Red meats and lettuce alone are not a balanced diet. Fresh food must be cut into bite-sized pieces. Feed meat eaters worms, insect larvae, white fleshed fish, beef heart, or killed insects two or three times a week. Vegetarian turtles are fed twice daily, five or six times a week with vegetables, fruits, berries, cabbage and even an occasional insect larvae. Fresh foods should be rolled in or packed with a reptile vitamin-mineral supplement containing Vitamin D3 and Calcium.
Water turtles feed under the water so it is necessary to change their water every day.
Once a week sanitize your turtle's water bowl by scrubbing it with vinegar and rinsing well, or put it through the dishwasher. Use newspaper for the floor of the terrarium because it can be easily changed to keep the enclosure clean and dry. An electrically heated lava rock is beneficial when placed at ground level. Several times a year snakes and lizards shed their skin in one or two pieces. This is normal, healthy behaviour.