Feeding Your Red Eared Slider Turtle - Helpful Ideas On What To Feed Your Slider

When feeding your red eared slider turtle, make certain that you are feeding it the correct amount of vegetation and animal protein. Young sliders need to eat larger amounts of protein than older sliders do because they are largely more carnivorous. Older turtles, however, eat mostly plant matter.

While younger sliders may not eat many greens and vegetables, it's a good idea to still offer them some as it's beneficial in getting the turtle to see it as something to eat. When they become adults, you can then switch to mostly feeding plant matter, in addition to some protein.

You can also offer your slider processed pellets. Pellets are fairly nutritious and have an adequate amount of vitamins and minerals included. They can also be quite convenient to feed for turtle owners. However, pellets should not be the main diet of your slider. To help make sure your pet is getting all the nutrients it needs to grow and be healthy, a variety of proteins, vegetables, and greens need to be included.

When feeding red eared sliders protein, you have several foods to choose from. Some include: earthworms, aquatic snails, locusts, crickets, bloodworms, and feeder fish (such as guppies and danios).

Ideas for what vegetation to feed are: beets, dandelion greens, squash, carrots, green beans, and Romaine lettuce. Avoid feeding iceberg lettuce as it has little nutrition.

If your slider lives in a pond, you can also add aquatic plants to its diet. It would love to eat submerged plants like frogbit, hornwort, anacharis, and duckweed.