All Turtles Message Board

Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

I recreated this because this is a more appropriate forum for it.

I was looking at some balanced meal care sheets for turtles and wondered if the following concoction would be a good idea.

1lbs extra lean ground beef
1 cup of shredded and softened red and green lettuce
1/4 of a cup of shredded and softened carrot
2 tablespoons of tomato pulp
half of a cuttlebone crushed and powdered

I figured I'd boil the carrot and lettuces for a couple of minutes, add them too a blender with the meat, tomato pulp, and cuttlebone power, and make it into a meat paste.

Then every second day I'd feed my Thor a meatball the size of his head... Cooked or uncooked?

Might add some earthworms, crickets and the like to the mix in limited quantities.

Whats your take?

Let me know if I'm on to something, what I should add, omit, etcetera.

Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

Well thanks a lot for your input, this message board is about as active as my grandma.
Now if it could be as active as her bladder, that be fine.

Anyways, I tried out my concoction, and low and behold, Thor ate it, has a good mix of vitamins as far as I can tell, I put a bunch of green lettuce, some carrots, a bit of zuchinni, about half a thing of cuttlebone, all blended into a pound of extra lean ground beef, made little balls out of it, cooked it a bit so it hold together well.

What do you think?

STRAYKINGFISHER · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:39 pm Post subject:

Sounds good to me, just don't use iceberg lettuce or spinach, the turtle can't process the spinach and the iceberg lettuce really has no nutrients at all that the turtle can use, also, the spinach will interfere with how the turtle uses the calcium it eats.
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Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

I made sure check a few sites before, ended up on redearedsliders.com , and they had a listing of what sort of foods to give, and at what frequency.

So I used green leaf lettuce, made 3 cups of it chopped for 1 pound of extra lean beef.

They said moderate usage of carrots, so I added about three quarters cup shredded to the mix.
Half a cup of zucchini, and half a tomato.

Since my guy doesn't seem to eat cuttlebone on his own, I took half of one, crushed it up.

Put it all in the blender with some fresh water, and ended up with very green ground beef, just in time for st-patties Very Happy

!

He didn't seem to go for the raw one, but when I seared a meatball of it, cooled it off, he went for it right away!

So far as I can tell this is a great nutritious meal that should meet all his requirements.

Its very messy though, so I feed him in a rubbermaid container.
Each 2 days should be alright.

All in all it was a maybe an 8 dollar investment, and I don't see store food being much more balanced or fresh, and if feeding him a head sized meatball every two to three days is enough, this'll last a year!

Think I should add more cuttlebone to the mix, or something else?

STRAYKINGFISHER · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:31 am Post subject:

That amount of cuttlebone sounds good to me, besides, if you mess with the recipie too much, he may not eat it, you know that he will eat this one so I'd leave it alone.
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Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

True, I just wanted to make sure I had my guy covered nutritionally.
But I did worry about messing up the mix and having wasted it all!

STRAYKINGFISHER · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:59 pm Post subject:

Maybe try a small batch with boiled chicken instead of ground beef, chicken has less fat so it won't make him any fatter.
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garothmaan · Level 1 Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 9

hi all

All these feeding topics are do not specify the age group of turtles and their type..

Can you be more specific about the species too?

regds
garothmaan (India, Mumbai)
RES & Yellow belly

Bubonic · Level 2 Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 81

Thor is presumably a male, a res, and around 8 to 9 years old.
And he loves the preparation I made for him, good thing I feed him in a rubbermaid though, the stuff makes a big mess.