Why Is My Turtle Eating Rocks? (What It Means + What to Do)

Rocks are far from being the most nutritious food in the world if we can even call it food. But for some reason, turtles choose to eat them from time to time. But why? Isn’t it dangerous to eat rocks?

Turtles can eat rocks for a variety of reasons, the most common being a mineral deficiency, digestive problems, lack of food, or simply by mistake. While eating rocks can be dangerous for the health of a turtle it can also provide some benefits.

But despite those benefits, it can still be a very dangerous thing to do, as it can damage the internal organs of the turtle. Due to unfavorable circumstances, wild turtles can sometimes resort to eating rocks, but pet turtles shouldn’t have to resort to this.

So we should take a look at each of the reasons listed earlier and see why your turtle is eating rocks and what you can do to stop it. But first, let’s see how dangerous it really is, and if you should be worried that your turtle ate a rock.

Is Eating Rocks Dangerous for a Turtle?

Eating rocks can cause internal damage, but if this will happen or not it all depends on the shape and size of the rock.

If it’s a very small round pebble, then most likely there will be no problem. But if the rock was sharp there are good chances that it will scratch the insides, which can be extremely dangerous. And of course, if the rock is too big it might get stuck, and this can cause a lot of problems.

One more thing to take into consideration is that while a turtle might be able to eat a rock safely, it will at one point have to get it out, and this is not as simple as getting it in. So there is a chance that the damage will happen a few days after the turtle ate the rock.

But, if your turtle ate the rock on purpose and not by mistake, there is a good chance that it didn’t choose the biggest and sharpest stone it could see. Turtles are somewhat careful with what they eat, and they usually avoid eating things that can harm them.

So my advice is to look closely at your turtle for a few days, if you notice any behavioral changes or any physical signs that something might not be fine, go to the vet immediately. Otherwise, you shouldn’t get worried. While this is not the most common thing to see a turtle do, it still happens, and in almost all cases nothing bad happens to the turtle.

But, the fact that your turtle ate a rock in the first place is usually a sign that something bad is happening, that it led to this.

Eating Rocks Due to a Mineral Deficiency

While rocks have little to no nutrients, they have a lot of minerals, and one of them is calcium. Which as we all know is essential for the health of bones. Something that you might not know is that the shell of a turtle is actually part of its skeleton and is made entirely out of bones. This means that calcium is extremely important for them.

Turtles can eat rocks on purpose because they contain minerals like calcium, which are essential for the health of the shell.

If your turtle eats rocks, it might be because they don’t get enough calcium from their diet. But this is a very simple thing to correct. There are multiple methods to do so, but the simple one is giving your turtle cuttlebone.

Cuttlebone is a very soft bone that comes from the cuttlefish and it’s full of calcium, and you can find it in most pet shops in the bird section since it’s most commonly used for pet birds so that they can polish their beaks.

You should also take a look at this article: Cuttlebone for Turtles (Beginners Guide + Buyers Guide) where I go into more details about how you should properly give your turtle cuttlebone, as simply throwing the whole thing in the tank is not the most efficient way.

If you already give your turtle calcium supplements, another problem might be that your turtle can’t properly assimilate the calcium, so it ends up looking for more. This problem is usually caused by an improper basking area, more precisely a lack of proper UVB light. And giving your turtle more calcium won’t solve this problem, instead, you should make sure that your turtle gets enough vitamin D3 from the basking area. So you should check out this article: Do Turtles Need Calcium? (Beginners Guide), where I go over how you should properly set up a basking area.

Now let’s move to the next possible reason why your turtle is eating rocks.

Eating Rocks Due to Digestive Problems

Sometimes turtles eat rocks in order to help them digest something that they’ve eaten which they shouldn’t or something that they can’t properly break down.

In this situation, the rock will basically crush the food that is already in their stomachs, and help them get it out faster.

While the rock itself, won’t be easy to get rid of sometimes it is preferable than having something in their stomach that is actively hurting them, like a bone or a poisonous plant.

This is very rarely the case for pet turtles, but if you gave your turtle something new to eat, it might have not been the best voice, and in order to get rid of it faster your turtle chooses to eat a rock.

Eating Rocks by Mistake

The most common reason why pe turtles end up eating rocks is simply by mistake. Turtles love to eat, and sometimes if thy see something that even slightly resembles food they will eat it. Or if a bit of food is stuck between two rocks, they will jump on it, and might eat a rock or two in the process.

This is normal behavior for turtles, as they are opportunistic feeders. In their natural habitat turtles don’t usually eat regular meals, one week they might find food every 2 or 3 days, but for the next two weeks, they might find nothing to eat. So they will always eat when the opportunity presents itself.

The solution to this problem is very simple. Remove the gravel or the rocks from the tank. Having gravel in the tank in the first place is a bad idea, and I usually advise against it.

While gravel might look nice in a tank, it will usually cause more problems than it’s worth.

If you really want to have a substrate in your tank my recommendation is to use river rocks, as they are big enough tath your turtle won’t be able to eat them, and they are a lot easier to clean than gravel. If you want to know what other types of substrate you can safely use, and which to avoid you should check out this article: The Best Turtle Tank Substrate (Buyers Guide), where I compare different types of substrate and list the pros and cons of each.

Eating Rocks Due to a Lack of Food

The final reason why your turtle might resort to eating rocks is the lack of food.

This is usually caused by using the wrong feeding method. The most efficient way to feed a turtle is to use the size of the head method and feed it once every 3 days if it’s an adult.

The size of the head method is this:

The simplest 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 less, there will be no problem. 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 grow with it.

This method was an extract from the article: How Much and How Often Should I Feed My Turtle? (+Schedule), if you want to know what other methods are out there, what you should feed your turtle, or you want a premade feeding schedule you should check out the article for all of this and more.

Turtles are able to go weeks, even months without food, but if you give them too little food for long periods of time, they will get hungry, and as a last resort they will eat anything that they can find. To prevent this from happening all you have to do is correct their diet, and in the beginning, maybe give them a little bit of extra food to make up for the food that they didn’t get.

Final Thoughts

Eating rocks is not a normal thing to do for pet turtles, but it’s not something that can’t happen. And while it’s not the safest thing to do, sometimes it can be beneficial.

But at the same time, pet turtles shouldn’t have to resort to eating rocks for any reason. If they do so it means that there is something wrong with their diet, and you need to fix it.

The most common reason why this happens is simply by mistake, this is why you shouldn’t have any substrate in your tank that your turtle can end up eating by mistake. But if you really want to add a substrate you should use something bigger, like river rocks.