The Snapper Thread

[coura]

Actualy life feeders are a very poor food item for snappers, they can carry parasites and desiase. ALL snappers must be fed just like any other turtle and daily if small. Turtle pellets like reptomin are good staples along side stuff like earthworms, shrimp,mosquito larvae, blood worms and fish fillet.
By the way Armand I hope that rock pile is well glued together and cemented, or it can fall apart and kill your turtles (they will displace rocks not glued easily) Even then I see there spaces between the rocks were your turtles can get cauth and drown. You must fullfill the spaces with smaller rocks.

 

[ITHURTZ]

Actualy life feeders are a very poor food item for snappers, they can carry parasites and desiase. ALL snappers must be fed just like any other turtle and daily if small. Turtle pellets like reptomin are good staples along side stuff like earthworms, shrimp,mosquito larvae, blood worms and fish fillet.
By the way Armand I hope that rock pile is well glued together and cemented, or it can fall apart and kill your turtles (they will displace rocks not glued easily) Even then I see there spaces between the rocks were your turtles can get cauth and drown. You must fullfill the spaces with smaller rocks.

worms, and blood worms also carry the same problems as feeder fish. Thus why you quarantine for 4 weeks. I dont have 4 weeks so I dumped 12 feeder guppies in. So far I now have 6 baby feeder guppies to. Keep at it and I wont have to buy anymore! Wish the sucker ate, dont know if he ate any over night.

 

[coura]

worms, and blood worms also carry the same problems as feeder fish. Thus why you quarantine for 4 weeks. I dont have 4 weeks so I dumped 12 feeder guppies in. So far I now have 6 baby feeder guppies to. Keep at it and I wont have to buy anymore! Wish the sucker ate, dont know if he ate any over night.

To my knowlege blood worms and earthworms brougth from pet shops frozen or alive and even colected yourself in non contaminated areas dont carry any hazzard to turtles, having been using them for 16 plus years and they are great foods, earthworms are high in calcium and both are high in protein and great to entice young turtles to eat (of corse big earthworms must be sliced and cleaned of mud for young turts). On the contrary COFF COFF...feeder fish specialy from pet stores and not raised by yourself harbor...were do you want me to start? Tuberculosis, helmints, copper from fish farms,... They are very poor food choices and francly you cant expect a baby comon snapper wich have not the morphologic modificacions alis have to be a acompliched fish cacher for peat sake He is ment to go out in betwen aquatic plant searching for tiny worms, crustaceans, insect larvae,etc, just like any other baby turtle and not caching fish, even for aligator snappers feeder fish alone is far from ideal. You have to feed it a varied carnivorus diet ment for baby turtles , if your waiting for it to cach fish he may well starve to death. He isnt ment to do that

 

[ITHURTZ]

Like I said I put pellets in to, just to get him to bite, he either eats or doesnt eat, his choice.

 

[Armand]

Thanks Coura I havent read your comments in this section.

The stones in my setup are safe however I will replace them, I will put less stones and include some bogwood in order to decrease the risk my turt gets cought and drown, actually i have thought about it before and I have asure for that not to heppen but I think the only way to be 100% safe is to modify the setup.

Regarding feeding, gator snappers are more difficult to feed they are very willing to catch their own food, at least mine acts like a natural borne hunter all the time and it is rare to see him eating pellets, hoever he eats squid fillet and chicken breast.

I was adviced to feed them life feeders because they contain certain nutrients that are foud in life fish and when food is frozen it looses their properties , so keeping a gator S on this diet (frozen) might lead it to an edema desease...


What's your input?.

 

[coura]

Like I said I put pellets in to, just to get him to bite, he either eats or doesnt eat, his choice.

Most baby turtles dont recognise pelets as food straigth away, they will need time and some training to do so, in the mean time he needs food into its belly, if you just go to the pet store and buy some frozen brine shrimp and blood worms I will garantee that unless there is something wrong with your turtle he will acept them, its the stuff small turtles recognise instinctively as food. By the way what are the temps your keeping him at? Do you have uv ligth? Snappers dont need generaly uv ligth to be healty but untill he starts to consistently eat stuff with both calcium and vit D3 in it like tetra reptomin, it will be good to provide it just to be shure, this small turtles can enter discalsificacion very easily and before we know it its too late

 

[coura]

Thanks Coura I havent read your comments in this section.

The stones in my setup are safe however I will replace them, I will put less stones and include some bogwood in order to decrease the risk my turt gets cought and drown, actually i have thought about it before and I have asure for that not to heppen but I think the only way to be 100% safe is to modify the setup.

Regarding feeding, gator snappers are more difficult to feed they are very willing to catch their own food, at least mine acts like a natural borne hunter all the time and it is rare to see him eating pellets, hoever he eats squid fillet and chicken breast.

I was adviced to feed them life feeders because they contain certain nutrients that are foud in life fish and when food is frozen it looses their properties , so keeping a gator S on this diet (frozen) might lead it to an edema desease...


What's your input?.

The true is that in the wild aligator snappers eat allot more stuff then fish including amazingly stuff like fallen fruit and haycorns, and animal foods from tiny crustaceans and insects in the early ages, to racoons, snakes and ducks later. My basic advice it would be for you to give the most varied diet possible. In general feeder fish straigth from pet shops are a poor choice, if your gonna use them quarentine them first and feed them heavily with vegetable based foods to increase their nutricional value. Dont use goldfish, insted use a prolific one like mosquito fish or guppys so that you can raise your own, and use only fish that your turtle can injest in one sitting to avoid he problems you already have descrived. It would be good if you had the pacience to get a pair of sizors to target fed your snapper with reptomin, he will get the idea soon and you wont have to do it again. Crayfish that you raised or colected is good as it is small crabs and shrimp (remove any claws or sharp points before feeding), snails, big earthworms, small fish for human consupsion (possibly you will have to wait untill your snapper is bigger), clams, beef, chicken, turkey, fillet, squid, monster fish pellets, mice and slugs will all be acepted. Can you get a good reptile suplement like zoomeds reptivite? You use peaces of meat to wrap it and to give it to your turtle. And yes woule fish its better but you have to make shure it is from a good sorce, its healty and it has been gutloaded This is of corse valid for aligator snappers Comons give less efase to fish and will eat straigh away small non moving foods, there is no need to use feeder fish with comons. And like you already gessed bog wood its a much better material then big rocks and much safer

 

[ITHURTZ]

i have both blood worms and brine shrimp, he shows no interest in food yet. I went on a more knowledgeable forum and came to the conclusion that he just finished absorbing his egg sack so he should be eating maybe by the weekend.

 

[Armand]

Hi.

Now my turt is OK I think he was just tryng to digest that heavy meal, now he is eating and behaving as usual.

I think I just overreact tho that unusual conduct in a Gator Sbapper, since I recently lost a common snapper I am a little scared.

Coura I am also feeding my snapper caryfish, chiken breast squid and fish fillet.

By the way, I just got another common snapper. Soon picts will be sut.


Cheers.

 

[coura]

i have both blood worms and brine shrimp, he shows no interest in food yet. I went on a more knowledgeable forum and came to the conclusion that he just finished absorbing his egg sack so he should be eating maybe by the weekend.

Hum DUH I didnt even know he was a newborn let alone that he was yet reabsorving its egg sack. Oh and you went on a more "knowlageable" forum humm...maybe you should stick by that one insted