Can turtles eat tomatoes? Learn more about this dietary supplement before you feed it to your pet!
Feeding your turtle with pet food is surely one of the best ways to provide your reptile with almost everything it needs in order to strive and to develop its organism in a proper way. Nonetheless, we need to remember that there are plenty of different vitamins and minerals missing in these pet meals. As a result, it is crucial to include some extra elements just to make sure that your turtle has a diet that is rich in all the components crucial for the proper development.
One would ask whether tomatoes are good or not for turtles. Well, due to huge amounts of vitamins C and K, as well as such minerals as potassium and folate, tomatoes are a great addition to your turtles’ diet. What is more, if we remember about moderate feeding, turtles can eat tomatoes and there will be only positive things that come up from that.
Still, there are quite a lot of issues related to tomatoes and feeding that fruit to your turtle. And if you want to make sure that adding this piece of food does not hurt your animal, then you better get to know with today’s article. I will quickly describe the dangers of feeding tomatoes, but also present all the benefits. Furthermore, you are going to see here the best rationing of this food as well as the frequency of administration of the meal. Besides that, I will tell you about all types of tomatoes, because not all are equal.
What are the dangers of feeding tomatoes to your turtle?
Let’s start from something I believe is the most important part of tomatoes and turtles, namely the dangers that come from feeding these fruits to your pet. Although there is an abundance of benefits as far as giving tomatoes to your turtles is concerned (more about that in the next paragraph), there are also some dangers that people tend to ignore or simply overlook.
A lot of sugar
One of the first reasons why giving tomatoes to your turtle (or to be more precise giving too many tomatoes) is a bad idea is because of the sugar it contains. Since these are fruits, tomatoes are quite high in sugar. And as we know, high sugar can quickly lead to troubles with bowel movements. In other words, eating too many tomatoes can lead to loose stools or even diarrhea, which in turn will cause a lot of other stomach problems.
Dangerous pesticides
If you take tomatoes from a place where there have been pesticides used to eliminate mosquitoes, ticks, rats, and mice, then it is most likely that these pesticides will remain on the fruit. As a result, you may feed your turtle with a contaminated tomato, which surely is going to be harmful to your pet.
The dangers of tomatine
Another reason why giving tomatoes to your animal may not be a perfect solution is because of the so called solanine. It is an alkaloid compound, that in the case of tomatoes, has a variation known as tomatine. Interestingly, this component is also toxic to humans. However, our digesting system is much better in dealing with this compound. As a result, the toxic dose that we would have to ingest is incredibly high. In the case of turtles, that is not the case. Their stomachs are much less resistant to tomatine.
Obviously, there are quite a lot of benefits as well
Luckily for us, there are many different types of tomatoes that contain much less this toxic ingredient and, therefore, are much safer for our turtles. Still, we should bear that information in mind as far as tomato dosage is concerned. Furthermore, we have to remember that smaller amounts of tomatoes provide our turtles with a gigantic amount of benefits.
Taste
First of all, turtles love tomatoes! Their flavor is surely something we should take into account while picking some additives to our reptile’s diet. It makes them much more interested in what is going on when it’s feeding time.
Calcium
Another great reason for you to feed tomatoes to your turtle is because of vitamins and minerals this fruit has got to offer. First of all, you need to know that there are three vitamin and mineral components of high significance for turtles. These are calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D3. The first one, calcium, is needed for their shell, bones, as well as muscular functions. Tomatoes are very rich in calcium.
Vitamin D3
Another incredibly important element of the turtles’ diet is the addition of vitamin D3. This one is particularly important for the proper absorption of calcium. And even though vitamin D3 can be easily provided via UV-B light, there are a lot of troubles with deficiency of both vitamin D3 and calcium. And, as a result, turtles tend to get sick because of those deficiencies.
What is the best way to feed tomatoes to your turtles?
Since tomatoes do not need to have their skin removed, it is very easy to feed these fruits to your turtle. Obviously, we cannot feed stalks or leaves to our reptie. However, the rest is easily digestable. Another important thing is to get rid of the green of the stalk. Bear in mind that turtles are small and, therefore, they will not eat the whole tomato. It is imperative for you to cut the fruit in half and then into segments. That way the turtle will not have any trouble eating the fruit.
Be careful not to overfeed your reptile!
Though tomatoes are tasty and healthy, there are quite a lot of reasons why you should not offer this type of food to your turtles in too big quantities. First of all, you need to remember that tomatoes can easily cause your turtle to get a loose stool and, later on, it may translate into diarrhea.
Interestingly, you should also take into account the species of your pet as well as its size, since it is obvious that smaller turtles (like for example box turtles) will be able to eat smaller portions of tomatoes than, for example, red-eared slider, which is twice the size of the box turtle.
How much and how often?
Not too often and not too much, to be honest. Tomatoes are great, but only in smaller quantities. You should treat tomatoes as an addition to their diet and think of it as a snack that you give them once a week. What is more, you have to observe the look and the consistency of poops that your turtle leaves after eating tomatoes.
If the consistency doesn’t change, then it means that you can slightly increase the amount of tomato pieces you have got to offer. Bear in mind that rarely it happens that turtles are capable of eating more than one tomato per week. This is probably the appropriate dosage. However, it will definitely vary from one turtle to another, so make sure you double check if your pet is okay with the amounts you are giving him!
Now you know whether your turtle can eat tomatoes!
Tomatoes can be quite a dangerous treat for your turtle. However, if we are really careful with the amount and we do not overdo it with the frequency, then tomatoes will turn out to be an extremely important and valued addition in our animal’s diet. Obviously, people may think it is a dangerous play.
Still, smaller amounts are not too dangerous and the benefits it gives is surely worth adding at least one small tomato every week to the turtle’s diet. Obviously, remember about all the tips and tricks, and take into account the size of the turtle as well as its age. Also, incredibly important is the right preparation of the tomatoes, namely getting rid of all the leaves and stalks, since these are not eligible for your pet to eat.
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