Here's a list of some of the foods to experiment with:

• Gelatin Based Aquatic Turtle Diet: (from Herpcare's Guide to Healthy Herps)

When I picked up some Herpcare Vitamin supplement for my snake I found this aquatic turtle diet. It's pretty easy to make, is very easy to feed, should provide every thing your turtle needs nutritionally. The following makes 6 cups so you may want to half or quarter the recipie, especially if your just have one turtle or only have young turtles.

1 cup frozen fish (whole fish preferred but frozen smelt may be used)
1 cup frozen seafood package (squid, clam, mussel, shrimp, and cuttle fish), if unavailable use frozen shrimp.
1 cup softened aquatic turtle food or trout chow.
1 cup chopped kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, spinach, or collard greens.
8 spoonfulls (enclosed in package) HERPCARE Calcium Supplement.
4 spoonfulls (enclosed in package) HERPCARE Vitamin Supplement.

Finely chop all ingredients and mix well.

Prepare 1/2 cup unflavored gelatin in 1 1/2 cups of hot (nearly boiling) water.
When the gelatin disolves in the water, combine the gelatin mixture and the other ingredients and mix well.
Pour the mixture in an 8x8 baking pan and refriderate overnight.
Cut to size and feed or freeze for future use.


• Aquatic Turtle Pellets:

Any good quality aquatic turtle food is a good staple for your snapper. I've found that larger, floating pellets work best since they are easy for your turtle to find and for you to clean out in case, for some strange reason, it's not hungry that day. Stay away from the stuff that looks like fish food. It usually sinks right to the bottom. Also avoid the paste type foods. Since aquatic turtles eat only in the water (that's the only place they can swallow their food), the paste foods that have to be scooped out onto a rock don't work too well. Not only does your turtle have to find the food, it has to pull it into the water where it quickly dissolves and makes a huge mess. Trust me on this one.
Some common brands are:

• Zoo Med
• ReptoMin
• Mazuri (from Purina, check with a feed store or online)
  
• Meat:

Any lean, COOKED, meat will be fine. It has to be cooked. If you give your turtle raw chicken you can bet that everyone that comes into contact with it will get sick. And if you decide to just give it a piece of what you are eating, make sure it doesn't have any spices, oils, ketchup, or whatever. Turtles get belly aches too!


• Fruits and Vegetables:

You'll have to play around here to see what your snapper likes. Bahamut enjoys bananas, oranges, tomatoes, carrots, water plants (from the river near where he was caught), and even broccali (better him than me). Just put a little of whatever you might be eating for dinner (before cooking and dressing) in it's feeding tank and see if it eats it.


• Other Foods:

Feeder goldfish or minnows *(see important note on goldfish at bottom!), red worms, night crawlers, shrimp, meal worms, crayfish, minnows, salamanders. Basically any small fish, insect, or amphibian that might live close to a river or pond. Now some of these depend on the size of your pet. It would be just plain evil to put a feeder goldfish in the tank with a baby snapping turtle. YUCK!

When it comes to live foods, I give Bahamut minnows and crayfish an occasional treat. At a petstore the minnow only cost something like 9 cents each and he really enjoys them. I prefer using minnows over goldfish because I can catch them myself and when I do get them from a petstore they are gennerally in better shape that the feeder goldfish. Also cuts down on the "awww" factor from my wife.

It's very important to get your live foods from a good source. The feeder minnows you get from Totally Fishy can be completely different from those you get at Uncle Earl's Tackle and Tobacco. Here's a mini-guide to getting live food:

Pet Shops:

This is 'usually' your best option. Most pet shops supply the basics of live feeding: crickets and goldfish. The thing is, some pet shops well... suck. You don't exactly have to have your Doctorate in Biology to work at or even run one of these establishments. For every great pet shop I've been in, I have visited 3 horrible ones. Go to all (really) of the pet shops in your immediate vicinity and find a good one. Look at the condition of the animals and fish they keep, the cleanliness of the cages and shop in general, and ask questions. Find out if they are employing people who know what they are doing or if it's their 16 year old nephew that needed a job for the summer to pay off his gambling debts. Also, look at the type of people that frequent the shop and what seems to be this location's 'specialty'.

I've got a nice little memory (taking up space that could be used to help me pass my computer vision class) of a pet 'joint' in a town I used to live in. Perfect Pets I believe was the name of the place. You walk in and you're taken aback by the smell of unclean ferret cages and mildew. Just glancing at the cloudy fish tanks, unclean and unheated reptile tanks, and 4 guys standing at the checkout counter (it looked like Larry, Darrel, and Darrel found their good buddy Steve) convinced me not to buy anything from this place.

If you're buying feeder fish or other aquatic live food, you'll most likely have the best luck from a place that specializes in fish. Find out where the aquarium gurus go to buy their $400 fishies. Look for clean tanks with clear water and healthy fish. The place I get my feeder minnows from takes the same care of their feeder stock as their other fish. It's important that your feeder fish be as healthy as possible to help avoid making your turtle sick. If there are a good deal of dead fish in the tanks, find some place else.

If crickets or earthworms are on your shopping list, a shop that handles a good number of reptiles would probably be your best bet. You will probably be confronted with a few choices when it comes to crickets: small or large, dusted or not. I'll bet you already know the difference between small and large don't ya? OK, fine... straight to dusted or not. You want 'not dusted'. Easy enough. Basically, (you knew I just couldn't not explain) dusted crickets are coated in a powder that supplies extra nutrients. Dropping a dusted cricket into a tank of water not only makes a mess, but also defeats the purpose. Other than that, it's hard to go wrong when buying crickets.

You'll want to ask a few (well one) important question about earthworms and that is "What were these worms raised in?" If they don't know, ask them to find out. You don't want earthworms raised in manure. If you can't find out, you're probably better off getting the worms yourself.

Keep in mind that insects aren't the most nutritional of foods. Gut loading (feeding the insects good veggies with some vitamin powder) helps but still try to use insects as a treat and to add some variety. A mainly insect diet is not a good choice.

Bait shops:

If you can't find a decent pet shop and you don't like the outdoors, then you can try a bait shop. It's probably not the best choice but you might get lucky. Bait shops usually have a wide variety of live foods. Minnows, night crawlers and red worms (large and small earthworms), wax worms, meal worms, crickets, leeches, salamanders, etc. The catch is, they are not usually kept in the best condition. Most bait shops add a good deal of chemicals to the water they keep their minnows in. It's usually a bright blue. Also, the earthworms are usually raised in manure. The main difference is that the live food you get from these shops are not meant to be food, they are to be used as bait. It's not a big deal with wax worms, meal worms, or crickets, but this would probably be a bad choice for minnows or earthworms. You can always ask about the living conditions but expect a chuckle.

The Wide Open Spaces:

This can be a fun option in the spring and summer months. Find a good, clean location. Avoid the little gray stream outside your apartment complex. Urban areas are not a good place to find healthy live food. You'll probably have to go out of town. Everyone probably knows or can figure out how to turn over a rock and pick up a worm so I'll skip that. The aquatic prey may be a little harder though, so I'll provide the super complex plans on how to make a minnow/crayfish trap. Warning: Do not attempt without at least a BS in Engineering.

Plans for Eric's Trusty Ol' Minner Trap:


1. Obtain one clean 2 liter (or larger) plastic soda bottle.
2. Remove the label and black plastic bottom (if those things still exist.)
3. Using a sharp knife, remove the upper portion of the bottle. (watch out, knifes is sharp) You'll want to cut right where the bottle begins to taper off. Now you've got two pieces, the cylindrical bottom and a cone shaped top.
4. Attach a heavy string to the cylindrical bottom by poking 2 small holes in one side and threading the string through the holes. Tie a nice little knot and go to step 5.
5. Set the cylindrical bottom on a table, flip the cone shaped top upside down and place it in the cylindrical bottom. Use a hole punch to make 4 holes in top ridge and use wire or string to tie the two pieces together.
6. Drop a couple of little bread pieces and maybe a rock (to hold it down) in the trap, toss in a small stream and before long you'll have minnows, crayfish, and maybe even a water snake.

• Vitamins:

If you are giving your turtle a balanced diet, it won't require supplemental vitamins. If, however, you find that your turtle is not getting the nutrition it needs (usually by signs of illness), vitamins may be obtained at your local pet store.

What's too skinny? Well remember this is an aquatic turtle that DOES NOT go all the way inside it's shell. If it's skin starts to look loose and baggy, feed it! Don't worry, you will be able to tell.

How much should you feed it? You can't go by the info on the turtle pelet containers, many say to feed it every day, until it has eaten all it can eat in 10 minutes. If you do this even only once every three days, your turtle will explode! The best method I have found is to feed your turtle until it begins to slow down its eating. If it stares at the food a while before snapping it up, it's full and only eating because well.... it's there. Expect your turtle to start snapping up the food very quickly at first, and then begin to slow down considerably as it fills up. You will just have to experiment here. Again the skinny rule applies.

How do you feed it? Well, if you're using floating pellets, just toss 'em in a few at a time until your turtle has had enough. Most live food is handled the same way, with the exception of earthworms. They sink fast If you want to hand feed your turtle use tongs or hemostats instead since your hungry snapper will most likely have no regard for your delicate little fingers.

* Tip: Now take note here, this may be the best feeding advice I can give. Use a separate feeding container. Get an appropriately sized Rubbermaid storage tub (I use an 11" (Height) X 13" (Width) X 20" tub) add some water (enough to at cover your turtle plus some), turtle, and food. Clean up is a snap (just dump the water out so don't use too much. It's wasteful and heavy), food is easy to find, and your turtle's enclosure stays MUCH MUCH cleaner. If you ignore every thing I've said listen to this one.

* Warning: If you feed your turtle goldfish, take note that they may carry bacteria that can harm or kill your turtle. To help prevent this, try freezing the goldfish (of course you will want to thaw them before serving ;) ) or use feeder minnows. This important information was contributed by Doug in Boston via e-mail. Sorry to hear about your alligator snapper Doug.