There are quite a few recipies for turtle pudding in books amd on the internet. These are a blend of various turtle foods blended and set in gelatine. It is a useful way of ensuring variation in the diet of aquatic turtles. It also aids the provision of suppliments which can be a problem for turtles that feed underwater.

I tried the aquatic versions with my box turtles and it was readily accepted. Boxies are attracted to bright coloured foods and I think the red colouration of the pudding helped.

Heres a few of my recipoes, tailored by species.


I've tried to avoid using salt water fish and molluscs, the only ones I have used are Sainsburys Chilian Mussels.

Most of these are about 50/50 protein and vegetable, the Ornates slighly favouring protein. I dont use it daily and the rest of their diet is quite protein heavy with lots of live food and turtle pellets for the aquatics as most of my turtles are growing babies.

Ingredient portions can be any size you like but should be equal weight. I have made these using a blenderbut have found that it tends to cloud the water for aquatic turtles if the food prticles are relased,
ususally if the portion offered is over "bite size".

Mud Turtle pudding
(Natural Diet - Molluscs, shrimps, invertibrates, insects, some water plants and, interestingly, their seeds.)

1 portion trout or salmon (bones in if possible)
1 portion crayfish tails
1 portion mussels
1 portion finely grated hard vegetable (carrot, squash, pumpkin)
1 portion finely grated hard fruit (apple, pear, grape).
1 portion green veg or weeds (Romaine lettuce, sow thistle, plaintain)
1 portion of wheatgerm based koi pellet
A sprinkling of health food shop seed mix, (sunflower, pumpkin etc) chopped very fine. (These contain quite a high protein content but also amino acids).
Few kernals of sweetcorn, chopped.
Few Hikari Spirola algae pellets.(for fish like pleco's).
1 teaspoon of nutrobal
1 teaspoon calcium carbonate (cricket dust).
Red natural food colouring
Gelatine for setting.

Take the trout or salmon, the crayfish tails and the mussels plus the "juice" from the containers and loosely pulp them with a fork. This gets the oils flowing out of the fish.

Add the koi pellets to this mix and allow them to soak up the oil and fishy juice until they are soft then pulp them into the mix. Mix in the other ingredients and add enough of the red food colouring to ensure the final mix is very red.

Spread it all into a shallow tray and cover with the diluted gelatine (follow the instructions on the packet) until it just covers the surface of the mix.
Put it aside for a few hours to allow the gelatine to set. (you can use regular or vegetarian gelatine, regular sets better).

Cut the pudding into small pieces, enough to cover a days feed, cover in clingfilm and place in the freezer. You can then break off and thaw chunks which are best cut into bite size pieces for the turtles.

Three toed Box Turtle pudding

(Natural diet - insects, worms, carrion, plants, fruits, fungi).

1 portion Crayfish tails
1 Portion mussels
1 portion chicken livers, beef heart or other "organ" meat.
1 portion soft fruit (banana, sharon fruit, peach etc)
1 portion hard fruit (apple, pear)
1 portion greens (romaine type lettuce)
1 portion weeds, chopped fine. (any tortoise friendly weeds in combination)
1 portion hard vegetables, grated (Carrot, pumpkin, squash).
1/2 portion wheatgerm based koi pellet(soaked as above).
1/2 portion of cichlid "conditioning pellet" (soaked as above).
A sprinkling of health food shop seed mix, (sunflower, pumpkin etc) chopped very fine.
Few kernals of sweetcorn, chopped.
Couple of mushrooms, pulped.
1 teaspoon of nutrobal
1 teaspoon calcium carbonate (cricket dust).
Red natural food colouring
Gelatine for setting.
Preparation as above.

Ornate Box Turtle mix
(Natural Diet insects, carrion, some fruits)

1 portion Crayfish tails
1 portion mussels
1 portion chicken livers, beef heart or other "organ" meat.
1 portion of "Natures grub" dried insects (crickets, mealworms, waxworms, earthworms) rehydrated.
1 portion hard fruit (apple, pear).
1 portion hard vegetable (carrot, pumpkin, squash).
1 portion opuncia cactus, pulped.
1/2 portion wheatgerm based koi pellet (soaked as above).
1/2 portion of cichlid "conditioning pellet" (soaked as above).
A sprinkling of health food shop seed mix, (sunflower, pumpkin etc) chopped very fine.
Few kernals of sweetcorn, chopped.
1 teaspoon of nutrobal
1 teaspoon calcium carbonate (cricket dust).
Red natural food colouring
Gelatine for setting.

Spotted turtle
Following discussions with other keepers, I'm feeding them the Mud Turtle and Three Toed box Turtle recepies in rotation.

Lots of fun, all very messy and smelly, ruins your blender and fills up your freezer nicely.

very useful recipes for those people with turtles, I must admit I had a bit of a try with this sort of thing and didn't get on too well, I might give the box turtle recipe a go with maybe a slight tweek for the wood turtles

i dont keep turtles myself Dave but im sure this will be a usful guide for those that do ,so unless you have any objections in which case i will change it ,im going to make this a sticky.thanks for this topic.

Thanks Dave, I will give it a go. But my freezer is already full, looks like I will need another freezer. I dont think hubby will be pleased:0)

Thanks guys,

I find it useful as my boxies will tend to pick out the protein element of any mixed feed I offer them. I try to follow Tess Cooks feeding regime of a protein, hard veg, leafy green, fruit and fungi portion in each meal and with the pudding they dont have the option to pick and choose. It might seem a bit odd adding fish and shellfish to a boxie diet but the smell appears attractive ( to them at least), its a protein, it has good vitamin A and three toed are known to hunt crayfish in the wild! Dont know if the fish makes them brainy but their clever little b*uggers.

This is a link to a basic aquatic turtle pudding recipe, its very similar to the one in Russ Gurleys book on aquatic turtles ( a must have book in my view).

http://www.chelodina.com/15.htm

Where on earth do you get crayfish tails from Dave?

Sainsburys do them, ready peeled in a box like prawns. I like using them because they are freshwater animals. My boxies love a crayfish tail on its own too.

Thanks Dave!!