Last updated October 13, 2016
Turtles are creatures of habit, so one of the tricks is to find out what a turtle will eat, and then slowly get it used to other foods, too. When you get a new turtle, the most important is to get them to eat. Right after, it's to encourage them to eat a VARIETY of HEALTHY foods. And, to be honest, that can be a bit of work. So, here is an incomplete list of foods that I've fed successfully to some of those picky eaters.
This is not a complete list. Drop me a line if something worked for your turtle and is not on the list.
My box turtles like meat stuffs, and they like fruit. They will only eat greens if I mix them into something else.
- Worms. Earthworms, redworms, composting worms. Yeah, the good stuff!
- Cooked chicken breast. You have to cook it. Do not feed raw meat. Do not feed hamburger, it's too fatty.
- Snails. Any snail you find in a garden or on a field that has not been sprayed with pesticides or snail pellets.
- Home-made food cubes.
- Melon. Mine like cantaloupe, and will eat water melon.
- Banana. A bit like candy in that once they like it, they really want it. I mash the banana with minced herb salad mix and a bit of calcium powder to trick them into eating greens. (None of my box turtles eats green stuff on its own.)
- Mango. I give them the pits when I have mango. Or thaw chunks from the freezer.
- Berries. Strawberry, blueberry, ... try them all.
- Canned dog or cat food. The high-quality, natural stuff without soy, wheat and junk). It's got vitamins added, so this is a way to give your turlte a vitamin boost every few weeks. My dog gets Natural Balance, so that's what the turtles get to share in.
- Dog/cat kibble. To be honest, the best stuff money can buy has healthier ingredients than the so-called turtle pellets. However, it's designed for dogs/cats, so, at most once a week. This stuff is too expensive to feed my dog every day, so she gets a junk-free dog food from Costco, on this Natural Balance kibble as a treat.
- Cooked shrimp. As a treat only for any saltwater meat.
- Crawfish. Freshwater. If you can get it. Not too often.
- Freshwater fish. Fresh, not canned, and cooked. They love it an it makes their poop smell awful.
- Giant mealworms and meal worms. Too fatty for a regular diet, but use as treat or to get them to eat.
- Crickets. You can get dead ones in a can. They are pretty gross, and expensive, but the turtles like them.
Other stuff I feed occasionally and that they will eat when hungry enough:
- Apple, Tomato
- Cuttle fish bone
- Worms. Earthworms, redworms, composting worms. Yeah, the good stuff!
- Cooked chicken breast. You have to cook it. Do not feed raw meat. Do not feed hamburger, it's too fatty.
- Snails. Any snail you find in a garden or on a field that has not been sprayed with pesticides or snail pellets.
- Melon. Mine like cantaloupe, and will eat water melon.
- Mango. I give them the pits when I have mango. Or thaw chunks from the freezer.
- Koi pellets. They are as good (bad) as the specialized turtle food and a lot cheaper. My water turtles are in a large pond with the fish.
- Water lettuce and water hyacinth. This is their staple food. I grow it in tubs and in the pond.
- Freshwater fish. If they can catch it in the pond. There's mosquito fish, and the goldfish breed.
- Herb salad mix. It clogs up the filter with slime, so I don't do it very often when there are other plants.