Soldier fly larvae as protein staple for painted Turtles?

[Insculpta]

Hi everyone, I was told I should post here since turtlefourm is basically a dead website. Got a weird question:

As my three turtles have matured I have had success getting them to finally eat their greens and their pellet consumption has gone down to twice a week while accepting greens for their other feedings. I am probably about a month from running out of pellets (I always bought in large quantities so it’s been several years since I have had to purchase pellets). My dilemma is that I have now been vegan for a number of years now and am having trouble purchasing pellets with fish, egg products and other animal ingredients. Now I did not come here to discuss the ethics of veganism and I do not intend to “force” my turtles to eat strictly plant based.


From my understanding wild painted turtles eat a mix of plant and aquatic larvae and rarely prey on fish. I find it a much better alternative to feed my turtles an insect based diet which matches their normal feeding behaviors and more closely aligns to my values. Do any of you have experience feeding insect protein as a turtles primary protein source? It would of course be in conjunction with plants such as duckweed, water hyacinths, hornwort, carrots, kale and other turtle favorites.


my idea is for it to be primarily black soldier fly larvae as it’s seemingly the closest to what they would eat in the wild while being commercially available. Do you think this would work? I am happy to hear other suggestions too. Thank you for your help!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Welcome to the forum!
Unfortunately I'm a member with no aquatic turtle experience.
But we have MANY members that do.
One should be around soon

 

[DoubleD1996!]

Black soldier fly larvae are great and a very good source of calcium. A varied diet is always best. Painteds are omnivores so you want a wide range.

I like insects, aquatic plants, minnows, crustaceans, etc.

 

[Tom]

Hi everyone, I was told I should post here since turtlefourm is basically a dead website. Got a weird question:

As my three turtles have matured I have had success getting them to finally eat their greens and their pellet consumption has gone down to twice a week while accepting greens for their other feedings. I am probably about a month from running out of pellets (I always bought in large quantities so it’s been several years since I have had to purchase pellets). My dilemma is that I have now been vegan for a number of years now and am having trouble purchasing pellets with fish, egg products and other animal ingredients. Now I did not come here to discuss the ethics of veganism and I do not intend to “force” my turtles to eat strictly plant based.


From my understanding wild painted turtles eat a mix of plant and aquatic larvae and rarely prey on fish. I find it a much better alternative to feed my turtles an insect based diet which matches their normal feeding behaviors and more closely aligns to my values. Do any of you have experience feeding insect protein as a turtles primary protein source? It would of course be in conjunction with plants such as duckweed, water hyacinths, hornwort, carrots, kale and other turtle favorites.


my idea is for it to be primarily black soldier fly larvae as it’s seemingly the closest to what they would eat in the wild while being commercially available. Do you think this would work? I am happy to hear other suggestions too. Thank you for your help!

Black soldier fly larva are good, but you need much more variety. Pellets are balanced nutrition and meet all of their needs. Just like with people or dogs, it is possible to meet the dietary needs without commercially prepared foods, but it is exceedingly difficult and expensive, and mistakes are often made.

For the long term health of your turtles, some occasional pellets like the ones from Mazuri or ZooMed or Omega One, would be of great benefit. If you really don't want to do this because it conflicts with your personal values, perhaps you should re-home your turtle group, and consider a species or tortoise or uromastix that eat a 100% plant based weedy diet. Whether it is fish or chicken or insects, turtles do need a protein source. Pellets are an easy, nutritionally balanced way to provide this. Omega One has a video on their site showing how the protein sources for their foods are ethically sourced. Without knowing what your reservations are, I thought that I might offer that as a source to look into for you.

 

[TammyJ]

The turtles would probably eat earthworms and slugs, woodworms too. If that's ok with you. Just my offering. I kept omnivorous turtles for over 20 years.

 

[Insculpta]

Black soldier fly larva are good, but you need much more variety. Pellets are balanced nutrition and meet all of their needs. Just like with people or dogs, it is possible to meet the dietary needs without commercially prepared foods, but it is exceedingly difficult and expensive, and mistakes are often made.

For the long term health of your turtles, some occasional pellets like the ones from Mazuri or ZooMed or Omega One, would be of great benefit. If you really don't want to do this because it conflicts with your personal values, perhaps you should re-home your turtle group, and consider a species or tortoise or uromastix that eat a 100% plant based weedy diet. Whether it is fish or chicken or insects, turtles do need a protein source. Pellets are an easy, nutritionally balanced way to provide this. Omega One has a video on their site showing how the protein sources for their foods are ethically sourced. Without knowing what your reservations are, I thought that I might offer that as a source to look into for you.

My main issue is feeding vertebrate animals like fish which are in every single commercial turtle diet, I have less of a problem feeding invertebrates like worms, shrimp, and insects. (Sadly even “bug based” turtle formulas still contain fish). I’m more asking if anyone has had success feeding a diet of whole plants (duckweed, water lettuce, hornwort, lettuce, carrots, ect…) and invertebrates to painted turtles. Seeing as that makes up most of their diet in the wild I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in captivity.

 

[Insculpta]

The turtles would probably eat earthworms and slugs, woodworms too. If that's ok with you. Just my offering. I kept omnivorous turtles for over 20 years.

I’m definitely more ok feeding inverts than vertebrates, and I would feed a pelleted diet if I could find one without fish. Even supposedly “bug based” turtle diets always have fish as the second ingredient. As I’ve yet to find a suitable pellet diet I want to look into feeding variety of inverts and lots of plants such as duckweed, water hyacinths, water lettuce, hornwort and other vegetables like carrots, greens and other turtle safe human veggies.

 

[jeff kushner]

I might be able to help.....go down to the local park....what are they eating? Replicate it.

LOL I'm teasing mostly but nature does a pretty good job so you always have that point of reference. I kept several large tanks with water turtles for decades. Once you get the tank in balance with the residents, it's a snap.

As far as food goes.....You have already got the perfect advice from some real talent above, no sense in me repeating it.

Painted turtles rarely eat fish in the wild because they can rarely CATCH fish. I would dip a minnow net every once in a while and dump the contents into the tanks. In an enclosed space, it was just a matter of time. They LOVE fish.

Remember that an animal instinctively will gravitate to the most nutritional food source available to them b/c for them, it's a matter of survival. Sometimes the most nutritional isn't because they aren't fast enough or strong enough.

I could be wrong but I think that animal proteins pack the biggest punch for painted turtles. I know that you don't want to "force them vegan".....so maybe hold your nose and hit the "buy" key?

Variety is hard to maintain, takes a lot of space and a lot of time.....I learned, just as so many others have.


LOL

Best of luck to you....

jeff