RE: Turtle - A pet you can pass on for many generations
Yes you do get omnivorous turtles but the general rule of thumb is turtles are carnivorous by nature.My red ear was fed a terrible diet of solely frozen shrimp for the first few years of his young turtle life.This was very wrong as he did not get the correct nutricianal requirements to help him with the shedding of his scales and growth of his shell.I feed Cyrill a great quality product of frozen fish with vitamins added specifically designed for turtles.Cyrill loves live snails,cockroaches,beetles,flies,moths,crickets and even earth worms.Cyrill gets calcium from the snail shells as well as cuttle bone floating in his tank.You may very well have had a female turtle ?I learned that female sliders are excellent climbers and will climb out of inadequate enclosures and walk for miles.Cyrill can climb but not very well at all.I was told of this by a turtle lady in Auckland who rescues abandoned turtles and rehomes them.The turtle lady from Auckland also told me of an 85yr old lady who still had her pet red ear turtle who was now at least 80yrs old.Pretty cool I think.Oh and Cyrill also had the wrong type of lighting for his tank he came with a light that was meant for fish not turtles.Hence his bad shell.