Hi,
I would like advise on how to encourage my box turtle to eat more often and not be picky in what she eats since she's been very picky for the past 1.5 months or so. Background on her follows below in the event that helps with any advise you can provide.
I've had my box turtle since May when I found her along the side of the road in my urban community. I built her an outdoor pen outside of my house and she stayed outdoors all summer but starting in Oct., I started bringing her indoors overnight on nights that got colder than 55-60 degrees. In the past month, she is now exclusively indoors for the winter and not eating as much and being quite picky about her food.
While she wasn't too keen on eating greens this summer, it seems like now that she's indoors, she just had no interest in them. I've tried feeding her different green-leaved veggies and even planted weeds such as dandelions in her indoor pen for her to munch on (not happening). I also gave her some purple cabbage (softened from cooking) the other day and she wasn't interested in that either. Recently, she has been nibbling on things that are very brightly colored such as sweet potato and red bell peppers. I also saw that a banana piece that I dropped in yesterday was also nibbled on.
This has been a mild weather weekend so I went outside this morning and got some worms and a slug from my garden and dropped those in her feeding area. She ate the slug and one of the worms (it can take her a few minutes to decide whether or not to go after what's in front of her).
I'm worried that she's not eating enough. I took her to the vet about a month ago to have her checked out because she started to be picky a little before that and he essentially said that she looked good and gave me a de-wormer upon my request. But I haven't given her the de-wormer yet because I am scared of wasting it by putting it on food that she won't eat.
I would love advise from those of you who've gone through something like this before. Thank you!
I would like advise on how to encourage my box turtle to eat more often and not be picky in what she eats since she's been very picky for the past 1.5 months or so. Background on her follows below in the event that helps with any advise you can provide.
I've had my box turtle since May when I found her along the side of the road in my urban community. I built her an outdoor pen outside of my house and she stayed outdoors all summer but starting in Oct., I started bringing her indoors overnight on nights that got colder than 55-60 degrees. In the past month, she is now exclusively indoors for the winter and not eating as much and being quite picky about her food.
While she wasn't too keen on eating greens this summer, it seems like now that she's indoors, she just had no interest in them. I've tried feeding her different green-leaved veggies and even planted weeds such as dandelions in her indoor pen for her to munch on (not happening). I also gave her some purple cabbage (softened from cooking) the other day and she wasn't interested in that either. Recently, she has been nibbling on things that are very brightly colored such as sweet potato and red bell peppers. I also saw that a banana piece that I dropped in yesterday was also nibbled on.
This has been a mild weather weekend so I went outside this morning and got some worms and a slug from my garden and dropped those in her feeding area. She ate the slug and one of the worms (it can take her a few minutes to decide whether or not to go after what's in front of her).
I'm worried that she's not eating enough. I took her to the vet about a month ago to have her checked out because she started to be picky a little before that and he essentially said that she looked good and gave me a de-wormer upon my request. But I haven't given her the de-wormer yet because I am scared of wasting it by putting it on food that she won't eat.
I would love advise from those of you who've gone through something like this before. Thank you!