Turtles and their dietary preferences can be very strange, sometimes turtles will eat everything in front of them (even if they shouldn’t), and other times they will become some of the pickiest eaters in the world. But how do they feel about crickets?
Turtles enjoy eating crickets. Crickets are part of a turtle’s natural diet and are an excellent protein source for turtles, and you should include them in your turtles’ diet, but only in limited quantities.
In their wild, crickets, alongside other small insects are a staple in the diet of most turtles, as they contain a lot of proteins, and are relatively easy to catch. But when it comes to pet turtles things are a little bit different, since they already have a well-balanced diet, and too many proteins can cause health problems.
How Often to Feed Crickets to Your Turtle
On average you should feed your turtle crickets once every two weeks, and only about 3 or 4 crickets.
While this doesn’t seem like much, it is actually more than enough. An adult turtle should only be fed only once every 3 days, so that’s 2 times per week, so adding another small snack every now and then shouldn’t affect their diet.
The reason why you don’t what to feed your turtle more than this is that it can lead to health problems. The most common one is pyramiding.
Pyramiding is basically the overgrowth of the shell, a process that is irreversible and can cause a lot of complications. Here is a picture of how that looks:
Besides pyramiding, there are other bad things that can happen, like your turtle becoming overweight. If you want to see how that looks and how to prevent you can check out this article: Can You Overfeed a Turtle? (with Pictures and Video).
I’ve been giving my turtles crickets, as well as other snacks for quite a few years, and all of them are in great shape. Here is how I’ve been doing it.
I give my turtles snacks in the following order:
Week 1: 2-3 fish or 4-5 crickets + normal meal
Week 2: normal meals
Week 3: a small portion of vegetables or fruits + normal meals
Week 4: normal meals
I usually alternate between crickets and fish, since they both have a lot of proteins and as we discussed too many proteins can be a problem.
If you also want to give your turtle fish and vegetables you should check out those articles where I discuss what are the fish and vegetables that you should avoid and which are good:
Feeder Fish For Turtles (Beginners Guide + List) and What Vegetables Can Turtles Eat? (Including List).
Live Crickets vs Dried Crickets
When it comes to crickets you’ve probably seen that there are two varieties, dried and live cricket. So which one should you choose?
Dried crickets are the way to go. They are a lot more convenient, have a great nutritional value, are cheap, and you don’t need to take care of them.
Live crickets can be a better choice for other reptiles, but for turtles, they don’t provide any extra advantage so the best option is to go for the dried ones.
As for which dried crickets to choose, you should know that there are different drying methods, and some of them are better at keeping the nutrients of the cricket.
The two drying methods are sun drying and freeze-drying. And the one that is better at retaining the nutrients is freeze-drying.
I’ am a long-time fan of Fluker’s Freeze-Dried Crickets, and I’ve been giving them to my turtle for quite a while and they seem to love it. But I’ll be honest with you I haven’t tried too many different brands and this is because all of them are very similar, so you can go with whatever you can find.
But even if dried crickets are, all the same, this doesn’t apply to all food, especially pellets, which are very different from brand to brand.
What to Feed Your Pet Turtle
While crickets are a great treat for a turtle, you shouldn’t give them only crickets. Turtles need a balanced diet, and the best way to achieve this is using pellets.
A balanced diet will look like this:
- 80% pellets
- 10% fruits and vegetables
- 10% meat / dried insects
As you can see fruits, vegetables, meat, and insets only make up a very small portion of what you should feed your turtle. And the reason for this is simple, good pellets have everything that a turtle needs.
While you could give your turtle a diet that doesn’t use pellets at all, it will be very hard to balance it out, and there will be no benefits to it.
The only reason why you want to give your turtle something else besides pellets is to simply mix things up a little and to give them something that they might enjoy a little more than pellets.
This is why it’s extremely important to choose a good brand of pellets in the first place. As for which pellets are the best, I would recommend you to check out this article: Best Turtle Food (We Tested 20 Different Brands), where I and the entire team of TurtleOwner.com go over our experience with multiple brands and see which one is the most nutritious and best suited for a turtle.
Final Thoughts
So, yes. Turtles can eat crickets, and you should give your turtle crickets, but only a little.
While crickets are a healthy meal for a turtle, they don’t provide all the nutrients that a turtle needs,s and they shouldn’t be treated as a staple in their diet, instead, they should be used more like a snack, or occasional treat.
I hope this article answered all of your questions regarding crickets and turtles. If you have any questions left you can always leave them in the comment section below, and I will answer them as soon as I see them.
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