Grapes?

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I have had many cases where freeze-dried were offered and the turtle refused anything else. Frozen has a lot of water and a little nutrition mixed in.

There is protein in the high quality pellets, and in proper amounts. I used live foods for a long time and had repeated problems with too much protein causing pyramiding. If you really want to feed some live foods, you should grow them yourself and use them as an occassional treat (grow some platies). Or you can use low risk foods like the worms and crickets mentioned. However, this is not necessary by any means and you might as well fill their stomachs with something more nutritious.

If he hit 5" in one year that is about the fastest growing turtle I have heard of. A pic would be needed to determine whether pyramiding has developed. Very fast growth like that can also cause problems like softshell, when the shell is growing so fast it can't be hardened enough. That situation can be caused by too much protein, as is the pyramiding.

Aggression can be a problem if he wants to keep fish with the turtle, or if the turtle ends up with other turtles. He may be alone now, but that doesn't mean he will be in five years when life happens and the turtle isn't in the same situation anymore.

As said, if he is 5" now, he should be out of that fast growth period of the first year or so that gets them from a very edible hatchling size, to a 3-5" or so that cuts down on the number of potential predators. He will be growing for quite a while still. If he will take the vegetation, give him some. If not, just try from time to time. Most will start taking veggies between 3-6". They are still growing, but the rate is not as fast.
 
Very valid points. I never have kept sliders before but I know that they grow very fast (for turtles). I do have friends that keep them. I have bred a few species of turtles, but the closest species I can compare sliders to were the Midland and Eastern Painted turtles I raised. I never had any problems getting them to eat. They ate just about anything you threw into their pond or tank. I kept them outdoors from late spring to early fall and they had access to aquatic plants the whole time. But even as adults, they're were more inclined to eat pellets and animal matter then plant material. They always receive a varied diet which worked for me for 15 years. At the moment I have a baby stinkpot and he's the same way: anything that touches the water is fair game. He has access to plant material but he never touches it. But of course you can't compare his biological needs to a Slider.
 
I have not bred them but raised many different types from hatchling. They all took Hagen NutraFin Mx Turtle Gammarus Pellets greedily. I raised many on just this alone until they were big enough for the variety of other pellets (especially Zoo Med). This was the best diet I have tried. Many things work, it is figuring out which is best that gets people going.
 
True, I think we just had this topic on here and it got a little heated, if you know what I mean. I don't have a problem with pellets, I feed my WATER turtles them but not my box turtles. I like to keep things close to how they live in the wild. That is why I like a varied diet (Sorry Loco) of all different things that they would feed on in the wild. Pellets are more or less the jam packed extra nutrition they might not get from the other food items.
 
I would include a pellet in the box turtles diet, but also have a a varied salad as well as other foods.
 
Well, I have been keeping and breeding them for 20 years now without the pellets and they've been just fine. But I do add vitamins and calcium to their food. They're my babies and I spoil them with a very mixed diet and selection.
 
True, but in 20 years that have come up with some really good prepared foods. Do you ever try different foods as they come out? Mazuri is supposed to be really good.
 
I am a firm believer of feeding a wide variety of "wholesome" foods, if the its readily accpeting grapes more power to it.
 
Yes, but sometimes animals will eat things that over time can cause problems. Foods that are generally fine (for us) can cause problems long term or immediately for many animals. For example grapes are not good for dogs. So, that is why I suggested double checking that as far as we know grapes are fine for turtles.
 
I am going to jump on here and state that a varied more natural diet is better for animals #1 if thats not an option then specialized pellets with natural diet products would be the #2 selection, I like those two selections because an all processed diet (which is what pellets are) does not have the same nutritional value that a combo of natural and processed or all natural have. There have been many breeders of lizards and torts and turts that have tried all pellet and they just didnt get the same results as natural processed combo. We can also say the same about UV lights for animals that need it versus natural sunlight. There is no way artifical lighting will ever be better than natural sunlight. Mother nature is better at this than we are.
 
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