I recently caught a hatchling slider (a yellow ear I think). I have had the turtle for about 10 days and have not gotten him to eat yet. I have offered him small feeder fish, crickets, tiny meal worms, and a variety of turtle foods, but he will not engage any of the prey items. He is being housed in a ten gallon tank (I am moving him to a thirty gallon next week) with a water area that is 5 inches deep and about 8 inches wide/long. The water area has floating vegetation and rocks for basking. The land area is about 6 inches long and 8 inches wide. I have provided a basking lamp and a full-spectrum flourescent light. The turtle is very active, but I am concerned about his eating, or non-eating I should say. If you could, give me some tips about caring for the hatchling turtle and getting his appetite started. Thanks so much!

First off, no need to make multiple posts. people here will find it.

since you have already taken the turtle and want to care for it...

it is probably in shock, being taken out of its natural environment. when i first got my turtle 9 years ago, i never saw him eat , he wouldnt eat around me.

By hatchling, i am assuming it is around a silver dollar in size. have you tried reptomin's baby turtle floating food sticks?, they are smaller than the regular reptomin sticks.

what types of feeders? for a turtle that sized i wouldnt offer anything bigger than really small rosy reds or pinhead or 2 week old crickets.

This might sound like a dumb question, but are you sure he isnt eating? like i said, when i first got my turtle i never saw him eat, but the food was gone... are you giving it privacy?


just a little side note out to all... i work in a petstore and probably 75% of the phonecalls i get are from people that take turtles from the wild and want to know what to do with them. if you really want a turtle as a pet, yes they can be very enjoyable, i have had 3 of them and 1 of them for 9 years, but dont take them from the wild.

I have offered the Reptomin baby turtle sticks, I tried putting only a few in, and when they remained (until the next water change) I was cautious about offering more for fear of contaminating the water. The turtle may have fed, but I could not determine whether or not any sticks were gone. The majority of them, at least, remained, if not all of them. I offered krill and tiny shrimp, but they are almost transparent in the water, so I cannot tell whether or not those food items are being taken. Like you said, I may not know if the turtle is feeding. The fish I offered were tiny comets, and the crickets were quite smaller than the ones I fed my leopard geckoes when they were hatchlings; so I am sure the crickets are tiny enough. I will continue to feed the aforementioned food items. The turtle is, like you said, about a silver-dollar in diameter. Thanks for the advice.

See my response in the pond section where I first encountered your question. You really need small live foods to get them started eating. Mine never went for pellets at first; that took a while. If not blackworms, then baby mealworms (you'd have to breed them yourself like I do), wingless fruitflies, and pinhead crickets. The blackworms are better because they don't drown (they're aquatic). Once the terrestrial insects die and stop moving, they are less interesting for a turtle to want to go after and eat.