Mealworms for turtles

[Beanie RES]

Are mealworms good for turtles?

 

[dmmj]

What kind of a turtle? because of the hard exoskeleton, most use them sparingly.

 

[Beanie RES]

What kind of a turtle? because of the hard exoskeleton, most use them sparingly.

Mine is an RES

 

[dmmj]

RF's can eat meal worms, but I feed mine the softer bodied insects personally. Wax worms, earth worms, and night crawlers.

 

[zenoandthetortoise]

I don't use a lot of mealworms, but they are handy to have on hand. I have found if I remove the media they are packed in and replace with flax seed meal, and left over Mazuri crumbs they are much less chitonous, at least by feel. Hopefully there is a 'gut loading' benefit as well. Being from California, they are of course raised gluten free.

 

[Randi]

Your turtle would love mealworms. If you have large sliders, you can try Kingworms (giant mealworms). They are also readily available and last quite a long time if cared for properly. I keep my mealies on rolled oats and wheat germ. I use mealies for my Reeves and used to use them when I had four sliders and had no issues personally.

Wax worms are good but can be fattening if used too often. You can try feed butterworms but the same applies. Earthworms and night crawlers, as mentioned above work too.

 

[Beanie RES]

RF's can eat meal worms, but I feed mine the softer bodied insects personally. Wax worms, earth worms, and night crawlers.

Your turtle would love mealworms. If you have large sliders, you can try Kingworms (giant mealworms). They are also readily available and last quite a long time if cared for properly. I keep my mealies on rolled oats and wheat germ. I use mealies for my Reeves and used to use them when I had four sliders and had no issues personally.

Wax worms are good but can be fattening if used too often. You can try feed butterworms but the same applies. Earthworms and night crawlers, as mentioned above work too.

Theres no aquarium shop in my town that sell worms other than mealworms .
My turtle is about two inches. I tried to feed her a small mealworm but i think the shell is too hard for her:/
Plus I just learnt about pyramiding and find that she has both soft shell and pyramiding problems! So maybe the worms just hav to wait...

 

[Anthony P]

Why risk impaction when this is just a treat anyway?

If you have a RES, it would better to focus on what greens to offer as supplementation, not what protein sources can be offered. Good pellet as a staple and greens. Ditch the protein.

 

[Beanie RES]

Why risk impaction when this is just a treat anyway?

If you have a RES, it would better to focus on what greens to offer as supplementation, not what protein sources can be offered. Good pellet as a staple and greens. Ditch the protein.

She doesn't touch any greens i offer her :/

 

[Randi]

It is my understanding that growing babies like and require more animal protein in their diets until they are bigger, and then they would need less animal protein in their diets and more vegetable matter when they are bigger.

All of my feeding except pellets is in a container. You may want to consider feeding outside their tank, it will keep your tank a lot cleaner. They may also poop in the container after they eat which also helps. I offer pellets in the morning. I use a variety of pellets; you can also try to offer omega one cichlid pellets. My little guy hated pellets until he tried those. I also use Repashy Savory Stew. You use really hot water, mix in the powder and let it cool. It becomes a jelly that you feed. You can also refrigerate.

When I had 4 RES, they loved to eat aquatic plants called Anubias, Cabomba, Cryptocorne, Hornwort, and I'd keep the Cabomba and Hornwort in a container instead of the tank as they break up and make a mess. I also offered chopped lettuces (green and red leaf lettuce, romaine, I'd do small amounts of spinach, radicchio, etc). The turtles may take some time to eat greens but I'd keep offering until they do.

I am not an expert but these are some things I did for my sliders and I try for my Reeves turtle. Good luck with feeding.