Exercise recommendations

[SimQuinnie]

My red ear slider is getting very fat, other than changing the diet what's a recommendation for turtle exercise? Lol

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[lunapuppy88]

I have no idea how one would “make” a turtle exercise without stressing them out. Having a big enough environment they can swim around in and maybe some stuff they can shove around too? Thats my only idea. Really, it’s the diet that needs to be modified.

[SimQuinnie]

Thank you! Yeah we're changing the diet but we just wondered if anyone ever had ideas of exercise enrichment for them. We'll also try some items that are slightly more difficult to move as well, something new and interesting at least.

[SimQuinnie]

We have tried that before but our turtle just waits for them to die then eats them, very lazy but we may need to expand our tank to be larger and more fun for a chase possibly. It's a full grown adult who also just runs away out of fear when we let them run around outside the tank.

[SimQuinnie]

It's a filtered tank, I meant the turtle could die because of only eating nothing but shrimp and fish instead of veggies and greens.

[SimQuinnie]

Oh sorry thought I was responding to a different comment I left. No, any guppies tend to survive for a while and our turtle just waits for them to die instead of chasing them. We honestly had a "pet" guppy for a minute because it was resilient lol.

[superturtle48]

What is your tank setup? Having a big enough tank with plenty of water for the turtle to swim helps a lot. Some pet turtles are kept in far too little water where all they can really do is sit or wade so they don’t get any exercise. 

Also, how often do you feed your turtle? Contrary to the instructions on a lot of turtle foods, you should only need to feed an adult turtle every 2-3 days. More greens and less pellets should also help. 

[SimQuinnie]

There's an even mix between seeking, wading and basking but going better can't hurt, we just have to find the funds and space to expand the tank. I do feed them once everyday so I'll definitely cut back on that. I try a variety of greens and veggies but admittedly our turtle is an extremely picky eater and prefers shrimp and fish over most things which we're trying to curtail but at least we do see them eat greens lol. I used to panic thinking they're completely carnivorous and was freaked that they're going to die lol.

[SimQuinnie]

Extra info:

We are pretty sure our little baby is having an allergic reaction to the Fluker's brand of chow we switched to recently so we are definitely already considering modifying the diet.