baby yellow bellied turtles

Question
Hi,

We bought two baby yellow bellied turtles the other day, we have set the tank up and they seem pretty happy swimming around, i read on the internet that it is good practise for them to hunt by putting live fish into a tank, we were curious to know what type of fish to use as we are not sure what they will like and we don't want to poison our them! Thanks Jo

Answer
Dear Jo,
thank you for your question.
Guppies and goldfish are for example save, but I recommend housing the fish in another tank for a while because petshops often have less than ideal conditions and don't feed them very well. They will be more nutritious for the turtles after spending some time in a tank with clean water and eating good food. You just need to make sure that the fish are small enough for the turtles to eat. Othwise they will rip the fishes to pieces alive or may even suffocate on a fish that's too big for them. If you can find someone who owns guppies, you will probably not have a problem with getting babies.
It might be that the turtles don't hunt them, though, so don't get too many at first. Live fish should also only be an occasional treat.
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer