12 OCTOBER 2018

Pi on Yoga Mat

One of Pi’s favorite foods are treats, particularly Wardley Turtle Treat.

Wardley Turtle Treat can be found at Wal-Mart or online at Amazon.com and Chewy.com, and it is affordable at usually less than $3 USD per 1 ounce bag. The treats are marketed as low fat, great for the turtle’s eyes and shells (enhanced with vitamins A and D), and great for hand feeding.

The treats are on the larger size for being pellets, which does make it helpful for hand feeding. Since the treats absorb water and soften up pretty well for easier consumption, their size shouldn’t pose a problem for smaller turtles. You can also break the treats easily into smaller pieces. The treats tend to leave a bit of a mess in the water when Pi bites into them, but she finds them so delicious that she will pickup every last crumb left in the tank. If your turtle is not the type to vacuum everything up, then I would recommend feeding in a separate area than the main tank if you are concerned with dirtying the water.

Pi gets excited whenever I pull the Turtle Treat bag out. I give these treats to Pi sparingly because I don’t want her to be too accustomed to them such that she might start ignoring her staple ReptoMin pellets. Still, it is a good idea to give turtles treats once in a while and let them experience some variety. When I first tried to train Pi to take food from my fingers, I used the treats and had great success. Since Pi enjoys the treats and they are a good value (1 bag lasts several months for Pi), I recommend incorporating Wardley Turtle Treat into a turtle’s diet.

In the Pi Cam video below, I placed several of the treats on Pi’s platform, so that she has to do a little work to get them. You may notice that Pi always takes the treats off the platform and into the water and never eats them while on the platform. That is because semi-aquatic turtles like her need water to aid in eating; they are unable to swallow their food without water.

In the later half of the video, Pi scans around her platform in hopes to find more treats. She can never have enough of treats. :)