What Do Baby Snapping Turtles Eat? #Fish #Duck

The snapping turtles are one of the most common turtle breeds that have become extremely popular over the past few years. If you are looking to keep the snapping turtles as pets, and want them to be healthy, the healthy diet should be what would matter a lot.

What Does a Baby Snapping Turtle Eat?

Baby snapping turtles are omnivores and eat small fish, earthworms, tadpoles, aquatic plants, and even small rodents. They also eat plant food such as vegetables and fruits. Snapping turtles also eat the specialised turtle foods available at the pet stores.

What to Feed a Baby Snapping Turtle?

The best food for baby snapping turtles would be the turtle food that contains minnows, worms and cricket. The young Snapping turtles like mealworms, guppies, and ghost shrimp. Baby snapping turtles also eat human food such as bread,  chicken, beef, fish and turkey, to name a few. They can also eat frogs and mice as they grow up.

Snapping turtles are not picky about their food. They will eat just about anything you give it. However, that should not mean you can feed it whatever you want to. It would be extremely important to understand that a healthy diet is important, and a healthy diet can only be complete with the right type of ingredients added in the right amount.

The key to a good eating habit for a baby snapping turtle would be to provide it with the same type of the food available in the wild and add up other nutrients if any.

How Long can a Baby Snapping Turtle go Without Eating?

A baby snapping turtle can go without eating for two to three months! While the turtles can survive without food for 2 to 3 months, they will not survive without clean water. But, it is not advisable to keep the baby snapping turtles starving that much longer.

An adult snapping turtle (or for that matter, any turtle breed) can go without food for several months as long as it has access to clean water. If it has been well- fed just before the vacation, it would be able to survive for longer without food.

How long can a baby snapping turtle go without food will depend on the following factors:

What do Alligator Snapping Turtles Eat?

Alligator snapping turtles feed mainly on fish. The other primary food that Alligator Snapping Turtles feeds on include frogs, snakes, snails, worms, clams, crayfish, and aquatic plants. It even other smaller breeds of turtles.

The major diet of an alligator snapping turtle is fish, and it will go finding other food only when it has no access to fish. Despite being a slow-moving animal, it can easily catch fish. The alligator snapping turtle uses its tongue to catch fish. The turtle wiggles its long tongue which resembles a worm. When the fish is attracted to this “worm”, it becomes an instant prey. Other food items that alligator snapping turtle finds interesting includes frogs, invertebrates and even ducklings.

Do Snapping Turtles Eat Lettuce?

Snapping turtles can eat Lettuce and even a host of other vegetables. Lettuce is the best option for the right Calcium-phosphorus combination. It has a Calcium-Phosphorus ratio of 2.7:1. That should mean Lettuce is a great option to improve shell consistency.

Snapping turtle or even the other breeds of turtles need vegetables that have an adequate Calcium to Phosphorus ratio. Too much of phosphorus can prove to be a risky affair as it can soften the shell. Any food with a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 2:1 is one of the important aspects.

What do Snapping Turtles Eat in a Pond?

A snapping turtle in a pond can eat foods such as aquatic weeds, crayfish, insects, carrion and fish. In a farm pond, the snapping turtle can eat healthy fish as well. It will also help you keep ponds healthy by consuming the dead fish and other unwanted aquatic animals.

Keeping snapping turtles in a pond is not recommended if you are using the pond for swimming. The snapping turtles can be a risky affair and can cause injury when provoked. They can get too aggressive when they are provoked. They can even mistake a finger for a fish and cause injury.

Can Snapping Turtles eat Fruit?

Snapping turtles eat a variety of food, and this includes fruits. Some fruits include Apples, grapes, strawberries, cantaloupe, banana, kiwi, mango, and tomato. The fruits with too much sugar content may not be the right choice as it can cause health issues.

Snapping turtles do eat anything that you throw at it, and this includes fruits as well. In any case, fruits should be served only as a treat and NOT regular food. The staple diet of the snapping turtles should ideally include vegetables, fish and insects.

What do Snapping Turtles Eat in the Wild?

The snapping turtles are entirely aquatic and thus primarily feed on plants, insects, spiders, worms, fish, frogs, small turtles, snakes, birds, crayfish, small mammals, and carrion when in the wild. The plant food is around one-third of the total diet while the rest of the food is of animal origin.

Snapping turtles in the wild live in a wide range of aquatic habitats. They inhabit in the slow-moving muddy water bodies. A few of the common places that snapping turtles like to inhabit include marshes, creeks, swamps, bogs, pools, lakes, streams, rivers, and impoundments.

Do Snapping Turtles eat Ducks?

Snapping turtles are known to eat birds, and this includes ducks. Common Snapping turtles weight up to 40 pounds and can easily overpower a duck. Smaller snapping turtles are known to attack and eat ducklings. Alligator snapping turtles weigh more than 200 pounds and eat ducks.

Snapping turtles are dangerous to ducks and other water birds. They are also known to reduce the fish habitation in a pond as well. The snapping turtles are incredibly aggressive, strong and can overpower larger animals and birds.

Can Snapping Turtles eat Toads?

Snapping turtles can eat toads. The snapping turtles are known to be highly aggressive and can quickly attack a variety of aquatic animals such as frogs, fish, newts, tadpoles, toads, crayfish, and even snakes, small turtles, and small mammals.

While the regular snapping turtles can kill a wide range of animals in the water, the alligator snapping turtles can be the most powerful aquatic animals among the turtle family. They readily attack the waterfowls such as ducklings and even larger ducks quickly enough.

Do Snapping Turtles eat Goose Eggs?

The snapping turtles are known to eat birds eggs, and that includes Goose eggs as well. These powerful turtles can even eat the geese and other small animals as well. Apart from goose eggs,  a snapping turtle can also eat the eggs of almost all water birds.

Snapping turtles consume a wide variety of aquatic animals and plants. The plant form just one-third of its regular diet. It feasts mostly on the animals such as waterfowls, birds eggs, mallards, crayfish, ducks and ducklings, and frogs, to name a few.

Do Snapping Turtles eat Water Snakes?

Snapping turtles can eat water snakes. They do eat a wide range of both aquatic plants and animals, and this includes the other reptiles such as snakes and smaller turtles. In addition, it also eats small mammals, fish, frogs and other aquatic life.

Snapping turtles are omnivores, but two-thirds of their diet includes animal source. They do prey on almost anything that they can swallow. This consists of a wide range of invertebrates, birds eggs, ducks, ducklings, geese and their eggs, and water snakes.

The Concluding Thoughts

Keeping snapping turtles as pets can definitely be a challenge. However, if you do take adequate care, that should not be a concern most of the times. While baby snapping turtles may look cute and something you would find a unique pet, they can get destructive as they grow up. Understanding their food habit and habitat preferences can help you keep them calm and safe.

Take up proper research and decide on the right approach to know how to handle and how to feed a snapping turtle. A few tips in this post should help you take the right call.