How do you keep a turtle so it gets through winter safely, and what should you feed it so it grows fast?

Compared with the careful task of keeping fish, keeping a turtle is much easier, but don't be fooled by how easy turtles are to keep - these little guys are also famously “stubborn”. It is winter right now, and turtles are entering hibernation one after another, so how do you keep a turtle so it gets through winter safely? What should you feed it so it grows fast?

1. What should you feed a turtle so it grows fast?

1. Getting it to “start eating” must be done well

Turtles are not very picky eaters, but the prerequisite is that you have to get them to “start eating” when you first begin keeping them. What does that mean? As mentioned earlier, turtles are stubborn. Once you bring one home to a new environment, getting it to eat is especially difficult. If it refuses to eat, then it would rather starve to death than eat.

How do you get it to start eating? You can use the method below as a reference based on your own little turtle's actual situation.

Put the turtle in a spot where it can bask in the sun, let it relax and “feel happy” (turtles are animals that love basking in the sun very much), place the food directly beside the turtle, not too close and not too far, and then the keeper should not keep staring at the turtle and can walk away.

If it refuses to eat while basking in the sun, then you can try putting it in water. In short, every turtle has its own temperament, and the keeper has to figure out their own little turtle's routines. The most important thing is to make the turtles feel “safe”.

2. Recommended foods for turtles

Turtles are not picky eaters; basically whatever you feed them, they eat. For example, raw pork liver, raw lean meat, green vegetables, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, dried small shrimp, small fish, river snails, bloodworms, small loaches and so on can all be fed. In addition, you can also buy feed specially made for turtles at the market.

Feed once a day, and each time feed an amount of food about the same volume as the turtle's head. Turtles have no feeling of fullness; if you keep feeding, they keep eating, and it is easy to overfeed them into illness.

2. How do you keep a turtle so it gets through winter safely?

Turtles in the south generally enter hibernation around mid-to-late November, while turtles in the north begin hibernating one after another around mid-October.

1. Check the turtle's health

If a sick or relatively thin and weak turtle hibernates, it may well sleep forever, because during hibernation the turtle shuts down organ functions to reduce the body's consumption. In addition, you also need to confirm whether the species of turtle you keep has a habit of hibernating.

2. Clean the digestive tract before hibernation

About 1 week before the turtle hibernates, you can soak the turtle in warm water for 30 minutes each day, which can prevent rectal blockage from occurring during hibernation.

3. Ensure the hibernation temperature

If you plan to let the turtle hibernate, you need to ensure they live at a temperature of 7-10°C. If you do not plan to let the turtle hibernate, just keep the temperature at 22-30°C.

4. Do not disturb them too much

Turtles really do need to bask in the sun more during hibernation, but it is best to move the whole container out to bask along with them, and to avoid touching the turtle's body and disturbing their hibernation as much as possible, because this can easily cause them to die during hibernation.