When a turtle or tortoise owner brings their sick animal to the veterinarian, the cause of illness can almost always be traced back to one of two causes; improper housing and/or improper nutrition. While there are a wide variety of commercial prepared foods available as well as many 'homemade diets,' they are often inadequate for many species.

There are a wide variety of species of turtles and tortoises and the following recommendations are rough guidelines for maintaining good health in your pet. Every turtle or tortoise owner should purchase a book about their specific species of turtle/tortoise and follow the specific feeding/housing guidelines closely.

Common Sense Approach

When it comes to nutrition, the common sense approach is always the best. Many people translate feeding their dog or cat to feeding their pet turtle or tortoise, and that is a huge mistake. Dogs and cats have been domesticated for tens of thousands of years. They have been bred and selected for specific traits and tolerances. Millions of dollars have been spent studying and formulating balanced, nutritionally complete dog and cat foods. There is more money spent on the research and development of commercial dog food in a single day, than all the research done for turtle food in a single year. And all of this is for just the two species: canine and feline. There are hundreds of different species of turtles and tortoises, each with a different set of nutritional requirements.

Tortoises and turtles are wild creatures. They are not domesticated. They are wild animals living in captivity. What this means is that if we are going to be successful in providing them with good basic nutrition, we need to mimic their natural diet and living conditions as close to their natural environment as we can. To do this, we have to know as much as we can about their eating habits, preferences, and nutritional requirements.

Herbivore, Omnivore or Carnivore?

One of the most important things we need to know about our turtle or tortoise is whether or not they are a herbivore, an omnivore, or a carnivore. Feeding meat to a vegetarian tortoise is as unnatural and unhealthy, as feeding steak and chicken to a cow. At the same time, feeding fruits and alfalfa to a carnivorous aquatic turtle is like trying to raise a cat on salad and vegetables.