[Feira426]

I'm waiting for a confirmation email from a turtle forum so I can join and ask over there, but in the meantime, I thought I'd try my luck here, as so many of you keep a variety of critters.

Last year, a friend I work with had a young red eared slider turtle move into one of her garden ponds. Although adorable, it posed a threat to the small fish and plants in the pond, and as red eared sliders are considered invasive in my area, and apparently cause a lot of problems for the native turtle species, adopting her seemed more responsible than relocating her. So I brought her home to live with our other young red-eared slider in a large tank in our living room. Her name is Shu, as I brought her home in a shoebox. Lol.

Anyway, Shu is feeling unwell this week. Her eyes are swollen, which I've read could mean a vitamin A deficiency or some kind of an infection. I saw somewhere that you could boost a turtle's vitamin A by giving small amounts of cod liver oil, so I bought some of that and mixed it with some water and crushed mealworms and fed it to her. I also gave her some of the powdered omnivore food my vet gave me when I had a sick chicken. It's a bit tricky to feed a liquidy, mash type stuff to a turtle, but I'm trying, lol. I also gave her a couple of thirty minute carrot juice soaks, which I saw recommended somewhere for sick turtles.

My local exotic pet vet is really expensive, and even though I know it would probably be best for her to take her for an exam, I don't know if I could justify spending that kind of money on her right now.

Does anybody here have any advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[MellonFriend]

Oh no! I hope you can find some help for her. I don't know anything about turtles, but we weekly go over to a man made pond to feed the fish and turtles that are there. We love the little red eared slider turtles.😊

 

[goathiker]

One of the mistakes people make is to think that the turtle pellets are good enough. They really aren't. If you know that, don't worry. Other people read these as well.
I would start crickets gut loaded with carrots, sweet potato, and other A sources. Easier than mush lol.
Start small chunks of ripe tomato to prevent dehydration and for vitamin C. Don't overdo if they aren't used to fruits.

Many sliders enjoy grated carrots, squash, zucchini. Offset with leafy greens.

Mealworms should be like 10% of 1% of their diet. Always feed things with exoskeletons if at all possible.

 

[Feira426]

One of the mistakes people make is to think that the turtle pellets are good enough. They really aren't. If you know that, don't worry. Other people read these as well.
I would start crickets gut loaded with carrots, sweet potato, and other A sources. Easier than mush lol.
Start small chunks of ripe tomato to prevent dehydration and for vitamin C. Don't overdo if they aren't used to fruits.

Many sliders enjoy grated carrots, squash, zucchini. Offset with leafy greens.

Mealworms should be like 10% of 1% of their diet. Always feed things with exoskeletons if at all possible.

We have tried feeding superworms, which I heard would be better for them than mealworms, but they didn't eat them; and we've also offered a few fruits and greens which they just ignored. The only vegetation I've found so far that they will eat is anacharis, but IDK if that has a lot of vitamin A or not...

I will have to see if they will eat crickets - that would really be good. They like to eat flies, but those are kind of hard to catch. We were giving them the mealworms because we had them on hand for our chickens and they seemed to really love them, and I read somewhere that insects and/or small fish make up the vast majority of a young slider's diet, so I guess I just thought maybe they would start wanting to eat veggies and greens when they got a bit bigger. I really haven't done a whole lot of research on sliders, which is my bad - we had one when I was a kid and it always just seemed to thrive on anything, so I guess I just never gave it much thought.

I do have some cherry tomatoes in the garden - I will see if I can get her to eat a little of that. That should really help her if she does have some kind of infection.

Can I ask why mealworms should only make up 1 to 10 percent of their diet? Not trying to be snarky, just curious and trying to learn. I'm sure I read somewhere that they eat mostly bugs and very small animals when they are young, and not much plant matter, but of course, who knows if that was correct.