Piles and piles.....

.......of hungry Reptiles!

We'll close this page with one more picture (or two...... or three!)........ but first what do I FEED them?! LOTS of things really, like apples, melon (they're not too cool with watermelon though!), Dandelion greens, Bidens pilosa (A semi-tropical plant that's adored by most turtles!), strawberries, and sometimes bananas........... but the wonderful substance that draws them in by the swarm is my special "Joe mix", consisting of raw, fresh hamburger, with Rep-Cal added (A commercially-prepared reptile vitamin powder), QUIK CHIK (A chick-starter powder, which is sold by McMurray Hatchery), which is added to the water normally, but I mix a little of it right in with the meat), as well as mixing in a little Oyster Shell Calcium powder. I have used lean ground beef for many years, been bashed by "critics" for it, but have raised turtles to maturity on it! It's quite honestly the best stuff I've ever USED for turtles, and ground Deer is also good! I TOTALLY AVOID feeding them Poultry though, and I've been keeping and breeding turtles now since 1968 -

and I've never had Salmonella! With all the "hype" about Salmonella, I have been very CAREFUL in what I do! I keep the meat cold and fresh till the moment it is used, and I prefer to feed it directly to them by HAND, rather than just tossing it on the ground! Sometimes it gets a little OVERWHELMING though, and it's THEN I toss small bits onto a small rug I have here in their enclosure - thus keeping sand, dirt, grass, and other "gunk" from clinging to the meat! A note about McMurray Hatchery: They offer a huge supply of equipment and books for poultry mostly, and an astonishing variety of poultry - exotic as well as common breeds from all over - as well as some very useful vitamins for your turtles! Used sparingly they can be mixed right into the food with really good results. Anyways the best "additive" is QUIK CHIK, shown on the back page of their catalogue. This is a huge site, featuring some of the world's coolest looking chickens (ducks, pheasants, etc, etc) I've ever seen! Also I've ordered from them and was totally SATISFIED! They have some really great "money-saving assortments" that just might SURPRISE you - everything from "Ducks Deluxe", to "The Great Goose Group", and chicken assortments GALORE....... or you can order most by species and sex - individually if you'd like! Over all this is a GREAT site! Also note this is NOT a "Joe Page", and from the following site there will be no link back to my pages!

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