What Do You Feed Baby Box Turtles?
Box turtles, also known as box tortoises, are very common in the eastern United States. Often found crawling around in the grass in a backyard or in a forest, box turtle babies are often captured and kept as pets. However, keeping a baby box turtle healthy in captivity can be a very daunting task, especially for young children, as its dietary requirements can be very foreboding.
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Omnivores
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Most baby box turtles are carnivorous, meaning they'll mostly eat meat products. However, as they grow older, box turtles tend to switch to a herbivorous lifestyle. All-in-all, box turtles are classified as omnivores, with babies in particular being difficult to feed.
Insects
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Most of a baby turtle's diet should be composed of very small insects. Tiny slugs, pinhead crickets, earthworms, beetles, caterpillars, practically any insect small enough to fit into the baby's mouth it may eat. Many insects can be purchased in freeze-dried cans. Healthy baby turtles, particularly those taken from the wild, will most likely hesitate to eat freeze-dried items that may not move. You can coax them into eating it by holding it to their mouths until they realize that it's food.
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Other Meat
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Box turtles will eat practically any meat they can find, though babies may be hesitant to try something unfamiliar. They will eat anything from salamanders to tadpoles, and even small chunks of meat like diced up cooked chicken. Place the chicken on a shallow dish and dice it up small enough to fit into the babies' mouths.
Plants
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Baby box turtles will typically not bother with plant material, but if you can get them to eat it, it'll add healthy vitamins and nutrients to their diet. Moss, berries, and grasses are acceptable, as well as fungi like certain mushrooms. These also have to be cut into very small pieces for the turtle to swallow. Box turtles, even adults, do not eat greens like lettuce.
Packaged Foods
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There are many packaged foods available for baby box turtles, which are usually small pellets or sticks you can place on a dish in their terrariums. However, it is highly unlikely that baby box turtles will recognize such pellets as a food item. The turtle will likely reject them.
Fish
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Young box turtles spend most of their time near water like ponds and streams where their foods are easier to catch. It's possible that a baby box turtle may chase after small feeder goldfish or guppies placed in a shallow dish of water in their terrarium. However, fish are usually not great food items as they are susceptible to carrying parasites and water-borne bacteria. Fish should be a treat for your turtle, and should be fed no more than once a week or so.
Warning
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Most baby box turtles taken from the wild will have immense difficulty adapting to a captive lifestyle and eating provided foods. Though success is always a possibility, the best course of action for a captured box turtle is to simply set it back into its natural environment, where food, water, shelter and sunlight will be abundant. Wild box turtles rarely travel more than a few miles from where they are born, and removing them from their natural environments can prove to be very stressful for the animal.
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References
- Photo Credit turtle image by Maciej Syrek from Fotolia.com
