Why Is My Turtle Not Eating in the Winter? (+How to Solve)

Every turtle owner will face this problem at some point, your turtle will stop eating for no apparent reason. I’ve also been faced with this problem multiple times with different turtles. So I decided to write this short guide to help other people that have this problem.

During the winter when temperatures drop the metabolism of a turtle starts to slow down as it prepares to hibernate, during this time the turtle will eat less food, or it will stop eating completely. Other possible reasons are stress, inadequate basking area, pregnancy, and sickness.

During the winter the temperature drops, and even if our homes are warmed, there will be some fluctuations in temperature. And those fluctuations can affect your turtle enough to make it stop eating. And of course, there is always the chance that something else is keeping your turtle from eating. So let’s take a look at why your turtle is not eating and what you can do to solve this problem.

Quick note: Turtles can survive without food for very long periods of time, so if your turtle hasn’t eaten in 3 or 4 days, while it’s not good, you should know that this had no effect on the health of your turtle.

Water Temperature

Turtles are cold-blooded animals, which means that they don’t produce any body heat, so they rely on the surrounding temperature to warm their bodies.

If the temperature of the water is not warm enough, your turtle will stop eating because it can’t properly digest the food, and it can get sick.

The exact water temperature varies from species to species. But in general, it’s between 75 and 80° Fahrenheit (24 and 27° Celsius). If you keep the water temperature between 75 and 80 degrees, then your turtles should start eating again in no time.

If the temperature of your water is too low you can solve this by simply turning up the water heater, and depending on how cold the water was your turtle will soon start eating in a few hours, or more if the water was very cold.

If the heater is already at maximum, you might consider upgrading to a more powerful version. But if you don’t have a water heater or a water thermometer, my recommendations are to get this water heater and this thermometer, both links are to Amazon, so they should arrive quickly.

Basking Area Temperature

There is one more area where you should check the temperature, and that is the basking area. While it’s essential for the water in the tank to be warm enough, so that turtles don’t get cold, the tank is not where they get most of their heat, that place is the basking area.

Depending on the turtle species that you have, the basking area temperature will also differ. But between 85 and 90° Fahrenheit (29 and 32° Celsius), is an all-around good temperature. But getting to those temperatures can be quite tricky. As you might have noticed a lot of heat bulbs don’t specify an exact temperature, instead, they tell you how powerful a bulb is.

Here is a quick illustrated guide that will tell you what temperatures you should expect a heat bulb to produce based on how far from the turtle it is.

If you want a more in-depth guide about heat bulbs and how to correctly use them, what’s the difference between the various types, you can check out this article: Guide for Lighting and Heating a Turtle Tank and Basking Area.

After you correct the temperature of the basking area your turtle should start eating again in a day or two.

UVB Light

Now, moving away from temperatures, but still, in the basking area, we need to take a look at the UVB bulb.

The basking area has one more purpose besides providing heat for your turtle, and that is to provide UVB light.

UVB light normally comes from the sun, but it can also be created artificially with the help of a special UVB bulb.

Without enough UVB light, a turtle won’t be able to properly absorb the nutrients of the food it has eaten, so, until it knows it can get the nutrients it needs from the food, it won’t really bother eating, since it doesn’t help at all. The lack of UVB light can also cause a lot of health problems that can stop a turtle from eating, this was just one example of how it could stop your turtle from eating its food.

The only way to solve this is by getting a UVB bulb and adding it to the basking area. If you already own one, you should know that UVB bulbs will stop producing UVB light way before the bulb itself stops producing light.

On average a UVB bulb will only produce UVB rays for half of its lifespan. So if on the box it says that the bulb will last 12 months, you should change it after 6.

Stressed

Despite their hardy appearance, turtles get stressed very easily. They can get stressed by excessive noises, by other pets, improper handling, and many other things.

If your turtle gets stressed out, it will stop eating until they calm down. And they will also act a little stranger than they usually do. Stressed turtles have been known to swim against the walls of the tank, try to dig through the basking area or substrate of the tank, hide in their shells for long periods of time, etc.

In this case, you have to eliminate all sources of stress. Let me give you a few examples of what could stress your turtle. A loud stereo system that is placed right near the tank can cause a lot of stress for a turtle. A cat or a dog that is always trying to get in the tank can also cause a lot of stress. Taking your turtle and trying to spin it on your finger like a basketball can cause a lot of stress. The best way to figure out if something is stressing the turtle is to try to put yourself in the turtle’s place. If you think that something would stress you, then it definitely stresses the turtle.

After you eliminate the stress sources your turtle should start to eat again soon.

Hibernation

When the temperature drops turtles will automatically start to get ready for hibernation.

Hibernation is a very complex process that turtles go through when the temperature starts to drop. A simplified version is this.

When winter comes most of the things that a turtle would eat are gone. So in order to survive turtles need to sleep through the winter. When the temperatures start to drop, the whole body of the turtle will slow down, the turtle will move slower, it will breathe less often, and the heart will start to slow down. And as a result, it will use less energy, and if it uses less energy it doesn’t need to eat as much. And things will go on like this until the turtle slows down so much that it starts sleeping. And it will only wake up when the temperatures start to rise.

If you want to know more here is an article where I discuss hibernation more in-depth: Do Turtles Hibernate? (with Videos).

If your turtle has been exposed for a long time to a temperature of 50°F (10°C) or lower, there is a good chance that your turtle is getting ready to hibernate. This is not a bad thing, but it’s definitely something that most pet turtles do, or have to do.

If your turtle will spend a few days at a higher, more normal temperature it should start eating again soon.

Dirty Water

Just like we don’t like to eat at a table that is dirty, turtles also don’t like to eat in dirty water.

Dirty water is one of the biggest problems when it comes to turtles. The tank has to be cleaned every week, and if you don’t do it your turtle will stop eating, and can also develop a lot of other health problems.

The only solution to this is to clean the tank, there is no other way around it.

Even if there is no other solution, there are still a few things that you can like getting a more powerful water pump or feeding them food that they can eat only in one bite, or feeding them in a separate container.

I tried many things, and in my opinion, feeding your turtles in a different container is the best method. To do this just take one of your turtles and put it in a different container that is filled with water, and feed them in that container. After they eat, let them stay there for 10 more minutes, and then put them back in the tank. If you have more turtles, you should remember to take them one by one, never all at once, if you take them all at once they might end up fighting over food.

The only downside to this method is that you have to start doing it while your turtle is still young. Older turtles are already used to eating in the tank, and if you move them somewhere else they can get scared, and might not eat.

The second best method, and also the more passive one is getting a better water filter. Water filters are usually rated for 30 gallons, 40 gallons, 60 gallons, etc. The thing about turtle tanks and water filters is that you want one with double the power that you need. So if you have a 30-gallon tank you will need a water filter that is rated for 60 gallons. If you have a 40-gallon tank, you will need an 80-gallon water filter.

Filters are usually rated for those volumes with fishes in mind, but turtles are a lot messier. So you will need double the power. If you want to know my water filter recommendation, you should check the Recommended Gear Page. There you will find my recommendations, from personal experience, for water filters, different types of food, heat lamps, and many more.

The Age of the Turtle

One very important thing that a lot of people don’t mention is that young turtles don’t eat the same things as adult turtles.

Unlike adult turtles, baby turtles are still growing, so they need a slightly different diet. One that contains a lot more proteins.

At first, the younger turtles will try out the food that you give them, but if they consider that it doesn’t have enough proteins they will stop eating it, and search (even if they can’t actually leave the tank) for a better protein source.

If you have a young turtle you should get some pellets that have a higher content of proteins. And you should also consider giving it some dried crickets and maybe some live fish from time to time. Just be careful with which fish you choose, not all of them are safe for turtles, if you want to know which ones are good to eat, and which aren’t you can check out this article: Can Turtles Live With Fish? Will My Turtle Eat the Fish?.

And make sure that you don’t spoil your turtle with too many fish, as this will lead to other problems.

Feeding Your Turtle the Wrong Food

Turtles will eat a lot of different foods. But like every animal they prefer some foods over others.

From what I observed in my turtles they will always prefer live prey (feeder fish) over anything else, then comes meat, then pellets, then fruits and vegetables.

If you feed your turtle only live prey and meat for a couple of months, then you expect them to eat pellets, you are very wrong.

You should feed your turtle a mix of live prey, meat, pellets, fruits, and vegetables. If you only give them what they like the most they won’t eat anything else. And this can lead to health problems, fruits and vegetables have a very important role in the diet of a turtle, and they should eat them regularly.

If you feed your turtle only meat for a long period of time it will be hard to get them to eat anything else, but it can be done.

The best way you can solve this is by taking a tuna can and taking all the tuna out of it and leaving the oil, water, and juices from the fish inside the can. Then place some food pellets inside the can and leave them there for a while to soak up all the juices left in the can. After that, you should give them to your turtle. Due to the smells and oils from the fish, they will think that the pellets are meat. Keep doing this for a while and mix normal pellets that haven’t been in the tuna can with them. Occasionally try feeding your turtle only normal pellets, and see how it reacts. If your turtle eats them then you should be able to feed her a normal diet now. If she ignores them, keep repeating the thing with the tuna can until it works. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks.

After your turtle successfully starts eating pellets again, you should start switching it to a more diversified diet and only give your turtle live prey as treats only once or twice a month.

Scared

If you just got your turtle then it’s very normal for them to not eat during their first days in their new home.

Moving to a new home can be very stressful for a turtle. They will go from a small cramped tank, that they share with multiple turtles, to a new spacious tank where they can live alone. And if they were sent through the mail, they will be even more scared.

If this is the case for your turtle, you just have to leave your turtle calm down a little. Normally it shouldn’t take more than one week, but every turtle is different. I’ve had turtles that didn’t need any time to get accustomed to their new home, and turtles that needed a week.

There is nothing you can do in this case, just make sure that you offer them food every day, in case they decide that it’s safe, and want to eat it.

Pregnant

A pregnant turtle will act very strange, she will stop eating, she will stop basking, she will try to dig everywhere, etc.

If your turtle is pregnant there is nothing that you can do to make it eat. Just provide food for her, and if she wants to eat she will eat.

The first thing you have to do if you want to know if your turtle is really pregnant is to find out if it’s a male or a female, so you should read this article that is going to tell you if that’s the case: How to Tell If Your Turtle Is Male or Female.

And if your turtle is a female, and you want to know if she is pregnant, then you should read this article where you will find all the info you need: How to Tell if Your Turtle Is Pregnant.

One important thing about turtles is that they can get pregnant even if there is no male around. The difference is that the eggs won’t be fertilized so no baby will come out of them. So even if you only have a female turtle she can still lay eggs.

Sickness

If nothing seems to be out of order, the water is clean, the temperature is fine, no changes in the diet, nothing stressing the turtle, etc. you should go to the vet, as your turtle might be sick.

Even if there are no apparent causes for this, turtles from time to time can get sick. And the only proper way to know this and to treat it is to go to a vet.

If you don’t already have a vet, I would recommend you to search for one that specializes in exotic animals, like turtles. Not all vets know how to check and treat a turtle, vets just like doctors, are specialized in different fields. So do some research before.