Baby painted turtle

Question
I found a baby painted turtle on my brother's lawn. I bought a tank, food and a heat/uvb light for it. I swims around just fine and basks just fine but it won't eat. I did feed it an earthworm and it nibbled on it a little bit but nothing else. Every time I put a worm in front of my turtle, it goes near it than swims away really fast. Is there anything I can feed my turtle so I know it's eating properly? Oh I also put meal worms in there also but by the time the baby turtle got around to biting on it it was dead and the turtle lost interest. It's fun to watch but I REALLY need to get him to eat. He's making me nervous. Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hello Shawn, I really suggest releasing the turtle where you found him and purchasing one from a breeder or pet store. He is too afraid to eat and thats why he swims away. He is afraid, think the worm is bait. "so this person is going to lure me in then eat me" is what is probably going through his mind. Keeping a wild turtle captive can cause a lot of stress.
But if I can not convince you to release him then you may as well know how to care for him.

Earth worms are good, chopped up small enough for him to eat, try commercial turtle pellets from pet stores (sometimes found at stores like Wal*Mart) mealworms, pet stores sell freeze dried krill, you can also get at the pet store little crickets and I am sure these will appear apetizing to him. They float, and will kick around in the water trying to escape and the turtle should have fun with it. Be sure the food items you are giving are no bigger then his head. And you may also want to try feeder fish. Small ones but they have a great time trying to eat them.

If none of this works then let me knwo and we can figure out something else.

-Yexalen