feeding turtles mice

ScumLord

There are 3 dead baby mice here at work, these are wild, hairy field mice and I'm wondering if it's ok to feed them to turtles. I've seen it done on youtube but not with wild mice just the hairless ones from the pet shop. The turtles are about 5 years old.

Paul91

do you know what diseases the mice are carrying?

RaeRae

No, it's not a good idea.

You don't know what parasites or diseases those mice would have had. Mice are very high in protein for turtles anyway and aren't recommended as a food source.

The ones on youtube are called "pinkies" and are hairless baby mice, usually solely bred for the purpose of food.

ScumLord

Ya, that's what I was thinking but I also know these animals are allot cleaner than we give them credit for it's just they may carry one particular disease that we may be prone to. I won't chance it I was just wondering. The Turtles have gotten awful picky about what they eat these days and I'm looking for something new.

Chiaki

it depends on your what kind your turtle is as well, some turtles like florida soft shells will snaffle most things but terrapins are different (and most commonly called turtles) also why have you dead mice at work? if you just found them it means they could have died from ingesting poison or anything. also never live feed your turtles as pet turtles usually come off worst especially with bites and scratches from mice getting infected

also what are you feeding your turtles now? if they are types of terrapin i recommend king british complete food (blue container very similar to fish food) its a mix of everything and includes favourites like dried brine shrimp or supa (pink lid, similar to pringles can) and it too has a mixture of stuff in it. If they are going off their food check water temps and stuff and make sure that they arent going into hibernation if that species does hibernate. you can get brine shimp in jelly (comes in packets, they love it) if your getting worried about them not eating

Nothingcompares

Is this a troll? I wouldn't feed a turtle anything I picked up off the street never mind mice. You're taking a big risk making your turtle very sick or even killing it. That's if it even attempts to eat. I wouldn't feed a big snake wild, rotten, decaying, diseased, dirty mice either.

aboutimeilogin!

Chiaki wrote: »

it depends on your what kind your turtle
terrapins are different (and most commonly called turtles)
also never live feed your turtles as pet turtles usually come off worst especially with bites and scratches from mice getting infected
mouse has no chance!!!

recommend king british complete food

blue container
????? not the best food!!!!

similar to fish food) its a mix of everything and includes favourites like "dried" brine shrimp or supa
and it too has a mixture of "stuff" ????

a million q's for this post
nothing wrong with mice in the diet if its a slider!
found dead though! freeze first before use to kill most "nasties"
dry food is cr*p fresh is best!
check water temp, photo period, UV exposure, water quality,, the list goes on. google turtle care for loads of info
3 "found" dead mice hmm! short-cut to disaster!

sorry for messy post as my pc is messing me head tonight!
hope this helps!

Chiaki

My posts are usually unstructured so maybe i missed the point i was making, ill try structure it better and explain myself.

"terrapins are different (and most commonly called turtles)"

terrapins, in the pet trade are most commonly referred to as "turtles" even though turtle is usually used to describe sea turtles. (even though terrapins are in the turtle family Testudines (ie they havy a bony shell)) i doubt he has a leatherback in his sitting room so i presume its a terrapin as they are the most common type of semi aquatic chelonia.

"also never live feed your turtles as pet turtles usually come off worst especially with bites and scratches from mice getting infected"

The reason why i said that terrapins were different is that if you take something like a florida soft shell or alligator snapping turtle (both fairly aggressive and kept as pets) and compare it to something like a red ear or yellow slider there are big differences. It have no doubts about a snapper being big, well armoured and having a mouth that can chomp through most things would be well able for most food. A terrapin on the other hand that may be used to handling and is not aggressive (dont get me wrong ive dealt with ones that can bite hard) may not be able to deal with killing a mouse. The mouse being panicked will bite and scratch and could potentially hurt the terrapin, ive heard of this happening and the terrapin sustained an eye injury.

"recommend king british complete food (blue container very similar to fish food)"
What i meant here is that the container looks similar to the common type of fish food container.
eg. Fish food container


terrapin food container


same way when i said "its a mix of everything and includes favourites like dried brine shrimp or supa (pink lid, similar to pringles can)" i didnt mean that the food looked like pringles cans.....i was referring to the packaging.



Dried terrapin food is obviously not as good as what they would naturally eat but at the same time very few owners are willing to find what they need to eat naturally. Owners will go as far as- getting crickets, waxworms and maybe even some small feeder fish but since they are omnivores they would also eat plants, carrion, shell fish, snails, various other insects etc which are too hard for the average owner to get on a regular basis.
Dried Complete foods, to me are a good second choice in conjuction with other foods that the terrapin accepts such as oily fish, earthworms (ensure from area where no pesticides/fertilizer etc), aquatic snails, any of the brine shrimp, bloodworm, daphnia range (they come in jelly, frozen, live, packets to rehydrate yourself etc).

"a million q's for this post
nothing wrong with mice in the diet if its a slider!
found dead though! freeze first before use to kill most "nasties"
dry food is cr*p fresh is best!
check water temp, photo period, UV exposure, water quality,, the list goes on. google turtle care for loads of info
3 "found" dead mice hmm! short-cut to disaster!"

nope i agree with mice in the diet, just shell out a euro and buy a pinkie instead not with dead random wild mice!

freezing will kill some nasties but not all, especially warfarin if if has ingested it which is possible if there are 3 random dead mice

dry food i discussed above

yep i agree on this too, alot of reasons for not feeding is a drop in temp or a change in ph or some kind of environmental change. you may not have upped the wattage or thermostat in your tank but take into consideration your house, has it gotten colder or do you put on the heating? use a reliable thermometer to check the water temp and basking temp over 24 hrs and see if maybe there is a period where it is out of the terrapins range.

ScumLord

The mice where killed at work when the nest was found. The problem with feeding the turtles at the moment, is the smaller one (chuck, which I'm assuming is male because it keeps hitting on the bigger one, Obama). has taken to only eating the food sticks out of the complete food, I may just buy a big tub of the stick on their own any more because Obama won't eat anything out of the complete food, not even the shrimps. She'll wait days and days for something fresh like chicken breast or fish.

These are both sliders.

Chiaki

if you post up pcs of their underside i may be able to sex them for you. Failing that just check temps are perfect, if so he may just be being picky! you can get all pellet terrapin food if you want but keep offering other stuff eventually he will change his diet to something else