Red belly cooter

Question
I recently purchased a red belly cooter(4" male)from a breeder.(1 week ago)
I have uva/b + night heat and day heat, avg day temp is 85 avg night is 75 with a water temp that doesn't dip below 75
he lives in a 20 gallon long.
My problem is that I think  my mother may have spoiled him already. he was being fed reptomin by the breeder, unfortunately the pet store I work in was out, so I bought juvie zoo-med for aquatic turtles. he was eating just fine, munching on carrots and elodea. Then we gave him a taste of a few guppies and my mom has been feeding him a cube of blood worms daily- despite me advising them not so often.
now he will not eat his pellets or any greens..he still munches on the carrots.

so- should I pull the old " he'll eat when he's hungry" or should I try to switch him back to his reptomin?? also, what are your thoughts on feeding the blood worms? my manager recommended them after we didn't see a bowel movement since we bought him. he did poop but I only saw it once.

Answer
I am curious- is it 4" straight-line shell measurement, curved shell measurement, or snout to tail? We usually measure straight-line shell, and that would put your guy at about 3-5 years old. That is right about the edge of being able to accurately sex a turtle- the other two measurements would usually make it too small to sex accurately.

The typical diet for a cooter this size would be about 2/3rds or so meats, and 1/3rd or so vegetation. I generally recommend that about 1/2 of the diet be good brand pellets and most of the rest live or frozen/thawed 'fish foods'- all kinds of worms, insects, small fish, shrimp, snails, krill, beef heart, etc. A small part would be water plants, dark leafy greens, and a little carrot or other materials. I usually prefer growing live water plants in the tank and tossing in the otherwise annoying snails that reproduce so quickly so it can snack when it wants.

Bloodworms are OK, and definitely better than mealworms. Earthworms, especially those that have been fed on bran and calcium-enriched meal, are great.

As far as getting back on track... we tend to massively overfeed turtles so just offer it small amounts of good food and it will eat when it is hungry. I recommend pellets only for now, but you can do whatever works for you.

Try this article and others at the site it is posted at: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/care.htm