How Long Can Box Turtles Go Without Eating?

At some point, every turtle owner will have to leave his turtle’s home alone for a weekend or two. And at that point, a few questions arise: Should I feed the turtle more before I leave, or should I do nothing at all? How long can turtles go without eating? So let’s answer those questions.

On average a box turtle is able to survive 3 months (90 days) without food. The amount of time can increase or decrease based on factors like age, size, environment, and prior diet.

If you were planning on leaving your box turtle home alone for the weekend you can do so without any worry. But if you are going to be away for more than a weekend you should know that while turtles are able to live without eating for long periods of time, this is not necessarily something good for them.

Now let’s take a look at what happens if you leave your box turtle without food for one weekend, one week, 2 weeks, and 1 month. And after that, we will see how you can make sure that your turtle gets enough food while you are away on a vacation.

What Happens If a Box Turtle Doesn’t Eat for 1 Weekend

This is probably the most common amount of time that turtles are left home alone without food. And fortunately for them and for their owners nothing bad will happen to any turtle if it doesn’t eat for one weekend.

So if you are planning a weekend trip, you shouldn’t worry about your turtle at all, it will be completely fine.

What Happens If a Box Turtle Doesn’t Eat for 1 Week

Under normal circumstances, nothing bad should happen if a turtle doesn’t eat for one week, but if this happens regularly, small health problems might occur.

If this is only going to happen once or twice a year, you could theoretically leave your turtle without any food, but if this is going to be something happening often, you might want to ensure that your turtle has some extra food in the enclosure, like some edible plants, or that somebody is coming over once or twice a week to feed your turtle.

After we are done talking about what happens if you leave your turtle without food for certain periods of time, we will also cover what you can do if you have to leave your turtle home alone, so don’t worry, I will also cover that part.

What Happens If a Box Turtle Doesn’t Eat for 2 Weeks

While for humans the difference between one or two weeks without food is extremely significant, for turtles it isn’t. So just like in the previous case, leaving your turtle without food for two weeks won’t have any significant impact if it happens only once or twice. but if it were to happen more often, the effect on the health of the turtle will be severe.

What Happens If a Turtle Doesn’t Eat for 1 Month or More

If a turtle doesn’t eat for one month or more, the first thing that will happen is that it will move less to conserve energy. The immunity system will stop working accordingly, and infections will appear.

A pet box turtle that hasn’t eaten in a month will either try to escape the enclosure, in search of food, or it will try to hide away from possible predators as it will feel weakened and unable to defend.

Another thing that will happen is that the turtle will stop growing. The vitamins, minerals, and energy that under normal circumstances were used for growth, will be redirected by the body to keep the vital functions running.

While there might be a few more things left to say about what happens if a turtle doesn’t eat, I think it’s pretty clear what’s the general idea.

Now let’s see how we can avoid those things.

Leaving Your Box Turtle Home Alone for Long Periods of Time

Now let’s see what you can do to make sure that your box turtle is properly fed while you are away on a long and well-deserved vacation. Depending on how long you are going to leave your turtle home alone you might want to use all of those methods or just a few of them.

Edible Plants

One of the simplest things that you can do is to add some edible plants to the enclosure.

Box turtles are vegetarian so their diet is usually made out of fruits, vegetables, and plants.

As for what plants to use, there are a lot of possibilities, there are very few plants that are bad for turtles. Here is a list of common plants that you can easily find at most stores:

Dandelion (Taraxacum officianale)
Hawkbits (Leontodon spp.)
Sow Thistles (Sonchus spp.)
Hawkweeds (Pictis spp.)
Hawk Beards (Crepis spp.)
Plantains (Plantago spp.)
Clovers (Trifolium spp.)
Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum)
Vetches (Vicina spp.)
Trefoils (Lotus spp.)
Mallows (Malva spp.)
Bindweeds (Calystegia spp.)
Ivy-leaved Toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis)
Wild clematis
Acanthus
Nettles
Daffodil
Hellebores
Hypericum
Euphorbias
Digitalis
Rhododendrons
Azaleas
Crocus
Aloe vera
Antirrhinum – flowers & leaves
Aubretia – flowers & leaves
Bramble – Leaves only.
Cactus, opuntia (Prickly pear/Indian fig)
Campanula
Chickweed
Hebe – flowers and occasional leaves
Mulberry – leaves
Pelargonium – flowers & leaves
Petunia – flowers & leaves
Rose – petals only
Sow thistle – flowers & leaves
Strawberry (wild and cultivated) – leaves & flowers
Viola/Violet – flowers & leaves

Automatic Food Dispenser

Probably the simplest solution to the food problem is to get an automatic food dispenser. I personally find this method very comfortable, and it will also come in handy when you are at home but you have a busy schedule and you don’t have that much time to look after your turtle.

This is the model that I use: Eheim Turtle Feeder, I haven’t tried any model besides this one, but at the moment I don’t have any reason to do so. What I really like about this model and I haven’t seen this at any other models is that it’s very flexible. You can have it release food to your turtle up to 4 times per day, and it can be a double or a normal serving. It is important to remember that it can hold a limited amount of food, but I never had any problem with that. But if you are going to leave for 3 months you definitely need to have somebody come over and refill it once a month. If you want to see the dispenser here is a link to Amazon.

Have Somebody Come Over

This is probably the solution that most people think of when they have to leave their turtle home alone for long periods of time.

The only problem with this method is that people who don’t own a turtle don’t know how important it is to give the proper amount of food, and not to simply grab a handful of pellets and throw them in the tank.

What I like to do when I have somebody come over to look after my turtle is to write on a piece of paper exact measurements, or if I have time portion the food in small recipients. This way when they will know exactly how much food to give.

Final Thoughts

Box turtles can go a very long time without food, in the wild, it’s actually quite common for a turtle to go without food for a week or two. While this isn’t good for their health, and it will affect their lifespan, there won’t be any immediate effects.

In the case of pet turtles, leaving them without food for a weekend won’t affect them in any way. If you were to leave them without food for a week, once or twice a year, they should still be fine, and there should be no long-term effects.

But if you were to leave them without food for more than 2 weeks, and this was to happen multiple times a year, then their health will take a turn for the worse.

My advice is to not worry if you are going to leave for only a weekend. But if you were to leave for more than a weekend, you should add some aquatic plants, or some feeder fish to the tank, use an automatic food dispenser, or have somebody come over and look after your turtle.