How's it going, people? Here's the story... In L.A. County, some baby red-eared sliders were confiscated and the local tortoise/turtle club was adopting them out... So, my girlfriend and I saved five (5) of em! They're so cute! I'll get some pictures soon!

That's awesome! Your first turtles? Ever have questions, ask away! And take those pictures!

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

Sure thing!! I love these little guys! I think Spock (My Cham) was a little jealous... he just kept staring at us... heh heh

What's they're enclosure like? With 5 turtles, you'll need a huge cage eventually. Turtles need a lot of space compared to other herps of the similar size. Whatdya feed the little guys? Variety is key, especially since its so hard to use supplements on their food cause it just washes off in the water. If they're really small, they'll be strict carnivores, but as they get older you can add more vegetation to the diet. lol, I love turtles They're so different than any other animal.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

We've been feeding them chicken heart and whatnot... we froze the heart and stuff for a long time... so, I'm pretty sure it killed the bacteria...

Did you have it in your freezer? Just be careful. Normal household freezers won't eliminate salmonella or ecoli from food, and poultry tends to be a big carrier. Personally, I don't like to feed poultry or beef to my turtles. Just a safety precaution. Plus I don't know of any cow and chicken eating turtles in the wild

Try and offer some more variety though if you can. As stated earlier, its really tough to sucessfully use powdered supplements with aquatic turtles, so you need to offer a varied diet to ensure they're getting the nutrients they need. Calcium is especially important for young turtles. That shell doesn't grow out ofr thin air ya know.

If ya want more diet ideas, heres a list of some of the things you can offer to your turtles:

-F/T food: krill, brine shrimp, "blud"worms (hehe, had to find a way to cheat the 'puter's censor), daphnia, squid

-feeder fish: rosy-reds (minnows), goldfish, koi, guppies, tetras, danios

-feeder insects: crickets, mealworms, superworms, waxworms, butterworms,
cutworms, silkworms, roaches, maggots

-other unfortunate pet store critters: pinkies, snails, tadpoles

-bait: earthworms, leeches, frogs, salamanders, tadpoles, minnows

-WC: butterflies, moths, catarpillars, snails, slugs

-greens: dandelions, collards, bok choy, kale,

-fruits/veggies: banana, grapes, apple, pear, tomato

Keep in mind that they won't really accept plant matter until they're older. Also, when feeding plant material, make sure its soft enough for them and keeps fruits and veggies to a minimum. In the wild, they'd eat a few aquatic plants, which tend to be a lot softer than many of the plants on land. Banana is pretty soft, but apple must be cut into very small pieces. They'll always eat more meat than plants, but I like to offer dandelion greens and collards the most due to their higher calcium content. If you ever collect food from the wild, whether it be bugs or dandelions, make absolutely sure that you're collecting from a place without any chemicals nearby, like pesticides and fertilizers. Also avoid any bugs you think might be poisoness, or could possibly do harm to your turtles. Better safe than sorry. I think some turtles owners also feed some lean, cooked beef heart, but I don't. Oh, and don't ever feed your turtles hamburger or hotdogs. Those used to be very popular food items for turtles years ago, but they're not good for them at all.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

Cool, cool... I heard that "blud" worms carried a good amount of salmonella... We bought some, but, they fell between the rocks at the bottom!! I'll put some more in there.. Do you think I could find feeder fish small enough to feed this babies? They're probably only like 2"-3" long...

guppies are pretty small fish, and they breed like crazy....maybe try them?

Yeah, if you can find some small guppies, or baby mollies, another crazy breeder fish. Danios are also pretty small, and turtles can rip the fish up if they're slightly too large to be swallowed whole. Mine do it all the time. Makes a bit of a mess though. I'd say brine shrimp, daphnia, and krill, along with small fish, would make a good diet. Insects and earthworms too. You can offer small crix, mealworms, etc. Plus you can gutload the crix, so that will help. Every now and then put a little piece of greens in there, even a piece of lettuce, just to see if they accept it. If they start to eat it, you can start adding more greens to the diet. Always keep prey as the bulk of the diet though.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

Yeah, I think I'll try them... I'd really like to feed them live fish or something... Also.. I was thinking about some aquatic plants... what would be some good ones? How do you guys put the "blud" worms in there? Do you put a big dollop in there or what?