Depending on the species of your tortoise about 80 of your pet tortoise s daily diet should be fresh vegetables like kale dandelions mustard and collard greens.
Feeding box turtles cat food.
Feeding a box turtle is more difficult than other reptilesbecause of the variety of foods they require.
Animal matter to feed your pet box turtle include grubs caterpillars gastropods superworms mealworms and dubia roaches.
Carrion even big carrion from mammals birds and amphibians.
Your box turtles rely on you for their food and they would never find these things in the wild so don t feed them to captive turtles.
For fun toss in a little green or yellow bell pepper sweet potato squash or cauliflower.
These things are not good for humans either but we can make the choice to eat them or not.
Tortoises like a variety of plant based foods.
Basically anything high in salt or other preservatives.
Some good meat sources include.
Dark leafy greens such as collard greens mustard greens parsley endive escarole dandelion greens beet tops.
Sweet potatoes high quality fish flakes or cat food are good options.
It works best if you begin to to feed the insects these foods two days prior to giving them to your turtles.
Do this by feeding the insects foods that contain calcium and other vitamins and minerals.
Generally green and leafy things should be the largest part of turtle s diet while you should avoid fibre rich vegetables such as lettuce and celery.
Gut load the insects you intend to feed your turtles.
Plants to feed them include collard greens duckweed dandelions and hibiscus flowers and leaves.
Fallen fruit often over ripe or rotten berries.
Good vegetable choices include kale parsley green beans bell peppers and cabbage.
Chinese and green cabbage green beans blackberries raspberries grapes apples with skin but not seeds papaya butternut squash romaine lettuce but it is not very nutritionally dense.
Although they accept cat food and cooked lean beef they even accept burger insects are the best food choice for them.
Box turtles enjoys eating eartworms.
What do box turtles eat in the wild.
You should aim to feed a diet that consists of 60 meat 30 vegetable and 10 fruit.
Good choices of vegetables for feeding your box turtle include.
Picture by wisconsin department of natural resources.