Turtle Food Sticks for Turtles & Terrapins

Most of what we sell for turtles is a treat: dried shrimp, daphnia, small whole fish. These sticks are the other half, the food the week is built around. They are made for everyday feeding of water turtles and terrapins, with greens alongside for the species that eat plants and the treats kept on top. If I were setting up a turtle's routine, this is the part I would keep constant and vary everything else around.

What is in them

The analysis is 33% crude protein, 4% oils and fats, 4% fibre and 3% ash, with astaxanthin, vitamins and trace elements added. Break the sticks up for hatchlings and very small turtles. Koi and other pond fish take them too.

How much and how often

Offer what your turtle will eat in one go and net out anything left, because uneaten food fouls the water quickly. The Royal Veterinary College's exotics service advises fresh food daily for juveniles and every two to three days for adults.

Young turtles eat more animal food than adults do. The plant-eating species, sliders and cooters among them, lean further towards greens as they grow, so an adult slider gets fewer sticks and more leaves than a youngster, while musk turtles and the other mostly carnivorous species stay on animal food.

Treats on top

Variety comes from the extras: whole dried shrimp, daphnia for the small ones, freeze-dried bloodworm and the odd small whole fish, kept to a small share of the week. The guide to dried treats for turtles and terrapins goes through each one.

Keeping them

Seal the bag after each feed and keep it cool, dry and dark. The vitamins in any dried food fade with time and air, which is why the larger bag stops at 250g: better to buy fresh than to keep a big bag open for months. Sold as animal food, and not for hens or other poultry. The rest of our foods for turtles, reptiles and fish are on foods for reptiles, turtles and fish.