Best Turtle Food (We Tested 20 Different Brands)

One of the most important things in the life of any turtle is food. In the wild turtles have access to a variety of foods from which they can choose: fruits, vegetables, various plants, fish, insects, animal meat, etc. But as pets they don’t have access to the same variety, instead, they are reliant on the food that we choose for them. So it’s up to us to make the best choices for them.

At the moment there are hundreds of different types of foods available on the market for turtles. And a lot of them are marketed as the best turtle food available, or the only food your turtle is going to need. But in most cases that is not a turtle, there are some very good turtle foods out there, but not all of them are great or even good. So to help you out, I wrote this buyer’s guide that will tell you which are the best turtle foods, why they are the best, and which of them to feed your turtle depending on its age.

For this guide, all members of the TurtleOwner.com team bought 20 different brands and tested to see which our turtles like the best, and which are the healthiest. After days of testing and long debates, we finally came to a conclusion.

So in this guide, I am going to mostly cover different types of pellets. But I will also cover insects, fish, fruits, vegetables, and a few other things as well. So let’s start with the pellets.

Best Turtle Foods: Pellets

Pellets are a staple in the diet of most turtles, so it’s only natural to try to give your turtle the best pellets that you can. So let’s see which are the best pellets available on the market.

ZooMed Natural Aquatic Turtle

ZooMed is a well-established brand that offers a wide variety of products for turtles and other animals. But the important thing is that they offer quality products. In most cases, when you see a ZooMed product, you can be sure that it’s a quality product.

The Natural Aquatic Turtle line of turtle food is a great one. And one of the best things about it is that it comes in 5 variants: Hatchling, Maintenance, Growth, Variety, and Aquatic. All five of them are relatively similar, but they are for different purposes, as their names imply. So let me give you a few details about three of them: Hatchling, Maintenance, and Growth.

Something that all of the pellets that are in this line of food have in common is that none of them contain any artificial colors, no artificial flavors, and no preservatives. They keep this turtle food as natural as possible.

ZooMed Natural Aquatic Turtle Hatchling

The Hatchling variant is one of the best, if not the best, food for a baby turtle. Here are the reasons why I say this. First of all they have a high concentration of protein, which is essential for baby turtles who experience a very alert growth rate. Secondly, they have the right amount of Vitamin D3, Vitamin E, and Calcium for proper bone and shell development.

Another advantage is that the size of the pellets is perfect for a hatchling, they are small enough for a turtle to eat it in one bite, but they are not so small that they can just go unnoticed. And the last thing that makes them the perfect choice for a hatchling is that they contain blood meal, this helps turtles get used to pellets since they offer the same smell/taste in the water.

This variant is designed for turtles that are in the earliest part of their life. Since it can be hard to know the exact age of a turtle, I am going to give you the size of the turtles that should be eating this food. If the shell of your turtle is smaller than 4 inches, then it’s most probably a hatchling, so this is the right food for them.

Here you can check the current pricing, and the available sizes on Amazon: ZooMed Natural Aquatic Turtle Hatchling

ZooMed Natural Aquatic Turtle Growth

The Growth variant is designed for turtles that are still growing, but not at the accelerated rates of a hatchling. So in general those pellets are perfect for all turtles that are not babies, but they are not very old, so basically those pellets are designed for most turtles.

What makes this food great is that it has a perfect percent of proteins: 35%. If the percent would have been lower, the turtles wouldn’t have been able to get enough protein. And if the percent would have been higher, the turtles could have ended with health problems. And the fact that it has a good amount of Vitamin D3, Vitamin E, and Calcium is also great.

Another good thing about those pellets is that unlike pellets from other brands, they don’t disintegrate into small particles when turtles eat them. A lot of pellets have the tendency to break into hundreds of small pieces, which make the water very dirty when a turtle bites them, but those pellets are able to maintain their form, and won’t make the water dirty as soon as the turtle starts to eat them.

Here you can check the current pricing, and the available sizes on Amazon: ZooMed Natural Aquatic Turtle Growth

ZooMed Natural Aquatic Turtle Maintenance

The Maintenance variant is the variant that has a considerably smaller amount of protein, only 25%, and it’s meant for older turtles that have reached their maximum size, or that are barely growing anymore.

As turtles get older they require a lot less protein. When they are younger they use the proteins to grow in size, but now that they reached their maximum size they don’t need all that protein. Actually, too much protein can be bad for a turtle.

So if you have an older turtle that can’t grow any bigger, I would recommend you this brand of pellets. They contain everything that a turtle needs, and manage to offer those things without adding too many proteins to the pellets.

Here you can check the current pricing, and the available sizes on Amazon: ZooMed Natural Aquatic Turtle Maintenance.

Mazuri Fresh Water Turtle Diet

Another great turtle food that we would gladly like to recommend to you is the Mazuri Fresh Water Turtle Diet.

The Mazuri pellets offer a great balance of Proteins, Vitamin D3, Vitamin E, and Calcium, which make it perfect for a lot of turtle species.

Something that makes the Mazuri pellets stand out from the rest is their ability to float really long periods of time. This will make the food more accessible to your turtle, and they won’t make a mess in your tank. The fact that they are able to stay together when they are bitten by the turtle is also a great plus when it comes to cleaning.

The Mazuri pellets are made for juvenile and growing turtles, due to the number of proteins that they have.

The Mazuri brand is a very well-known and trusted name when it comes to pet food. So the majority of their products are very high quality and can be purchased without any worry.

Here you can check the current pricing on Amazon: Mazuri Fresh Water Turtle Diet

Best Turtle Foods: Snacks

Now that the pellets are covered, I am going to go over a few different types of foods that are mostly used as treats, or snacks for turtles. The reason why I say that they are used more often as treats or snacks is not that they aren’t good for your turtle, but if you feed them those foods too often they will start to like them so much that they won’t be eating other stuff.

ZooMed Gourmet Reptisticks For Aquatic Turtles

Reptisticks are a great snack for turtles, they are something similar to a party snack mix that you can find in most supermarkets.

Reptisticks contain Soybean, Red Shrimp, Dried Mealworms, Fish Meal, Kale, Shrimp Meal, and a lot of other things that are great for your turtle. This mix of ingredients not only offers a great combination of tastes but also offers a visually nice change, from the standard boring pellets.

Overall the Reptisticks contain a nice balance of proteins and vitamins, they offer a great taste, and can successfully be used as a treat for your turtle.

Here you can check the current pricing on Amazon: ZooMed Gourmet Reptisticks For Aquatic Turtles

ZooMed Large Sun-Dried Red Shrimp

Another great treat for turtles is Red Shrimp. Red shrimp is a great source of protein for turtles that are still growing and can be easily incorporated into any diet.

There is not much that I can say about this snack except for the fact that turtles love its taste and it offers a lot of protein. It’s simply just sun-dried red shrimp, nothing else is added to it, and that is a good thing.

Here you can check the current pricing on Amazon: ZooMed Large Sun-Dried Red Shrimp

Fluker’s Freeze Dried Crickets

One last treat that I would recommend you are crickets. In the wild turtles heavily rely on insects as food, and are usually one of their main protein sources.

Fluker’s crickets are freeze-dried, this way they maintain most of their nutritional value, which would have otherwise been lost if they were to use any other type of drying method. Other than that I can only tell you that turtles love to eat them, I actually think that they are my turtle’s favorite food, they always seem more energetic when I feed them dried crickets, compared to the times I feed them pellets.

Here you can check the current pricing on Amazon: Fluker’s Freeze-Dried Crickets

Now that the pellets and snacks are covered it’s time to move to fruits and vegetables.

Best Turtle Foods: Fruits

Fruits are a great source of vitamins for turtles, but they can also be dangerous. Some fruits contain high amounts of phosphorus that can be dangerous for turtles, in high amounts.

Phosphorus is what gives turtle shells a little flexibility, which is great because this little extra flexibility makes them more resistant to bites and other types of impact. But too much phosphorus can also make the shell a lot softer, and as a result much weaker when it comes to defending the turtle from predators.

In general, turtles can eat most fruits but in moderate quantities. So instead of giving you a list of hundreds of fruits that your turtle can eat, I am going to give you a shorter list of fruits that you should avoid. This way the list will be easier to check, and after looking at it a few times you will memorize it without any problem.

Here is a list of fruits that contain a high amount of phosphorus:

• Raisin
• Prune
• Date
• Avocado
• Guava
• Banana
• Coconut
• Kivi
• Persimmon
• Cantaloupe
• Apricot
• Pomegranate
• Honeydew
• Nectarine
• Mulberry
• Peach

Besides those fruits you should also avoid courses, they contain citric acid which will irritate the stomach of the turtle, and this can lead to vomiting, and in some cases even to problems worse than that. So avoid oranges, lemons, grapefruits, mandarins, limes, pomelo, and any other citrus.

Best Turtle Foods: Vegetables

As we all know vegetables contain a lot of nutrients that are necessary for good health. So In general all vegetables can be considered good for a turtle. But just like with the fruits there are a few exceptions.

The first exceptions are cucumbers, eggplants, mushrooms, and iceberg salad ( only iceberg, the other salads are good). Those vegetables don’t harm the turtle in any way, but they also don’t do any good to the turtle. They contain little to no nutritional value for the turtle, so a turtle would be better eating 10 grams out of lettuce, than eating 100 grams of iceberg salad.

Just like fruits, vegetables contain phosphorus, so vegetables with a high amount of phosphorus should be avoided.

Here is a list of fruits that contain a high amount of phosphorus:

• Corn
• Beets
• Asparagus
• Tomatoes
• Pumpkin
• Cauliflower
• Green Peppers
• Red Peppers
• Squash
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Sweet Potato Leaves

This should cover the essential things that you have to know about fruits and vegetables, if you want to know more about them, then you can look in the Care Guides section of the site, there you will find a few more articles that take a more in-depth look at things. Now, I am going to talk about fish.

Best Turtle Foods: Fish

One of the most important things to remember when it comes to fish is that you should only feed your turtles fish that you buy from pet shops. Fishes caught in the wild will usually carry a lot of bacteria and parasites.

Now you might think that turtles also eat fish in the wild, aren’t they exposed to the same parasites and bacteria out there? Yes, they are, but turtles rarely get to eat fish out in the wild so they aren’t exposed to them as often. If you feed your turtle fish only once a month it’s probably way more than they would be able to eat in the wild.

Pet shops will usually have a selection of feeder fishes that are safe to eat by animals. But even some of these fishes aren’t healthy for your turtle. Some of them, like the goldfish, for example, contain thiamine. Thiamine is an enzyme that will block the absorption of vitamin B1 which is essential for a turtle.

Here is a list of feeder fishes that you should avoid:

• Goldfish
• Rosy Red minnows
• Carp
• Gizzard Shad
• Feathered minnows

Here is a list of fishes that are safe for your turtle to eat:

• Bluegills
• Bass
• Crappies
• Guppies
• Killifish
• Platies

This should cover the basics of what you have to know about turtles and fishes, but if you want to know more about those two you should read this article that I wrote: Do Turtles Eat Fish? ( with Pictures and Videos )

One final thing that I want to cover is the question: How much and how often do I have to feed my turtle?

How to Feed Your Turtle

The simplest way to find the right amount of food for your turtle is to follow the size of the head method.

The easiest way to put this method into practice is to find a small container, like a medicine cup, a shot glass, or a bottle cap. This container has to be approximately the same size as the head of your turtle, without the neck. Then you fill that container to the top, and then you can feed the food inside the container to your turtle.

You don’t always have to use a container, you can always just estimate the food that you would need to fill its head. If you sometimes give your turtle a little too much food, and sometimes you give it a little too much, things will be just fine. Your turtle won’t be affected by small differences.

This method works great because it takes into consideration the size of the turtle, and gives you a fixed amount of food that you have to give your turtle. And as the turtle grows the amount of food will change.

This method is also very easy to determine how often you have to feed your turtle. If you follow this method you will have to feed a hatchling every day, a juvenile turtle every two days, and an adult turtle once every three days.

Most turtle species have different growth rates, but in general, a turtle is considered a hatchling until it reaches 4 inches in length ( shell length ), at that point, they become a juvenile. A turtle is usually a juvenile and reaches the age of 5, after that they become an adult.

Conclusion

If you have any questions about the diet of a turtle, or about turtles in general, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comment section, I will do my best to answer them as soon as possible.

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