What to Do If Your Red-Eared Slider Won't Eat? Cause Analysis and Solutions

In many cases, a red-eared slider not eating is perfectly normal, but when the ambient temperature is suitable and the living environment is healthy, and it still refuses to eat, then the owner must take it seriously and find a way to solve the problem. Let's take a look together at what to do if your red-eared slider won't eat!

Reasons Why a Red-Eared Slider Won't Eat

In most cases, red-eared sliders will not refuse food; as long as the temperature conditions are suitable, they will always happily gulp down their meals. However, if the environment is unsuitable, the food is inappropriate, or they are affected by diseases such as white eye disease, skin rot, or shell rot, red-eared sliders will refuse to eat.

What Food Do Red-Eared Sliders Like to Eat

The red-eared slider is an omnivorous turtle that likes animal-based bait, such as fish, pork, animal innards, clams, snails, bloodworms, red worms, yellow mealworms, snails, insects, maggots, as well as various high-fiber foods; shrimp meat is the red-eared slider's favorite. Red-eared sliders are not interested in any fatty meat, hard dried meat, cooked meat, or various high-fiber foods, and even dislike such foods and refuse to eat them. Food must not contain bones or spines to avoid injuring the turtle; it is best to feed fresh raw meat, and pork should not be fed in large amounts, otherwise it is prone to white eye disease or gastroenteritis.

What to Do If Your Red-Eared Slider Won't Eat

1. Newly purchased red-eared slider: A red-eared slider that has just arrived home won't eat mainly because it is not accustomed to the new environment. After a week or a little longer, it will naturally adapt and then start eating. If you are worried it will starve, you can add glucose to the water to supplement its nutrition, or manually pry its mouth open to feed it.

2. A turtle waking from hibernation: If a turtle that has just woken from hibernation has no interest in food and refuses to eat, the keeper need not be surprised or shocked. A turtle that has just awakened from hibernation, like many people just waking up, will feel dizzy and disoriented and needs time to adjust; it's just that turtles need much more adjustment time than people, roughly 1-2 days, or even longer.

3. Unreasonable food

① Do not choose the cheap turtle food sold by street vendors; not every turtle can adapt to it, and off-brand pellet feed is not nutritious enough and cannot stimulate a turtle's appetite. More importantly, getting the turtle to open its mouth and eat is the prerequisite, and that is the most important thing. Otherwise, even if you use the most tempting food, it won't eat at all. This is the biggest problem for beginners after getting a turtle.

② Consider whether it simply doesn't like what you're feeding it. Red-eared sliders like fish meat and shrimp meat (which must be salt-free and raw); good turtle food is also fine. It is best to use fresh fish meat as bait, cut into small pieces (because if they are too big, it can't swallow them and won't eat them). Either feed it in the shallow water where it lives, or hold a piece with a toothpick and gently wave it in front of it; usually it will eat it. Try a few more times and be a little patient.

③ For some turtles, if you just put a whole fish into the water, they won't eat it; you need to cut it into several segments to feed them. The same goes for shrimp: remove the head and tail, peel off the shell, cut into small pieces, and either skewer them or put them in the water to feed it.

④ If the turtle has no habit of eating on its own, then you have to feed it by hand, otherwise it won't take the initiative to eat and will starve to death. Cut small fry into several segments, skewer them with a toothpick, put them in the water, patiently lure it in front of it, and feed it.