What to feed a snapping turtle?

Answer 1

Chop up celery and lettuce

They will also eat earth worms and small fish depending on what size they are. but if you put it in front of them they will probably eventually start eating it.

I am sorry, but I extremely disagree. Turtle are omnivores when adults. Not strictly herbivorous. When younger, they are pretty much carnivores. I suggest the ratio of meat to veggies as a 5:3 on an adult snapping turtle, however, this ratio works quite well with pretty much any other adult turtle, including painted, red eared, yellow bellied, soft shelled, and others. You should also put plenty of calcium in the water, especially for snappers since they have an extremely thick shell, so that they don't suffer from calcium malnutrition, which weakens the shell and in some cases, kills the turtle. For any turtle, though I doubt it will make a difference in snappers, feed it a bit of koi or cichlid chow, because they are packed with carotene, which brings out reds and yellows on the shell and body beatifully. Spinach has it in it also, but I wouldn't feed it too much of it. For a daily diet, I suggest you feed it a mix of foods. I mix my turtles diet and give him reptomin pellets, a bit of freeze dried shrimp and krill, mealworms, freshwater snails(which have calcium in their shells as a bonus), minnows, cichlid sticks, which I break each stick into forths for easier swallowing, chopped lettuce, and I make sure there's aquatic plants available at all times in his cage. They seem to always know when they need veggies. Once their over 3 inches and have been weaned onto lettuce that is. Try not to feed it too much peaches, spinich, or apples, because these kinds of food drain the turtle of calcium. In fact, I don't recommend feeding them those at all. Also, I don't suggest hand feeding snapping turtles. Ever. No matter how long people have been breeding them, snappers are aggresive by nature. When they're younger, they're a bit more friendly, but don't get too attatched, because they will get meaner and more territorial. Other turtles, especially red eared, are very friendly, and I suggest feeding them bits of food by hand. At first, they will be kind of curious, or maybe even afraid, and smell the scent of your hand and the food. Eventually they will gladly even take a fish out of your fingers. This is called scent training, and it's especially important if you ever want to take them out of their cage.

Answer 2

Snapping turtles are carnivorous (they eat meat) they can basically eat any type of meat. (As it gets older it might try to take off one of your fingers.) You probably shouldn't keep it when it is an adult, since they are aggressive.

Answer 3

Snapping turtles will eat just about anything. A healthy diet consists of fish (live feeder fish), insects, worms, leafy vegetables.

Answer 4

My science teacher feeds her pet turtle veggies.

i feed mine raw fish, frogs from outside, toads, raw chicken ,raw beef, worms, but i dont feed it vegies my snapper is greedy

Answer 5

Put it in a large bowl chop it up first though or the chunks will be to big. Then pour a small amount of milk in for more mush feeling.

Answer 6

you feed it veggies

Answer 7

with food