This is an easy to do, home made turtle pudding that you can make for any turtle/tortoise. All you have to do is to adjust the ingredients to suite the needs of your particular turtle/tortoise. The one I have listed below is for my southern painted turtles. I am still trying to get my stars to eat their version. This is also a good way to get the turtles to eat their Ca and Vit (since it is challenging to dust their food with Ca because it just washes off).
So for a painted turtle, they are omnivorous, especially when they are hatchlings as they are mostly carnivorous at this point. So here it is:
Required supplies:
Cutting Board
Knife
Fork
Spoon (measuring spoon is also helpful here)
Bowl
Blender (I personally use a magic bullet for this)
tupperware container for the mold
Ingredients:
30g of sea shrimp/krill (with their shell on)--I use krill, as its more of a shell to meat ratio
10g of chicken breast (turkey would work as well)
10g minnow/frozen small fish
20g leafy greens (spring mix, dandelion, kale, endives, etc)
5g grated carrots
5g squash (without peel)
5g mushrooms
10g fruits (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, bananas, apples, papayas etc)
5g Opuntia pads (also known as prickly pear cactus)
200ml water
10g turtle/tortoise food (mazuri turtle diet, mazuri turtle food, reptomin)
1 to 1.5 pack of gelatin (the brand I use is Knox)-if you dont want to use gelatin, agar would work as well
0.5-1 tsp of Rep-Cal multi Vit
0.5-1 tsp of Rep-Cal Ca+VitD3
Instructions:
1) with a little water, boil the chicken, turkey, shrimp, krill and fish (basically cook all of the meat).
2) cut all other ingredients into relatively small pieces (this depends on your blender, magic bullet works better if you cut the ingredients first).
3) blend and pure all of the greens, veggies, fruits, opuntia, turtle/tortoise food with 100ml of water until smooth.
4) add in the meats (drained off water), and blend until smooth (of course take the bone off the turkey and chicken if any. dont worry about the bone in the small fish).
5) heat the mixture to about 40C (or just microwave it on high for 10-15 sec)
6) during the heating, put the gelatin in the last 100ml of water (this process is called blooming the gelatin). It should become an apple sauce consistency.
7) mix the bloomed gelatin with the warmed mixture.
8) mix in the multi Vit and Ca
9) pour into a mold and pop into fridge
10) after a few hours, voila.
Customize:
By looking at the ingredients, it becomes obvious that one can easily modify this mixture to your own needs, as the only necessary ingredient in the gelatin. But how you ask? read on...
More carnivorous? increase percentage of meats, the recipe above is about 45%.
More herbivorous? increase percentage of leafy greens (the one I make for my star tortoise are 100% leafy greens and veggies
Dont want to use chicken or shrimp? you can also use things like snails (with shell), crickets, earthworms, red wigglers, crayfish, bloodworms, waxworms. Basically anything would work. Just be aware of what blender you are using (since I dont want to use the bullet with bugs since I also use it for food).
One thing to remember: variety is key! dont just feed one type of food. Which is why this is good cus it has sooo much stuff in this, and it will always change every time you make it.
So for a painted turtle, they are omnivorous, especially when they are hatchlings as they are mostly carnivorous at this point. So here it is:
Required supplies:
Cutting Board
Knife
Fork
Spoon (measuring spoon is also helpful here)
Bowl
Blender (I personally use a magic bullet for this)
tupperware container for the mold
Ingredients:
30g of sea shrimp/krill (with their shell on)--I use krill, as its more of a shell to meat ratio
10g of chicken breast (turkey would work as well)
10g minnow/frozen small fish
20g leafy greens (spring mix, dandelion, kale, endives, etc)
5g grated carrots
5g squash (without peel)
5g mushrooms
10g fruits (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, bananas, apples, papayas etc)
5g Opuntia pads (also known as prickly pear cactus)
200ml water
10g turtle/tortoise food (mazuri turtle diet, mazuri turtle food, reptomin)
1 to 1.5 pack of gelatin (the brand I use is Knox)-if you dont want to use gelatin, agar would work as well
0.5-1 tsp of Rep-Cal multi Vit
0.5-1 tsp of Rep-Cal Ca+VitD3
Instructions:
1) with a little water, boil the chicken, turkey, shrimp, krill and fish (basically cook all of the meat).
2) cut all other ingredients into relatively small pieces (this depends on your blender, magic bullet works better if you cut the ingredients first).
3) blend and pure all of the greens, veggies, fruits, opuntia, turtle/tortoise food with 100ml of water until smooth.
4) add in the meats (drained off water), and blend until smooth (of course take the bone off the turkey and chicken if any. dont worry about the bone in the small fish).
5) heat the mixture to about 40C (or just microwave it on high for 10-15 sec)
6) during the heating, put the gelatin in the last 100ml of water (this process is called blooming the gelatin). It should become an apple sauce consistency.
7) mix the bloomed gelatin with the warmed mixture.
8) mix in the multi Vit and Ca
9) pour into a mold and pop into fridge
10) after a few hours, voila.
Customize:
By looking at the ingredients, it becomes obvious that one can easily modify this mixture to your own needs, as the only necessary ingredient in the gelatin. But how you ask? read on...
More carnivorous? increase percentage of meats, the recipe above is about 45%.
More herbivorous? increase percentage of leafy greens (the one I make for my star tortoise are 100% leafy greens and veggies
Dont want to use chicken or shrimp? you can also use things like snails (with shell), crickets, earthworms, red wigglers, crayfish, bloodworms, waxworms. Basically anything would work. Just be aware of what blender you are using (since I dont want to use the bullet with bugs since I also use it for food).
One thing to remember: variety is key! dont just feed one type of food. Which is why this is good cus it has sooo much stuff in this, and it will always change every time you make it.
