Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources / Oklahoma State University
Turtle Food?
By Fred Causley
 Anne and John Niwa of Gore raise thousands of American box turtles for the pet industry trade. They worked with OSU’s FAPC center to develop and market a better turtle food and plan to be in production by fall. |
The Niwas operate Granny’s Hillside Farms near Lake Tenkiller. Although they are in the pet turtle business, their first concern is for the turtles—which they have hatched and raised by the thousands.
Tim Bowser, food processing engineer with Oklahoma State University’s Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, says he was impressed by the Niwas’ dedication to their turtles.
“John took a load of box turtles all the way to Denver to a pet store,” Bowser recounts. “On arrival, he didn’t like the way the proprietor was handling his stock, so back John came—with the whole load.”
Growth in the Niwas’ operation has been hampered by the need for a ready-to-eat turtle food that provides the nourishment required, that can be stored for a year on the shelf and be safe, and that—most important—the turtles will eat.
“We had been struggling with this problem for 10 years,” Niwa explains. “We have been feeding them earthworms and minnows, which we also raise commercially, and fruit gleaned from the dumpsters of area grocery stores.”
 The Niwas hatch and raise hundreds of box turtles at their Granny’s Hillside Farms site near Lake Tenkiller. The animals are already on some endangered species lists. |
Niwa says he read an article about OSU’s Food and Agricultural Products Center (FAPC) and began to wonder if researchers there could help solve his turtle menu problem.
As things turned out, the system worked exactly as intended. Niwa called Sequoyah County Cooperative Extension educator James Yates, who put him in touch with area Extension specialist Mitch Fram at Muskogee. It was Fram who contacted Bowser. “At that time, I happened to have a Food Research Initiative Proposal [competitive research funds from the FAPC budget] on my desk, and I was looking for a challenge,” Bowser recalls. “Through their own research—and a lot of trial and error—the Niwas had a pretty good idea of what the turtles liked. But it was obvious we were going to need a turtle expert on the project.” |
That expertise came in the form of one Chuck Peterson, who just happened to be a member of OSU’s Department of Zoology.
“There isn’t a lot of research literature on turtle nutrition, so we had to do a bit of our own right off. The Niwas had a menu they wanted to use based on the foods they had available, so we started with that, basically measuring what went in one end of the turtles and what came out the other,” Peterson says.
The researchers learned that box turtles, which are omnivorous, require a lot of protein, which the earthworms and minnows provide. They also need a lot of calcium for their shells, which is provided by supplementing with eggshells.
Bowser says they tried several commercial foods, but the turtles were not too crazy about them.
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“We learned that color and scent are very important to a box turtle. They like yellows and reds best, and prefer fruity scents. We used natural fruit for scents and even experimented with artificial scents to get them interested. We came up with a ‘Tender Vittles’ version of turtle food that can be formed into a cookie or pattie shape,” Bowser recalls. By using dried, ground-up ingredients, including the earthworms and minnows, in conjunction with vacuum packaging, the patties are holding up well on the shelf. However, Bowser points out that a bit more time is required for the year-long portion of the trial. |
Economic development highlights in this story: • An increase in growth revenue from $8,000 to more than $30,000 in one year. • An expected increase from eight to 15 employees over three years. • A completed turtle food recipe ready for mass marketing techniques. • A new Food Research Initiative Project supporting further study on turtle nutrition. |
Peterson was pleased with the final menu, noting that the product has shown as much as 80 percent digestibility, which is quite high. If funding becomes available, he hopes to work with the turtles further to get an index of their health on a long-term basis.
“I learned a lot about box turtles in this study, including the fact that they really need a lot of water—much more than we thought. They lose and gain body mass rapidly depending on whether or not adequate water is available,” he adds.
Once the final product is available, Phil Kenkel and Rodney Holcomb—both with OSU’s Department of Agricultural Economics—will conduct a market feasibility study looking at how much turtle food sells for now, its cost structure, and so on. They will determine how much it costs to make, to move, its size and type of packaging, and all the other parameters that go into getting a product out on a large-scale basis.
But John Niwa, who has both the enthusiasm of the hare and the determination of the tortoise, isn’t waiting. At a point in their life when others are settling back to enjoy retirement, the Niwas are gearing up to produce a commercial turtle food as well as to use it in their own business. Niwa says the niche is there for his product.
“We are employing eight people right now. Within three years we will be employing 15. We will gross between $30,000 and $40,000 this year. Last year it was $8,000. The OSU Foundation has a fund raising theme they call ‘Bringing Dreams to Life.’ Ours is a takeoff of that: ‘Bringing Our Dreams to Life.’
| “The working relationship with OSU has been nothing but successful for us. It has been a totally cooperative effort with all entities involved, including the FAPC and the departments of Plant and Soil Sciences, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Economics, and Zoology. We have met the needs of the animal rather than the greed of the pet food industry.” |  Anne and John Niwa show baby box turtles they are raising to OSU food processing engineer Tim Bowser. Bowser and the Niwas worked together to come up with a “turtle wafer” that is highly nutritious and acceptable to the animals. |
The Niwas have almost single-handedly found ways to reverse the declining box turtle population. They have learned how to get the little animals to successfully breed in captivity (basically by giving them so much room they don’t realize they’re captives), and what box turtles prefer to eat, even what they like to do. |
“One reason so many turtles are killed on highways is that penchant of theirs for bright colors, especially yellows. They see the bright yellow stripes on roadways and go after them, thinking they are approaching some flowers. If we could just get the Department of Transportation to use orange stripes, you would see the box turtle population skyrocket,” Niwa explains.
What’s in the future? Niwa says he already has been contacted by the International Tortoise Consortium in London, England, about the possibility of their funding the research and development of a tortoise menu.
“In addition, we are looking at a better floating fish food. We will need to add a flotation element to this menu to make that one work. We are looking forward to working with the OSU people again on future projects.”
Agriculture at OSU Spring / Summer 1998
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