Rowly----Cecil is right on the starting to feed your gills. My pond is 10 years old and no feed of any type was ever used until last year. I bought 2 bags of the Purina Game Fish Chow, the floating mixed size kind (I think it is 32% protien) I walked out on one of the docks about 1 hour b/4 dark one day and threw out a couple handfuls. No action the first couple days but by the 3rd. or 4th. day a few gills started to play with the feed. Each day more gills came and now, in the second year, it is like driving a cow into the Amazon River with a bunch of hungry Prianas. It is a feeding frenzy every night. Litteraly hundreds of gills actually fighting over who gets a particular piece of feed. And several of the smaller turtles in the middle of all the turmoil. You can watch the ripples in the water all heading for the dock as I pull up on the ATV. The grandkids live to feed the fishys on the weekends. I still feed only by hand and at the same approximate time every night from the end of May thru the first part of September and only off the same dock toward one end of the 7 acre pond.
Try it like Cecil says and if they don't start eating after a week you can always quit and your only out a few bucks. I pay $14.49 for a 50 pound bag of the purina.
Good luck.
Dan

Mistakes are proof that you are trying.


Dan