I think I am over feeding my Red Ear Slider . How many pellets in a day, and at a time, should I give to my baby Red Ear Slider who is 7 months old?

Pretty much anything he can eat in 10 minutes or so. Any uneaten food should be removed.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Liz, I can't understand.

She means that if you put food in front of the turtle, let it eat as much as it can for 10 minutes, then remove any uneaten food.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

I feed my turtles once a day, though I put in a bowl because they're really messy when eating

That is actually untrue. I know that's what is said on the bottle, but you are only supposed to feed them what you can fit in their hollowed out head. So at 7 months your turt is probably only a few inches long, so that means anywhere from 4-7 pellets. As he gets larger, you want to only offer the sticks every other day and start introducing veggies into his diet everyday.

I didn't know that I usually just fed them as much as they can eat, just like everyone else

Is it bad if they eat too much?

Yes. The traditional turtle sticks are high in protein and if they have too much protein in their diet, it can result in pyramiding which is irreversible.

What exactly is "pyramiding"? My RES is a complete pig who will never stop eatting if I allowed him to continue, so it is hard to determine how much is the right amount to feed him and he will go off looking for food once I am done feeding him for the day. As an example, I once bought a bag of feeder fish, roughly 7 fish, thinking they would swim around for a few days and he gobbled them all up in 20 minutes!! Mind you, live food is a once a month treat for my turtles.

Pyramiding is when the turtles grow too quickly and can't shed their scutes fast enough, so they have a build up of excess scutes and it looks like they have little pyramids all over their carapace. Turtles are excellent beggers, so don't give in. You should feed the amount of pellets that would fit in his head if it were hollow. If you post a pic, I can help determine the amount. If you're worried he's not getting enough, you can add some veggies. Anacharis, red leaf and green leaf lettuce are very popular. For the lettuce, just give about a shell sized piece once a day. And I'm glad that the rosies are only once a month! Good job!

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~Christi
1.0 Red Ear Slider: Mikey
1.0 Het for Albino Red Tail Boa Constrictor: Kaa
0.0.1 Northern Blue Tongue Skink: Petri
1.0 American Staffordshire Terrier/Lab: Brutus
1.0 German Shepherd: Pax
1.0 Husband: Will
“Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to a man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so do other creatures.”——His Holiness The Dalai Lama