JBL Agil Turtle Food Sticks - 2.5 L

JBL Agil Turtle Food Sticks - 2.5 L is JBL's floating stick food for aquatic turtles and terrapins.

Key Features

• Floating sticks, so you can see what is eaten: They sit on the surface, which is where an aquatic turtle naturally takes food, and whatever is left can be netted off before it sinks and starts fouling the water.
• Fish and shrimp protein: JBL build it on fish and shrimp rather than on what they call cheap fishmeal, and that is what makes an aquatic turtle take it readily from the first feed.
• Lysine and a vitamin complex: JBL include lysine for bone development and a multivitamin complex with vitamin C. That covers the dietary side of growth. The lighting side matters just as much, and is covered further down this page.
• Sized for turtles from about 10 to 50 cm: JBL band their reptile foods by the size of the animal. This one is for turtles and terrapins with a shell length in that range, which covers most pet species from part grown upwards.

Feeding An Aquatic Turtle

• A portion roughly the size of the turtle's head is the usual guide. Daily for a growing juvenile, every second or third day for a full grown adult.
• Overfeeding is the commonest mistake in turtle keeping. It shows up as fast, uneven shell growth and a tank you cannot keep clean.
• Sticks alone are not a complete long term diet. Add greens as the animal matures, and for most species some live or frozen food while it is young.
• Feed in a separate container of tank water where you can. It keeps the uneaten food, and the waste that follows a meal, out of the main tank.
• Net out anything not eaten within about ten minutes. Uneaten sticks are the quickest way to foul a turtle tank.
• Turtles need far heavier filtration than the same volume of water holding fish. If the water clouds or smells, the filter is undersized rather than the turtle being dirty.

Shell Health Needs More Than Food

• A turtle or tortoise cannot use the calcium in its food without vitamin D3, and it makes D3 from UVB light. No food on its own prevents a soft or deformed shell.
• That means a UVB lamp over the basking area, changed on the schedule its maker gives. A UVB tube stops producing useful UVB long before it stops producing visible light, so a lamp that still looks fine can be doing nothing.
• It also means a basking spot warm enough to digest at. A reptile kept too cool does not absorb what it eats, however good the food is.
• Offer a separate calcium source as well, such as a cuttlebone or a calcium block left in the enclosure for the animal to use when it wants it.
• A soft shell, a lumpy or pyramided shell, or an animal that cannot lift itself to bask are reasons to see a reptile vet rather than to change the food.

Which JBL Reptile Food For Which Animal

• Agil is for aquatic turtles and terrapins, the sliders, cooters and map turtles that live in water and haul out to bask. Floating sticks built on animal protein.
• Agivert is for herbivorous land tortoises, such as Hermann's, spur-thighed and Horsfield's. Purely plant based, high in fibre and deliberately low in protein.
• Gammarus is a treat for aquatic turtles rather than a diet, fed a few pieces at a time.
• The two main foods are not interchangeable. A high protein stick fed to a land tortoise causes exactly the shell and kidney damage a tortoise diet is designed to avoid, and a plant based food will not meet the needs of a young aquatic turtle.

Storing It

• JBL give three years unopened and around three months once the tub has been opened, because the vitamins degrade after that.
• Buy the size you will get through within three months of opening rather than the size that looks cheapest per litre.
• Keep it sealed, cool, dry and out of sunlight. Never in a damp room.
• Scoop with a dry spoon rather than a wet hand. Moisture getting into the tub is what starts mould.

Good To Know

• Suited to several turtles or one large adult. Check you will use it inside three months of opening before choosing this over the 1 litre tub.
• For aquatic turtles and terrapins. Land tortoises need Agivert instead, which is plant based and much lower in protein.
• Keep it away from children and pets, and wash your hands after handling reptile food and after handling the animal.