Not even turtles follow the doctor's orders
Bugsy wants his beef and Max simply won't eat his veggies
YEARS AGO, when I first started keeping turtles, I “fell into the clutches” of the vets at Chulalongkorn University. It’s safe to say that they’ve changed my life – and the lives of my turtles.
They gave me a lecture on what to feed my turtles.
Most people who keep turtles simply use pellets of prepared turtle food, but for me and these vets, no matter what the species of your turtle is, you don’t use these pellets. You give the guys fresh food.
“Fresh is best,” the vets told me.
If you doubt me, just taste a pellet. You don’t have to swallow it. Your tongue will tell you immediately how salty it is.
People tell me that they’ve fed their turtles these pellets for years, and their animals are all right.
I don’t know if the turtles are all right or not. A urine test will indicate the state of their kidneys, which you can’t tell just by checking if the turtle is alive or dead.
One thing I do know. As much as my turtles love their fresh food, it takes a lot more time to purchase and prepare it. Contact me at any time, and I’m probably chopping vegetables or making the journey to a fish shop to buy frozen red-worms.
I can’t pat myself on the back, though. Two of my turtles refuse to follow the vets’ instructions.
As with any other animal, these two became used to different foods at an early age, and no matter what I – or the vets – do, these two guys follow their own personal dietary preferences.
Bugsy, the long-necked turtle, is a carnivore. His species doesn’t eat vegetables of any sort. He should be eating chopped shrimp and red worms, and he does, so long as I also give him chopped beef.
This beef is not the mince you can buy in a supermarket. Mince has lots of fat in it, as does the beef sliced for sukiyaki, all to improve the taste for humans. Instead, I remove the fat from the pieces of beef that the butcher prepares for stews and such.
My carefulness still doesn’t make the vets happy, though. Bugsy shouldn’t be eating beef at all. It’s really not a natural food for turtles and could do them harm.
Bugsy, though, refuses to eat anything unless I give him beef first. Caught between the wrath of the Chula vets and a starving turtle, I’ve tried a compromise, just giving him a little bit of beef to satisfy him, so he’ll eat what he should.
According to the vets, I should just tell Bugsy “No!”, but they don’t have to live with him, do they? They are quite firm on this point, but they don’t mention one of their failures, Max, the false map turtle who lives on the second floor.
False map turtles are an American species. These turtles are supposed to be omnivorous, eating snails, shrimp and tiny fish but also green veggies as well.
Max refuses to eat his veggies, though.
“Just let me take him for a few days,” a Chula vet once said. “I can cure him.”
While Max was with her, she didn’t give him any shrimp or red worms, just green vegetables. She expected after a day or so he’d give up and start eating what he should.
After five days refusing to eat any pak boong or kale or even lettuce, Max won. “Just let him eat what he wants,” she said sadly.
And so he has. Frankly, he doesn’t look in the best condition. I’m sure his health would improve if he’d just eat the vegetables, but like many two-year-old humans, he won’t eat the green stuff.
