Is it possible to give gammarus to turtles. Dry food for turtles. Feeding aquatic and semi-aquatic turtles

Gammarus, or amphipod (Latin Gammarus pulex) is a small crustacean of the Amphipod order. Sometimes there is another name for the species - mormysh. Gammarus is often used as bait for fishing or as food for aquarium fish, turtles, and Achatina snails. Has an industrial value. The natural habitat of the Mormysh is fresh and brackish water bodies of all latitudes. Actually, gammarus is a freshwater crustacean.

Quick navigation through the article

Characteristics

In gammarus, the body is curved, covered with a shell, the average body length is 100 mm. On the hind legs there are a large number of bristles that serve as an organ of locomotion. Under the plates of the thoracic limbs are the gills. These very limbs are constantly moving, providing an influx of water to the respiratory organs of the crustacean.

The life span of a gammarus is one year. Can withstand a temperature range of 0-26 ° C. Likes shaded, cool, oxygenated places. The shade of the chitinous cover is light yellow or brown-green, which is determined by food preferences. Periodically, molting occurs when the crustacean gets rid of the old chitinous cover. After the 10th molt, the female becomes sexually mature. Reproduction occurs several times a year, depending on the habitat.

You can get gammarus as food for turtles and fish in the following way. Place some hay or straw on the bottom of the pond. Having found such top dressing, the crustaceans will soon climb between the straws. It remains only to remove the “trap” from the water and select the remaining animals from it. If there is a lot of algae in the pond where the amphipod lives, catch it with a nylon net.

See how to get gammarus in the swamp.

Storage conditions

You can store gammarus in a live, dried, frozen form. To keep it alive, place the crustacean in a bowl of water from the pond itself. At the bottom of the dishes you need to lay out the soil from the reservoir. Place the container with amphipod in a dark, cool place. Set up constant aeration to provide enough dissolved oxygen. Every day you need to change a third of the water to fresh.

Also, the future food for fish and turtles can be put and wrapped in a damp cloth, and put it in coolness and darkness, the bottom cell of the refrigerator will do. The fabric should be washed daily, the shelf life under these conditions is 7 days. If you have caught too many amphipods, you can dry them out. Dried amphipod must be from fresh crustaceans, unspoiled. Before drying, dip the crustaceans in hot water, but not boiling water. Strong heat treatment leads to the destruction of vitamins and deterioration of feed quality.

Drying future food for fish, turtles and Achatina snails is necessary in the fresh air. Spread the amphipods in a thin cover on gauze so that air passes from above and below. Gauze can be stretched on a special frame, which is better to install in a shaded place. You can not dry the catch in the microwave or oven. Dried top dressing is best used for the next 2-3 months if it is stored in a leaky container.

Amphipods can be frozen. It also needs to be stored in water from a natural reservoir. Before freezing, rinse, dry in the fresh air. Divide all portions so that their fish will eat within a few days. It is better to freeze crustaceans at a temperature of -18-25 ° C in the freezer. The product is stored for a long time, about a year, but it is better to use it faster.

Nutritional value of gammarus food

You can buy gammarus as food for fish, turtles and Achatina snails at specialized retail outlets. To buy a live amphipod, you will need a trip to the bird market. Dry and frozen food is best purchased at a pet store, or from a farmer who breeds these animals. World-famous manufacturers of feed from gammarus: Sera, Tetra, Otto, Tropical, Hagen. Look at the date of manufacture of the product and the expiration date. Due to the violation of the integrity of the packaging, the food will need to be used for the next 3 months.

Look at astronotus suffocation with dry gammarus.

Attention! You may be allergic to amphipod! The fact is that the chitinous cover of many crustaceans contains strong allergens. Therefore, children may become allergic to substances that are in the chitinous shell. Do not leave children near the aquarium unattended.

The nutritional value of gammarus is high. The feed contains only 13% dry content, of which more than half is protein, less than 10% fats and carbohydrates. The crustaceans contain carotene (provitamin of vitamin A), with the help of which the color of the fish becomes bright. It is undesirable to give only these crustaceans as food for turtles, Achatina snails (and they love such food very much) and fish. Alternate all feeds, make a daily menu of a variety of foods. Amphipods can be given to pets 1-2 times a week.

These crustaceans are large, so they can feed medium and large fish. For small fish and fry, such food can be crushed, and it is enough to grind dry food in your hands. Live or frozen gammarus can be steamed for several minutes in hot water in advance to soften the chitinous cover. Then such food can be cut into pieces and given to pets.

For snails, Achatina gammarus should be given every 2-3 days. It should be served unground, preferably live or frozen. But there is one caveat - you do not need to put the portion immediately into the aquarium water, but in a small amount, putting it in a special bowl or feeder. In moisture, the product quickly deteriorates, emitting an unpleasant odor. Immediately after feeding, remove uneaten food debris, even those that Achatina dragged along the bottom. Unfortunately, if the food is stored incorrectly, Achatina can become poisoned, so attach great importance to the quality of the product.

Live gammarus can be given as food for, but in small quantities. It is not recommended to give the product dry. The more varied the food for them, the better. To keep your pets healthy, do not ignore the rules for compiling a feeding ration. It is desirable that it be varied and rich in different products.

To properly feed turtles, you need to study what they eat in nature. Even the diets of different land turtles vary greatly depending on their habitats. So, for example, steppe turtles eat more succulents and steppe plants in nature, but radiant and star-shaped turtles eat vegetables, fruits, and flowers more often. Aquatic turtles do not often eat fish, more often they are content with insects, snails, tadpoles.

The specified menu may be adjusted depending on the recommendations of experienced turtle keepers. On Sunday (Sun) it is better to do a fasting day and not feed the turtles at all.

Important:

1. Do not overfeed, especially young animals
2. Feed no more than once a day in the morning or afternoon (not in the evening)
3. After half an hour for water or after an hour for land, remove the food
4. If she does not want to eat, but at the same time she is healthy - do not force, but do not indulge only with what she loves

Summer diet for the Central Asian steppe tortoise

* it is better to collect greens not in the city, away from the roads
** constant presence in the terrarium of sepia (cuttlefish bone)

Winter diet for the Central Asian steppe tortoise

* constant presence in the terrarium of soft hay and sepia (cuttlefish bone)

Summer diet for freshwater (red-eared, marsh) turtles

*** if it is difficult for a turtle to eat snails, fish with bones and sepia, she does not eat, then you can feed her food from tweezers and sprinkle with vitamins and calcium
**** The number next to the day of the week indicates the number of the week (first or second).

Winter diet for freshwater (red-eared, marsh) turtles

* gammarus is not dry, but live or frozen for fish
** it is desirable to have snails, small viviparous fish (neons, guppies), aquatic plants, sepia (cuttlefish bone) in the aquarium all the time
*** The number next to the day of the week indicates the week number (first or second).

For other less popular species, see "Species Description" for natural and domestic diets.

Turtles are divided into 3 groups according to the type of food, listed below. Each group corresponds to a certain ratio of plant and animal food, which must be given to turtles.

— HERBIVORS(95% plant food, 5% animal food). Species: all land turtles, including Central Asian, radiant, Greek, flat, spider, etc.

— PREDATORY(70-90% animal food, 10-30% plant food). Species: almost all completely aquatic and all juvenile aquatic species, young red-eared, marsh, etc.

— OMNIVORES(50% animal food, 50% plant food). Species: semi-aquatic and adult aquatic, adult red-eared, marsh, prickly, kuor, red-footed, etc.
Feeding turtles with inappropriate food for this species (for example, giving Central Asian meat or feeding Trionics with salad) is fraught with problems with digestion, metabolism and internal organs.

HERBIVORS (land turtles -,)

Main food

almost any plants, vegetables, fruits and berries that are not poisonous to turtles - dandelions, carrots, apples, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, pears, bananas. 80% of the total diet should be greens - a variety of salads, leaves, edible flowers. Vegetables and fruits should be given much less often than salads, especially for fruits.

Complementary feed

Plants- tradescantia, clover, plantain, sorrel (a little), thistle leaves, dandelions, lawn grass, goutweed, alfalfa, vetch, timothy grass, chinai, germinated oats, barley, stems and leaves of peas.

Vegetables- lettuce, tops of carrots, carrots, cucumbers (a little), tomatoes, peppers, beets, beans, pumpkin, artichoke, green onions, radishes, zucchini, eggplant, horseradish (a little),

Fruit- apples, plums (chopped), peach (chopped), apricots (chopped), melon, mango, bananas, oranges, tangerines.

Berries- strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blueberries, wild strawberries, blackberries, watermelon

Extras (little)- non-poisonous mushrooms (russula, champignons, boletus), balanced dry food for tortoises (Sera, Tetra, Wardley), bran, soybean meal, dry yeast, dry seaweed, young sunflower seeds (raw).

PREDATORY (aquatic and sea turtles - young and, trionics)

Main food

Low-fat fish (hake, cod, perch, pollock, blue whiting, saffron cod, bleak, small bream) and fish/beef/chicken liver once a week. Fish for young turtles should be given finely chopped (spine without ribs), with bones, for adult turtles - in large pieces or whole. Large bones can be finely chopped or crushed.

Complementary feed

Seafood- squid, oysters, mussels, shelled shrimp, octopus tentacles.

Meat- liver, beef liver, chicken heart, beef heart, crab meat (not crab sticks), mice and mice, frogs. You can not feed: meat (any minced meat, sausages, sausage, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, etc.), fatty fish, fruits, bread, cheese.

snails- whole young, adults - only meat (coils, snails, large pond snail, mariza, Helix Aspersa terrestrial). All seafood and fish should be given only raw, not thermally processed. The shrimp should be green, not pink.

* Red-eared turtles are not fundamentally green or pink shrimp, their digestion will not worsen from this and there will be no harm to health.

Other- daphnia, coretra, gammarus (not dried), bloodworms, tubifex, fodder cockroaches (not domestic) wood lice, beetles, flour worm, filly, earthworms.
Additionally - dry food for freshwater turtles (granules, sticks, flakes, tablets, loose, capsules): Nutra Fin (Hagen), Repto Min (Tetra), Turtle food flakes (Wardley). Remember, dry food is mostly not useful for turtles, so you should never make it the basis of the diet.

OMNIVORS (some land and semi-aquatic turtles - red-footed turtles, adults and)

A mixture of staple food for herbivores and aquatic turtles. The exact composition of the food depends on the type of turtle (read the descriptions of the species).
As adults, red-eared turtles should definitely receive plant-based nutrition (fruits, vegetables, lettuce, plants, algae), which should be 70% of their diet.

The health and immunity of animals largely depends on the diet. The more diverse it is, the more various useful substances obtained. However, even a varied natural diet does not allow providing animals with a complete set of vitamins. Luckily for aquatic turtle owners, dozens of different dry foods have been developed for every taste and color!

In our store you can buy dry food for turtles of leading brands specializing in reptiles and aquariums BioDesign, Tetra, JBL.

What is good dry food for turtles?

• Contains a large amount of easily digestible protein for proper muscle growth of the turtle;
• Contains the optimal amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals necessary to strengthen the shell and immunity;
• Easy to feed;
• Dry food can replace up to 60-70% of the turtle's diet;
• The food contains natural ingredients - gammarus, daphnia, shrimp, etc.
• A separate series of food for newborns and growing turtles with a high content of vitamins and nutrients.

aquatic turtles- beautiful creatures! They are interesting to watch, they grow quickly and lead an active lifestyle. However, it all depends on proper maintenance and feeding. Feed your turtle food only from trusted manufacturers and it will delight you for many years!