Keeping Turtles: As Pets What Vitamins Are Important For Your Turtles Health

A large part of caring for a pet turtle is trying to make sure that they are as healthy as possible and a good way to do this is to make sure that your turtle has a nutritional diet and also by providing them with the right supplements which when it comes to keeping turtles as pets is always important.

All turtles are different and you will need to feed your turtle a specific diet depending on what species of turtle he/she is. Some turtles enjoy specific foods more than others but generally there are vitamins and minerals that all turtles need in their diet and these are vitamin D3,vitamin A and calcium. So why are they important and how can I introduce them into my turtle's diet?

Vitamin D3 partners well with calcium and is an aid which helps the absorption of calcium into your turtles body. Naturally in their habitats in the wild, turtles generate vitamin D3 through exposure to sunlight while going about their daily adventures. Most people who have turtles as pets keep them indoors so a good way to ensure your turtle receives this vital vitamin is to have a UVB lamp providing ultraviolet light into a section of their tank for at least 8-10 hrs a day. Ideally it is a lot easier and cheaper to allow your turtle 30 - 40 minutes of sunbathing where you would take the turtle outside into your yard and it can have exposure to natural sunlight every two to three times a week. Just having your turtle out for just those few minutes will be enough to help them to produce a sufficient amount of vitamin D3 in comparison to the 8-10 hours of artificial light needed.

One thing to keep in mind is that turtles are not used to extremely cold temperatures so if the weather is not particularly warm in your area it's always better to stick with UVB lighting.

Calcium is extremely important for good turtle shell development and healthy bones in turtles. If there is a lack of calcium in a turtles diet it can cause severe problems to both land and aquatic turtles alike. The shells of aquatic turtles will become soft and rubbery and it's very possible that a young calcium deficient turtle will develop malformed limbs. Land turtles on the other hand can suffer from pyramiding which is a condition that causes the shell of a tortoise to become lumpy and form pyramid like deformations. Pyramiding is caused when there is too much protein and not enough calcium in the tortoise's diet. Too much protein causes the turtle to grow at a much quicker rate than usual and this combined with a lack of calcium means the shell cannot expand quickly to keep up.

The best ways to provide calcium into your turtle's diet is to provide them with calcium supplements which can come in a few different forms. Calcium supplements for turtles usually come as powder but you can also use cuttlebones which is also used for birds and are a great way to induce calcium into your turtles diet to ensure they have good bone and shell health.

Make sure you buy the phosphurus-free calcium powder to allow your turtle to take in only calcium which will ensure your turtle does not unbalance their calcium to phosphorus ratio.

Vitamin A is important for your turtle's skin, eyes and mucous membranes. Vitamin A deficiency in a turtle's diet often results in turtles losing their appetites, swollen eyes and a runny nose. These symptoms all point at a condition known as hypovitaminosis A in turtles. There are foods that are rich in vitamin A that you can provide to your turtle when meal time comes around which will serve as good sources for this much needed vitamin.

These foods are:

*Dark leafy greens such as collard greens, mustard greens, Kale and parsley.

*yellow, orange flesh coloured vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes

*Cod liver oil: Just drizzle a bit over their food before you give it to.