In the wild snapping turtles eat almost anything - as long as they can catch it and swallow.

Bigger pieces of food are torn apart into smaller pieces with their powerful front legs. While ferociously biting its catch, the snapper will pull away any parts which are wider than its mouth and try to position it so it would be easy to swallow.

The snapping turtles have an incredibly wide throat and can gulp down huge pieces of food almost as big as their own mouth.

The diet of wild young snappers consists mainly of snails, worms, leeches, insects, larvae, small fish, water plants and any edible organic waste that fells to the bottom including deceased larger animals.

Adult snappers eat larger prey as frogs, fish, newts, tadpoles, toads, crayfish, and even snakes, small turtles, small mammals and young birds who happen to be passing by, such as waterfowl for example.

Surprisingly, water plants make up one third of their diet !

Snapping turtles usually feed at night, but a hungry turtle will feed anytime.

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