Turtle Times

Map turtle diet is the area where the snail-cracking adult females separate from the more generalist males. Tom keeps a single male Mississippi map turtle and answers more “why won’t my female map turtle eat pellets” emails than any other map-related question. This is the…

Sulcata diet looks deceptively simple at first glance — grass-eater, feed hay, done. The catches show up after a year or two when keepers realise that hay-only diets cause subtle deficiencies, supermarket veg causes pyramiding, and the cute treats they’ve been offering have shortened the…

Mediterranean tortoise diet is the area Marcus answers most questions about — specifically, the area where the most well-intentioned new keepers get it most wrong. Hermann’s, Greek, Russian and Marginated tortoises share a digestive system evolved for tough, fibrous, low-protein grazing across rocky scrubland. The…

Musk turtle diet is the simplest of any common pet aquatic species — they’re carnivores, the protein ratio barely shifts with age, and they’ll eat almost anything you offer. The problems we see in our inbox are mostly the result of too little variety rather…

Cooter diet is where most cooter health problems start — specifically, where keepers fail to make the protein-to-plant shift as the animal matures. Tom’s answered enough “why is my cooter pyramiding” emails to make this the diet guide we wish all cooter keepers read at…

This is the slider-specific diet companion to our painted turtle diet guide. The general framework is similar — omnivore, protein-shifting-with-age, dust calcium, watch for vitamin A — but sliders have a few species-specific quirks that catch new keepers out. Tom’s seen the “all pellets all…