are opportunistic feeders, they will eat anything that’s left out in front of them, even if they are not hungry and even if they are full
They eat this way because in the wild food was scarce, so the animals would eat any time they were given the opportunity to
This can get dangerous because overfeeding can result in your turtle becoming overweight. The signs of an overweight turtle are folds of skin around the turtle’s legs and the animal bulging out of the shell.
What to do:
Giving your pet the correct portion sizes will get the animal to stop overeating and will get its weight under control if it is overweight.
Feed your pet only enough food that would fit in its hollow head per feeding, another way of measuring is only feeding the animal as much food as it can eat in 5 minutes.
Do not give the turtle more food than it needs according to its weight and species, these animals will beg for food when they are not hungry or are full so keep this in mind when feeding.
Boredom:
Sometimes your pet will eat a lot of food because it is bored, just as with humans boredom can trigger overeating, even when we are not hungry
These animals aren’t exactly social but they can get bored if the environment is not entraining to them
What to do:
You can combat this behavior by making slight changes to your pet’s enclosure, don’t change things too much as this can cause the animal to become stressed, but some change will help
What will also help is getting your pet out of its enclosure and allowing it to roam free in your home for a little bit.
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 Is My Turtle Filter Not Working?, Why Is My Turtle Filter Making Noise?, Why Is My Turtle Eating Less?, Why Is My Turtle Filter So Loud?, How To Keep A Turtle Tank Clean Without A Filter?, Can I Clean My Turtle Tank With Vinegar?, Why Does My Turtle Tank Get Dirty So Fast?,