My turtle thinks she's a tortoise!

[Shelly]

I have a great big Red Bellied Slider that recently has started grazing on grass, just like a tortoise. She will graze for a while, until she has a full mouth, then she returns to the pond, sticks her head under water, and swallows. Video
She is a VERY smart girl, and often joins us in the pool for our afternoon swim. When she sees us swimming, she'll come out of the pond, wander over to the pool and hop in!
For the most part I am not attached to my turtles like I am to my tortoises, but she is the exception. She's is a really neat animal. I need to name her one of these days......

 

[Yvonne G]

John:

Your new avatar is priceless!

Never saw that about your turtle before. Amazing. Guess she felt she needed some roughage in her diet.

 

[tortoises101]

Wow, that's so neat! Who knew you had a tortle?

 

[Candy]

I'm not familiar with turtles. Do they not eat grass? I love the part about her swimming with you guys. I would love to see a video of that sometime.

 

[dmarcus]

That is different and cool..

 

[Missy]

That is one smart turtle

 

[Len B]

That's cool, the video isn't long enough. I have a male, Sparky, he is 12 years old and he comes out of the pond towards me (or whoever may be close) looking for food, but never seen him graze.

 

[Shelly]

I'm not familiar with turtles. Do they not eat grass?

They eat aquatic plants, but it's pretty rare for them to eat "land" plants. At least in my experience.

 

[Angi]

Very cool and he is pretty too

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Very interesting. I wonder if he needs more algae in his diet? Also, interesting to see how he needs to put his head underwater to swallow the food he had gathered on land. Terrestrial animals have bigger tongues than their aquatic counterparts, since they can't rely on a jet of water to move food backward into the throat. Underwater, a tongue would only get in the way, so aquatic animals have smaller tongues, but rely on the water to manipulate their food instead.

 

[terryo]

That is amazing. If I had not seen your video, I would not have believed it. I have never seen a water turtle do that in all the years I have been keeping them.

 

[SnakeyeZ]

Cool! Nice tortle.

 

[dmmj]

Mine eat grass but it is grass I throw into the enclosure for them to eat, this is the first I have seen that eats it like that.

 

[Melly-n-shorty]

that is one cool turtle!

 

[ascott]

it is awesome that you have shared this ..... why not...maybe the grass is yummy.....I throw dandelion greens in for my RESs and they go crazy over it....just a treat for them

 

[Saloli]

thats not that rare, though it is interesting. they eat mostly plants as adults any way, though as far as grasses go they are usually things like cord grass (marsh grass), switch grass and the like. they also eat reeds, rushes (not a grass but related) and sedges also not a grass but related.