Turtles can eat tomatoes and many enjoy doing so. However it is important to never feed your turtle too much of one type of food, even tomatoes. Tomatoes should not be given to your turtle more than once a week and it is even better to feed them to your turtle even less than this. It is recommended that rarely feeding your turtle tomatoes is best.
The reason that turtles should not eat tomatoes too often is because it can make them ill and cause a number of health problems. The excess sugar and acid in the tomato can cause the turtle’s stomach to bloat painfully and can also cause diarrhea and make the turtle’s stomach more hospitable for parasites to thrive in.
Since tomatoes are technically a fruit, they are pretty high in sugar content and acidity. Mediterranean species of turtles such as Hermmans in nature would rarely have access to fruit and because of this their digestive tracts are not developed to deal with these amounts of sugar. This can result in an imbalance of their normal intestinal flora. It is recommended that fruit such as tomatoes only be given to them sparingly or not at all.
There is no need to get upset about your turtle not being able to eat a lot of tomatoes, there are plenty of other accessible and inexpensive things such as vegetables, pellets, and small fish that are healthy for your turtle, if not healthier!
Corey cross says
The reason who ask this question because I have two turtles one is a eastern box turtle and the other is like a hybrid snapping turtel and I do know why she won’t eat the carrots
Nikki says
My turtle eat only tomatoes n not eating anything else. I tried to feed veggie but not eating at all. For what days he was starving but not ready to eat except tomatoes who to.do?
Sierra says
Try strawberries my turtle eats a lot of strawberries and being that it is about the same color it may work
Aidan says
Yeah strawberries are good. And lettuce. Just make sure you peel the strawberry skin off first ! 🙂
Royce F says
To get my turtle to eat greens I mix them in with his favorite foods like banana and strawberry and chop it up well. I usually add calcium with D3 only once in a while. It’s important to give them a varied diet including bugs.
Carol Snyder says
I rescued a 3 toed Box Male and he had the MOST awful diet of Ice Berg Lettuce for over a year of 3 years of life. It was so HARD after relocation to get him to eat…at all ..well except that dang iceberg lettuce. So after a vet check up I purchased a tube of Zilla Brand (Zoo med has as well i think) Appetite Stimulant and Caloric intake supplement. Its sticky but loaded with vitamins and enzymes etc. So at first I took…yes Iceberg lettuce and rolled it into a toothpaste amount of the Supplement to coat it…like a thin icing. I also immediately added Red and Green Romaine Lettuce and some dandelion greens…all rolled and thinly coated with the Zilla Supplement. Took a few days but as He grew hungry, he ate it. And IT WORKED! I managed to get him changed to Healthier greens. He never had worms or insects so i rolled earthworms and meal worms and wax worms in the stuff along with greens then started making a little meatball out of worms and lettuce with a but of supplement added and then he wanted EVERYTHING to try. So did strawberries and blueberries and cantaloupe…..began bait fish LIVE…LOL He still eats some but allows most to live in his pond. He is STILL adjusting to LIVE food. But what an amazing product and how quickly it helped him He still occasionally pulls attitudes and gets STUCK on one type of food….So I use the supplement again if continues too long. He eats every 3 -4 days mostly. So dont panic right off adding other foods. Some turtles want live and moving to get them going but my Samson prefers NON moving food. BUT..JUST GOT HIM TO EAT LIVE CRICKETS!