So my wee little turtle seemed to be doing fine, I now have three very good turtle books, and have what a I believe to be a good set up for her tank, resting area’s and I have started giving her safe walks a couple times a week, she is active, bright, swimming well and looks great sunbathing on her floating pad..
Only one big issue, I have not yet been able to see her eat.. I am still picking and offering fresh greens from the yard, including ones I knew she liked in her tank, I have offered her little bits of fruit, I have offered her three different turtle foods, some for young ones, some for regular and some freeze dried, and today I offered her a fresh worm..
Now she has to be eating, or I just don’t think that she would be this healthy looking, bright clean eyes, healthy skin, she truly looks wonderful but its driving me just a touch crazy that I have no “seen” her eat since she came in the house, I have tried the move her into her feeding pan, put the food, leave for an hour.. I have seen nothing, so I do finally give in and put different plant/food in her tank, between me cleaning it, and a very good filter system, the water looks great.
I can honestly say at this point, a) I am thinking about getting some feeder fish that the books recommend for her tank b) I will be jumping for joy, when if finally happens..
So if anyone brought or has or had turtles, did you see them eat or not?
Just another Day on the Farm 
I have raised turtles off and on for years. I discovered that they love ant eggs. Ant eggs also cause blindnessin turtles and if they can’t see the food they won’t eat it. There are eye drops for that but I’ve never had much success with them. Our turtles loved raw white chicken meat. Couldn’t be frozen and thawed though! Cut it into little chunks and dropped it in the tank and they would have a tug of war with it. They shared their tank with two baby bullheads and there were always food fights with the chicken! Small bits of ground beef were sometimes eaten, sometimes not. As you already know, they do hibernate and perhaps that is why Bright Eyes isn’t eating, perhaps his internal clock thinks he should be hibernating? We had one that disappeared from the tank late one fall and he came toddling out of a storage closet the following spring!
Mary
Thanks so much for the reply, I understand where you are coming from in terms of the hibernating but from the books I am reading, if that was the case, BE should be slowing down, and she’s not, she is very active, swimming, basting, climbing and when she is out on her about/walk time, she is fast to react etc, and everything I have read says that she would be slowing down if that is the case.. I don’t think? she would have had much chance in her short to date life to eat ants eggs, but I will certainly give the others a try.. Again, thanks for sharing..
I can’t remember what type of turtle Bright Eyes is, but she may be looking for more animal protein. There are some turtles that change the balance of what they eat as they get older, and the little ones eat more animal protein.
She may also be slowing down for fall. Unless they are kept in full summer like light year round inside, turtles that go go quiet over the winter can pretty much stop eating for long periods. Only eating occasionally lite their wild cousins woolly. I take care of a red eared slider at at a nature center who goes by the name of Miss Piggy due to her spring and summer eating habits. Come fall, and through the winter, she all but stops eating. It was very disconcerting the first winter I was looking after her. She will still play with me during the winter, but will show no interest in the food she is offered.
Eastern Painted Turtle, while I have still not seen her eat, the small worm we gave her is gone, so she must have eaten it, there was no way it could have gotten out, and so she must be eating but I will do my best to offer more fresh meat to her.. but at least now I know that she will eat her red wiggler.
I can vouch (with my son’s leopard gecko) that reptiles eat less in the winter. And baby reptiles tend to eat more protein than adults.
When I had the turtle at the blue trailer, her pellets would sit in the water til they were almost mush but they would finally get eaten a few at a time,mom
Here’s an article to share in answer to your question…
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070423152406AAUH0Rg
Thanks Deb, while I did’nt get to see it myself, she clearly chowed down on her fresh live worm that she got yesterday and snapped it all up, I will plan a trip to the pet store and will pick up a small collection of feeder fish to add to the tank.. Boy it was so much easier when she just lived in her outside tank and self-feeder LOL I know that she takes bites out of her fresh dark greens that I put in her tank I just never see it in person. I will see what else I can track down on the farm and catch to add to her tank, I am pretty sure I can find a very spots that will still have water larva in them and will consider scooping them up and add them for her snack on. I will still offer fruit twice a day but will stop worrying if she is not interest in them at that age.. She does nibble on her cuttle bone
LOL! Apparently she’s very shy about eating in public: )
Hey! I just noticed some mosquito larvae in the water barrel, too bad we couldn’t send them to you; )