Me too!I just love him to pieces.
Me three!!!Me too!
I still can't get Scratch to eat anything other than pellets, mealworms and red shrimp. Going to keep trying. He is stubborn.
I feed him twice a day, is that too much?You might try leaving the food in overnight, though I do realize that you don't want food sitting in the tank and making the water go bad faster.
Alternatively, you could simply leave the food in there for an hour. And then if he doesn't eat it within that hour, then he just doesn't eat today. Granted, I wouldn't go more than a few days using the "starvation method", especially for a turtle that small. But he'll be fine without food for 2 or 3 days. But I'm betting that if you devote the next 2 or 3 days to only feeding it what you want it to eat, that he'll be eating it by thursday.
Just out of curiosity, how often are you feeding it? Just curious, because if he's so picky that he won't even accept scraps of chicken, then it doesn't sound like he's THAT hungry.
When my mud turtle was a baby I only fed her once a day.I feed him twice a day, is that too much?
I feed him twice a day, is that too much?
Oh great...my turtle is a fat kid . I picked up more chicken, will stick with that for a few days and report back. Thanks for all the help!Well, I guess that depends on how much food you offer during a feeding. But yeah...I'd wager that you're feeding the turtle too much.
Not only is that a good way to get abnormally fast growth (and possibly obesity and other health problems), that's also a good way to ensure that your turtle is NEVER hungry enough to eat what it doesn't like since it knows that it's got another meal coming shortly.
For a turtle that size, I wouldn't feed more than once a day. And even then, you still have to keep an eye on them to make sure they aren't getting fat. But snapping turtles will DEFINITELY gorge themselves on more food than they need. And just like a fat kid who refuses to eat his salad because his parents keep giving in and buying him cheeseburgers, he's going to turn down the food that he doesn't like if he keeps on getting cheeseburgers. A fat kid who begs his parents for cheeseburgers and then turns down a salad isn't REALLY hungry. He's just a fat kid who likes cheeseburgers. If he were REALLY hungry, he'd eat his salad.
If you want the turtle to eat something that it doesn't like, I recommend cutting down on feeding. He'll eat it if he gets hungry enough. Common snapping turtles are generally not so picky that they'll starve themselves because they aren't getting fed their preferred food. Just like most people, they have preferences but if they get hungry enough then they'll eat what's available. I defeinitely don't recommend actually starving the turtle, but a few days without food ought to get him hungry enough to eat what you're giving him. Then after he's recognized it as actual suitable food, it ought to be easier to get him to keep on eating it.
Well who doesn't like sushi!When my mud turtle was a baby I only fed her once a day.
Now that she's bigger, she's gotten picky about food! If I try to feed her daily, she will ignore food she doesn't care for. I feed her every other day now, and that works well.
If she had HER way, she'd only ever get sushi-grade raw salmon!!!! She loves it and will absolutely STUFF herself. Then she totally ignores the catfish I give her for the next week or so. So salmon is only an occasional treat.
I'll post some soon! He is up to 164 grams nowA few new pictures of this little sweetheart would be nice!
You may have to change his name to "Chunk!"I'll post some soon! He is up to 164 grams now