HELP: TL's ALLIGATOR SNAPPING TURTLE Diet and Care Questions

[BronxZooFrank]

WOAH this is great information! really learnt a lot from this! but yess the varied diet definitely sounds better. living in malaysia i have easy access to baby tilapia and other freshwater fish (whole). furthermore i currently have a 13,000 gal pond in my house... once my fish move to my new 100 foot pond late next year, my house pond will be pretty much empty. i can transfer the turtle there if need be... but he is only 4-5 inches atm... im sure he will take a while to ourgrow his blue tub, followed by his 600 gal tank that i have at the ready. So basically i will try to feed him a varied diet of WHOLE fish, shrimp and maybe even live food from the fish shop.

you mentioned turtle pellets earlier. Im sure they are packed with nutrients... but other than turtle pellets did you guys at the zoo have to train them to eat fruits and vegetables to get a balanced diet once in a while?

Hi,

Thx for the kind words...sounds like you are set up as well or better than most zoos! There's been some anecdotal reports of fruit being taken, along with small seeds/nuts (oak acorns) but these seem not to be important in the diet..man very old animals, breeding, without; most turtle chows have plant-based products included. Enjoy, please keep me posted; if you have a chance to post on the articles I've sent, I'm sure my other readers would love hearing about your plans, progress; scroll to end of article and post when/if you get a chance, best, Frank

 

[TLkmDN]

Hi,

Thx for the kind words...sounds like you are set up as well or better than most zoos! There's been some anecdotal reports of fruit being taken, along with small seeds/nuts (oak acorns) but these seem not to be important in the diet..man very old animals, breeding, without; most turtle chows have plant-based products included. Enjoy, please keep me posted; if you have a chance to post on the articles I've sent, I'm sure my other readers would love hearing about your plans, progress; scroll to end of article and post when/if you get a chance, best, Frank

sweet thanks for the confirmation Frank... your advice and the sight of your 50 year old turtle has given me a lot more confidence... right now i start feeding my little guy whole fish, shrimps and fish meat all stuffed with nutrafin turtle pellets.... hopefully he gets all the nutrients he needs and yes i will definitely document my journey with this little guy... btw your articles are amazing... i read them both TWICE

 

[TLkmDN]

Hi,

Thx for the kind words...sounds like you are set up as well or better than most zoos! There's been some anecdotal reports of fruit being taken, along with small seeds/nuts (oak acorns) but these seem not to be important in the diet..man very old animals, breeding, without; most turtle chows have plant-based products included. Enjoy, please keep me posted; if you have a chance to post on the articles I've sent, I'm sure my other readers would love hearing about your plans, progress; scroll to end of article and post when/if you get a chance, best, Frank

oh and yeaaa i have a lot of big enclosures because i keep lots of huge fish like arapaimas... paroon sharks and red tail catfish, garfish etc... so finding him a home wont be an issue... the problem is that he has to live alone otherwise he will destroy my fish as he gets bigger and bigger!

 

[BronxZooFrank]

sweet thanks for the confirmation Frank... your advice and the sight of your 50 year old turtle has given me a lot more confidence... right now i start feeding my little guy whole fish, shrimps and fish meat all stuffed with nutrafin turtle pellets.... hopefully he gets all the nutrients he needs and yes i will definitely document my journey with this little guy... btw your articles are amazing... i read them both TWICE

Much appreciated! Enjoy, Frank