Fishy Question?

[lilwyhunter]

I had a customer call me today and ask a tegu question that I was dumbfounded with. She's read all about feeding fish to her adult male, found all natural ocean smelt at the market last week and froze it. She called because as she was thawing it she was unsure how to go about feeding it. She said she had stumbled across some reading that told her to cook it to kill off any worms/parasites etc, but wasn't sure how to cook it. I told her I wasn't quite sure since I have never fed fish and that I'd reach out, do some research and get back to her.

So, for those of you feeding fish, what fish do you use and how do you prepare it? :?:

 

[Draco D Tegu]

I just simply feed raw tilapia, scaled, gutted unless I have it fileted in the fridge already.

Tonight I'm gonna try live rosie reds because my guy has decided to be finicky.

I wouldn't cook it. Scale it, skin it and feed the internal meat only. Most fish parasites are external or gutborne, not too much in the meat.

 

[Guest]

It is usually recommended to feed raw fish [I know some one is going to come out screaming how they feed theirs canned tuna and it loves it ]

The only thing that it is recommended to cook is eggs to my knowledge..

If you think your fish may be wormy or sick I would not feed it at all ...

I have no doubt that a tegu will eat cooked fish and see no reason it couldn`t be fed as a treat ....

You don`t wan`t to spoil them to much or that will be all they want to eat [like happens with mice ]..

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

I never cooked the seafood I gave mine. Depending on where it came from and how it's processed she should freeze it for at least 7 days. But I wouldn't cook it,.. that's just me,.. they got it raw just like everything else.

With anything raw it's the parasites you can't see that you have to worry about and there are parasites that live in their flesh.

She has to be careful with how she handles the fish at home as well with thawing, refrigerating and or refreezing. Since seafood starts to go bad pretty quick. I wouldn't refreeze it more than once or keep in the refrigerator more than a day without packing it in ice and storing it at the bottom.

When in doubt,.. just don't, but that's just me,.. better to be safe than sorry.

 

[chelvis]

I have used smelt and silver sides, just give it to them raw. No cooking needed. Most of what fish will get are killed off my the stomach acid of a healthy tegu and the freezing process.

Hum think i will try the crawfish tonight with Bosco, or maybe rabbit. I think its sad i get more excited for my tegus meals than my own.

 

[Toby_H]

I wouldn't ever cook meat before feeding it to my Tegu. As mentioned, the only thing I cook is eggs (raw yolks are fine, whites should be cooked if used at all).

The digestive track of Tegus are VERY different from ours. Tegus are "opportunistic eaters" meaning they eat just about anything they have the opportunity to. A little rotting or a little bacteria or even a few parasites are well within a Tegus ability to digest.

While I would not use this fact to justify feeding my Tegu things that are "nasty", I would use this to prevent myself from wasting what a Tegu would consider a "perfectly good meal".

No need to cook it, nor to give it freezer burn. For it to be too nasty to feed your Tegu it will likely be too nasty to have in your kitchen...