I found a way to get my baby and juvenile box turtles to eat non-living food.

[Saleama]

My babies and juveniles were in the bad habit of only wanting live food and not eating fruits or veggies. I found a way to get them to not only eat, but to eat a ton! First, the mix. I mix boiled egg, boiled chicken, boiled yam, finely chopped greens, diced strawberries, diced apple, and small diced raw sirloin with the fat cut off. I add a little bit of finely ground eggshell once a week. At first I served them on terra cotta saucers and there was no interest from any of the 15 little turkeys! One day when I went to feed them, I had not cleaned all the saucers so I grabbed a red plastic lid from some wal-mart storage containers and used those instead. Not only did they eat, they destroyed the food in minutes. Now, every time they see me come in and clean up their dish (it gets quite a bit of substrate on it) they all gather around the food area waiting for me to get back with the chow. Even the tiny babies get into it! Without a control group I have no way of knowing if it was the red of the lid or just the right time but I will not go back to using the saucers for food.
They still get their worms and crickets, but I make them work for those now.

 

[lynnedit]

I'll be searching for a red plastic lid, lol

 

[Jolly Tort Girl]

I'll be searching for a red plastic lid, lol

Sometimes walmart has red plates in their summer plates section and dollar tree is a good place for cheapies, too.

 

[Flipper]

I was just at the dollar store and they had red and orange 4 pack of plastic plates

 

[Jolly Tort Girl]

I also got my soak tub there for my little Russian tortoise. I originally got an aluminum baking pan for the water in my Redfoot's indoor enclosure because it was shallow and he could easily get in and out of it easily and I didn't have to worry about him if he flipped, but he promptly trampled it flat, so back to the drawing board on that one.