Feed a Baby Mud Turtle - Know the diet. Offer your baby mud turtle foods it will readily consume, such as small crickets, worms (e.g., red wrigglers or earthworms cut into pieces), fresh-killed guppies, freshly thawed bloodworms, freshly thawed krill (and other small shrimp), tiny crayfish, tiny snails and a variety of commercial turtle foods. Although less preferred, you need to occasionally offer your mud turtle a range of healthy greens, such as romaine lettuce, water hyacinth or duckweed.
Avoid calcium deficiency. If you don't provide your turtle with UV-B lighting, include brand name commercial foods that contain Vitamin D3, such as ReptoMin or Mazuri aquatic turtle foods, in your turtle's diet. Turtles need vitamin D3, either from exposure to UV-B or diet, to physiologically process calcium and avoid metabolic bone disease.
Feed a Baby Mud Turtle
Follow a feeding schedule. According to austinsturtlepage.com, baby mud turtles should be fed commercial pellets or meaty foods (e.g., earthworms or fish) once daily until they are about 6 months old, just "enough to diminish appetite but not gorge the turtle." Or, you can feed hatchlings and juveniles a few times a day, provided that you simply spread the food supply over the course of a day (don't increase the total daily food supply, rather just offer a fraction of the total daily food supply multiple times a day). You should also offer your baby mud turtle greens daily and allow him to forage at will, though most mud turtles do not eat plants well in captivity.
Avoid overfeeding your turtle. Overfed turtles are prone to shell deformities (also known as pyramiding) and too much protein can be harmful to the liver and kidneys. One crushed half-grown male guppy, one or two baby ReptoMin pellets, or a 1-cm piece of red wriggler are all reasonable options for a dime-size hatchling's daily diet. Reasonable daily diets for nickel-size, 1-month-old mud turtles include one adult ReptoMin pellet, one crushed large male/small female guppy, one 3-week-old feeder cricket or a 1-inch piece of red wriggler.
Mud turtles (Kinosternon spp.) are native to parts of the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. Several species of North American mud turtles--particularly eastern mud turtles (Kinosternon subrubrum) and striped mud turtles (Kinosternon baurii)--are popular in the reptile pet trade. Among the reasons for their popularity, mud turtles are hardy pets, relatively easy to care for in captivity and have generalist diets, eating a wide variety of plants, animals and carrion in the wild, with a particular fondness for invertebrates. - by eHow
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