Can Turtles Eat Parsley

Of the condiments, parsley always seemed the strangest for humans to add to food. If we’re eating, the intention is to savor the rich tastes that you have spent hours laboring in a kitchen to bring out of your food.

Adding a tasteless, small green flake for decoration always seemed so pointless, but there’s little denying that it makes the plate look fancy.

It turns out, however, we’ve been eating parsley wrong, in little shreds and flakes.

Turtles know how to get the most out of their parsley, it’s an excellent source of minerals and vitamins they need to thrive.

Parsley has also been shown to lessen the risk of bladder stones and other urinary tract issues that your turtle may experience later in life.

In this blog, we’ll go over just why parsley is so good for your turtle as well as the best ways to give it to your little friend.

Here is a video of sweet little turtle eating parsley.

Is Parsley Good For Turtles?

Parsley is exceptionally healthy for turtles. Just going over the list of nutrition found in parsley can explain why.

Vitamin A: Vitamin A is very important to keeping bones and skin healthy.

Vitamin C: Vitamin C is important to help repair damaged tissue. It also helps the animal fight off infections.

Vitamin K: A key factor in blood clotting, vitamin K is also necessary in bone health. Like that bony shell that rests on top of your turtle.

Can Juvenile Turtles Eat Parsley?

Feeding juveniles parsley is a great way to affect their mood, as it generally makes them happier and more energetic. Younger turtles require more vitamin K, A and B while they’re growing.

It’s vital to include some parsley in your daily feeding of a juvenile turtle.

How Much Parsley Should Turtles Eat?

There’s no exact quantity of parsley that your turtle absolutely requires.

It’s going to vary drastically depending on how big and how old the turtle is and what else it is eating.

Some turtles will eat more than others.

Typically, you want to feed them around one half or one fourth of a cup when they’re adults three times a week.

Younger turtles should be fed daily.

Types of Parsley Turtles Can Eat

While overall, the benefits of feeding parsley to your turtle are almost entirely good, it is possible to eat too much if it’s the wrong kind. If your turtle eats too much of the wrong kind of parsley, they can have too much oxalic acid.

There are three types of parsley:

Garden flat-leaf
Italian leaf
Curly leaf

Garden flat-leaf is the best choice for a turtle. It contains a good amount of Vitamin C and low levels of oxalic acid.

Before You Feed Parsley To Your Turtle

It’s always important, before you give any sort of food to your turtle that is store-bought, that you rinse it well under cold water.

This will wash off any pesticides that may have been lingering.

Next, as you would for yourself, chop it into manageable pieces.

However, manageable pieces to a turtle and what is manageable to you are two very different things.

Mix up the chopped parsley with other vegetables that you know your turtle enjoys.

How to Feed Parsley to Turtles

As a general rule of thumb, measure the size of your turtle’s head.

Provide them a food bowl that measures about the same size and fill it to the top.

But the question is how much your turtle will be interested in the parsley.

Some turtles are more carnivorous than others, particularly when they’re juvenile and craving the protein to grow.

So to keep them interested, be sure to mix the parsley with other foods you know they are attracted to.

Risks

Parsley is obviously an excellent choice, particularly for a growing turtle, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some drawbacks.

Turtles exist in a natural world that requires strict balance in their diet, and too much of anything tends to result in health problems.

Beyond the concern of having too much oxalic acid, an adult turtle is known to eat all their food in one sitting much of the time.

Too much parsley too fast can develop kidney problems for your friend, as they won’t be able to process what’s going through them at the right rate.

Ultimately, parsley is an important part of a turtle’s diet, far more so than we ever would consider it on our own.

So make use of it, buy plenty and feed it to your growing turtle. Studies have shown they’re more energetic, ready to crawl and swim all over the tank.

But it’s important that, once they reach a certain age, you limit the amount of foods that were once crucial when they were young.

As turtles age, they become less interested in that sort of food anyway.