How can i get my red eared slider turtle to eat anything other than pellets?

So I have had my RES turtle for about 6 months now and he has finally came along to actually communicating me happily. When I eat in my room he will start going crazy from the smell, so I will take his tube of pellets and shake them for him in front of him (which i have done every time feeding him) and he will go crazy. I have tried putting a worm and a tiny leaf of spinach along with his pellets, but he wont touch anything besides his pellets, he has only attempted to touch the spinach but he will decide not to eat once playing with it for a while. The worm does not get touched, i guess because it wont float and wont pay attention to it. I have never been able to get him to eat live food.
Answers:
first things first. stop the spinach. it prohibits the absorbtion of calcium thus not good for the turtle. also don't use iceberg lettuce. but red leaf lettuces like the butter and romaine varieties are good.
with the veggies roll the leaf like a cigar. take a knife and slice it down long ways while holding it on the out side then slice it width wise into 1/2-1inches lengths. take the shedded leaf and put that in the tank and see if it will take to smaller bites. do this everyother day for several weeks until it understands it is food. if one type doesn' work try another.
as for worms, use earthworms perferable longer ones and hold it with your fingers hlaf in the water and the part you hold out of the water. gently move it around the tank making sure it sees it. it should at least be interested and take a look. if not take a bite at the worm that is probably squirming around.
also put about 5 feeder gubpies or golldfish in the take to help introduce new food. try rosies or comets goldfish as they are cheap and easliey replaceable.
also crickets, grasshoppers, bloodworms, de-winged flies, small newts, and tadpoles, etc also work.

hope this helps


PS it's odd though, i have the oppisite problem, i can't get my painted to eat pellets...

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did u tery to hold the worm half in the water n half out like its floating for him to try it and oncehe likes it u should be able to let go n he will look forthe rest of it just getting him to try something new isw the hard part

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Try getting some bloodworms from your local pet or fish store. They come in little frozen cubes that you can punch out and drop right into the water. My RES loved them, as well as small goldfish.

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what I did with my turtle is I would get a piece of whatever you want to feed it and try to make it try it then it would probably like it

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Don't give it pelets at the same time. Start to introduce the new food as a snack during the day. Feed it a little less pelets and then you should be ok. You may try putting some small guppies in the tank too that it can eat. Those become food within minutes with my res, even when starting it only took a day of being in the tank before they were like 'food, yummy'. Greens are a little more tricky to try and get them to start eating but little by little they will. You can also try to hold the worms right on the water's surface and see if it goes for it. This is the only way mine will eat worms or crickets.

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I had the opposite problem with my red eared sliders; they loved chasing after crickets, but would only eat pellets if I moved the pellets around with a straw so they looked 'alive'. I'm not sure what you want your turtle to eat, but crickets and wax worms were major hits with my guys. Good luck!!