Tartarughine - Feeding and prevention of diseases

FEEDING

Feeding

These turtles are predominantly carnivores, but they also like some fruit and greens and most of all each turtle has his own tastes.
My turtle prefers dried prawns (gammarus), there is also another type of turtle food, in pellets. We have to find out what our turtle likes the most.
They can eat small pieces of fish, crustaceans, leaves of lettuce, spinach, mature tomatoes, mature fruit. Usually turtles begin to eat vegetables when they are 1 or 2 years old. I know some people give them meat and their turtles are healthy, but my vet told me that meat is too fat for turtles.
Baby turtles should eat at least twice a day. As they grow they eat once a day, adult turtles eat every 2-3 days. It's very easy to understand when a turtle is hungry, they know how to beg for food.

Vitamins

We must use vitamins. They are indispensable to prevent two diseases which are the most common cause of death of turtles kept in captivity. One is the softening of the shell. Turtles needs a lot of calcium for shell and skeleton and even if we give them with various food it may not be enough. To avoid any problem we only have to add vitamins to food once a week. It's possible to use only one product which can be found in any pet shop. It's useless to put vitamins in the water, they must be added to food. I do this way : I put some drops on prawns and then she eats directly from my hand. It may seem complicated but it takes less than 5 minutes.

COMMON HEALTH PROBLEMS AND PREVENTION

Sun	Sun light is very important for turtle shell too. During summer turtles must bask in the sun at least 2 hours a day. Sun light must be direct, the glass of a window block most of ultra-violet rays. We also have to leave them the chance to go away from sun light because excessive temperature can kill them.
If they can't bask in the sun...	If it's impossible to make them bask in the sun you should use a full spectrum lamp, at least 12 hours a day. These lamps (neon) can be found in any pet store, they last about 1 year. The Uvb lamp must be used together with a normal lamp to heat the basking area.
Swollen eyes	Another disease is swollen eyes. This can be caused by dirty water or by a lack of vitamin A. I give my turtle vitamin A once a week. We must be careful with quantity, because excessive vitamin A can be dangerous. Dose for vitamin A is 1000-5000 UI weekly.
Changes of temperature	We must avoid currents of air and changes of temperature because getting a cold is very dangerous for turtles and these diseases are difficult to cure.
Common symptoms of disease	The most common symptoms of disease are : turtle refuses to eat, swollen eyes and turtle keeps eyes closed, abnormal breathing, change of usual behaviour, discoloration or white spots on the shell, diarrhea.

For common health problems read this page.

A last thing, as for any other pet, when a turtle gets sick or whenever you have a doubt,
please ask a vet!