What do turtle eat?

Someday before everyone becomes the question ofchoosing a pet, but not all give preference to a cat or a dog, wanting to take under the roof of his house a less capricious pet of the family. As a rule, the choice in such cases falls on the turtles, since they differ in long years of life and are very interesting in their behavior.

Despite the fact that people are used to stereotype"turtles are slow" is far from it. These animals lead a fairly active lifestyle, so keeping reptiles outside the terrarium can turn into an exciting game of "guess where I hid." In order not to worry about the loss of a pet, it is best to keep it in a special aquaterarium - this applies to both land and water turtles (for the latter, this condition is mandatory).

For more information on what conditionsyou need to create a home friend, you can find in the article How to care for home turtles. But it is not enough to know how to take care of these pets and what conditions they need to create within the walls of the house, because one of the most important moments in the life of each reptile is a daily diet, so each owner should know thoroughly what the turtles eat so that the animal is constantly in the comfort zone.

Feeding the land tortoises

At home, the land tortoise shouldfeed exclusively vegetable food, not including in the diet of meat of animals or poultry. She also should not give different food "from the table": sausage, sausages, semi-finished products, cheese, milk, cereals and other processed foods. The main diet of land tortoises should consist exclusively of natural products and vitamins, including:

fresh vegetables. berries, greens and fruits;
various herbs with a neutral taste;
water (in small quantities);
mineral complexes.

Young turtles eat once a day,adults - every other day. It should be remembered that you do not need to leave food for the next time, if the turtle did not eat something. As a rule, this pet is saturated within half an hour. More details about the products that should be given to turtles, you can read in the article What is eating turtles.

Daily ration of aquatic turtles

Unlike land tortoises, water can afford to eat live food, because they are predators. As a rule, water turtles feed on:

plant food (similar to land);
meat (chicken, beef);
seafood;
bloodworm;
insects;
earthworms, snails (without shells).

It should be borne in mind that, depending on thewater temperature in the terrarium, the number of meals per day can vary. More details about this and the rules of harvesting food for aquatic turtles can be found in the article Than to feed a turtle.

The food of turtles in the wild

Despite the fact that in the wild tortoises haveto get food on their own, their diet is more saturated and balanced. Among the food that land tortoises use in the wild environment, grasses, shrub leaves, fruits and vegetables that they manage to obtain, and occasionally insects prevail.

Water turtles at a young age pay more attention to protein (animal) food, eating various insects (crickets, grasshoppers, etc.), tadpoles, small fish and crustaceans.

Feed for turtles

There is an opinion that animals are bestgive specialized dry food, bought at pet stores, as they are developed according to the specifics of the pet's diet. In fact, none of these products will replace a full-value natural food, so the purchased mixtures can be added to food, but only as an auxiliary product in small quantities. For dry and aquatic turtles, the types of feed differ, but the best quality firms for the production of specialized feeds are: