Every year, we celebrate Turkey’s birthday with some sort of cake. While turtles can’t enjoy typical cakes, I’ve managed to modify the base recipe for turtle jello shots into something that is aesthetically pleasing and delicious for my newly 27 year old turtle.

You can find the original base recipe here for Turtle shots. They’re filled with tons of vegetables, vitamins, and minerals. Unfortunately, the first year that I tried this recipe, I tried to use a shallow dish to create cake layers and set them up together. It made a very runny cake but Turkey enjoyed it anyways.

The next year, I made a thicker style of “cake” and again, I had difficulty keeping it solid. My mistake was a combination of not enough gelatine and making it as one solid cake.

This past year, I used an ice cube tray to make jello ‘cake bites’. It worked wonderfully.

From the bottom of the ice cube tray, I put:

• Wild Canadian Blueberries
• Cooked Carrots
• Dandelion Greens

The possibilities are endless for what turtle-safe ingredients you can put it. Reptomin is another great additive and so is calcium powder. I included the tiktok of how I made the turtle cake below:

@celesteturtles How to make turtle “cake”. Add any sort of turtle safe fruits and veggies to customize this treat for your turtle. #rescueturtle #turkeytheturtle #turtles #turtlesoftiktok ♬ Cooking show, cute piano violin – ISAo

https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js

If you’re not up for watching a Tiktok, here’s how you make a turtle cake or turtle jello shots

You will need:

• Two packets of Knox unflavoured Gelatine
• 2-3 turtle-safe ingredients to flavour the layers
• Ice cube tray
• Fridge
• Kettle/Pot
• Two bowls
• Spoon

1. Bloom the gelatine according to package instructions. Two packages will make full ice cube tray. Since I had three ingredients I divided up my gelatine into three portions by eye, it doesn’t have to be precise.
2. Melt one portion gelatine using 1/4 cup of boiled water in a separate bowl. I used my kettle, but you can use a pot if that’s what you have on hand.
3. Add your ingredient and melted gelatine together, stir and spoon or pour into your ice cube tray.
4. Let it set until hard. (10 minutes-ish)
5. Continue until you’ve completed all of your layers or run out of gelatine.
6. Set your completed turtle shots/cake in the fridge for at least an hour.

When you’re ready to use them, release the shots/cake from the tray using hot water on the back of the tray. This will slightly melt the gelatine around the bottom and release the shots/cake. You can store these in a container in the fridge for a week or you can freeze them for up to three months.

Just be aware that turtles are sensitive to temperatures and should never be served frozen blocks of food.