turtles feeding habits

Question
i have a pair of slider turtles. they seem to be very fussy about their food. when we first bought them, one of them would eat the turtle food. but thye other one would not even look at it. so we tried giving them minced chicken. they seemed to agree with it for some months but now they would eat nothing but live blood worms which we generally feed the fish. my friend's turtles generally eat everything given to them, ranging from turtle food to greens and vegetables to meat. why then are our turtles so fussy about their food. kindly help us in finding as to why this is happening as we are very worried that they might catch some sort of  infections from the worms or get some deficiency disease due to overintake of meat.
thanking you,
yours truly,
kavita

Answer
Well I can't help you very much since you did not give me any of the background information on your habitat size, how old the turtles are, if you have filters, tank heaters, what the water temp is, what the basking temp is, if you have UVB lighting, etc....I need this information in order to answer these questions, and that's why I ask for it in my instructions. I don't even know how much of what you feed the turtles, so I don't know if it is an "overintake" of meat.

This lack of appetite or pickiness in the diet could be due to many things, such as: lack of UV, basking or water temps are too low, parasites, infection, or you have just conditioned them wrong in the feedings. But I can't be more specific without more specific details.

It is not excessive meat that could pose a problem. In young turtles excessive protein, period, could cause growth to be too rapid, resulting in deformities. Young sliders are mostly carnivorous however. In any turtle excessive protein can also cause liver or kidney damage. The meals need to be balanced with variety. For protein sources, boiled chicken, crickets, blood worms, earthworms, etc. are good sources of protein. Sliders also normally like anacharis plant and seaweed. Our Slider does not care much for greens, but he will eat finely graded ( almost mush ) carrots, sweet potato, and squashes.

The most important thing first is for you to verify that your keeping practices are correct. This means proper temps, filtration, UVB lighting, proper space, a dry place to bask, etc. Check the following pages to confirm your husbandry and look for diet ideas.

If you have concerns about your turtles developing parasites, then take them to the vet for a treatment of Panacur 100mg/Kg, repeated after 2 weeks.

http://anapasid.org.mainchelonians.html
http://austinsturtlepage.com
http://www.allturtles.com/setup/indoorWT.php
http://www.geocities.com/margareth100.geo/res.html