# Gelatin base for tegu diet.



## Dubya (Nov 29, 2012)

Hi all! After getting totally flamed for posting the origin of the "San Diego Zoo Diet", I just want to post something I have been working on. I am trying to come up with a totally balanced tegu diet. Here is what I came up with. Proportions of ingredients are still being worked out.

Dubya's Down Home Te-Goo:

1 pound (after cooking) gelatin (for protein)
2oz freeze dried insects (your choice)
1tbs calcium carbonate
1/2 tsp Kaytee guinea pig vitamins
1 tsp organic spirulina. (vegetable)

Make a 16oz batch of gelatin and while still warm, mix in all other ingredients. let cool till firm. Serve at room temperature.

[attachment=5866]

I have never posted it before pending my study. Gwangi has been doing great on it for the past 3 months and is active and growing like a weed. He goes bananas for it.


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## chitodadon (Nov 29, 2012)

Got to try this

from Samsung Galaxy S3


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## Little Wise Owl (Nov 29, 2012)

The San Diego Zoo diet wasn't flamed for the sake of being flamed. It's not healthy as a staple for any large lizard. Period. I don't understand the need for "complete and balanced" diets when we have a variety of whole prey and fruit/veggies at our disposal. If this is what you want to do for YOUR tegu, then go ahead but I personally wouldn't bother with crazy concoctions that may or may not be causing internal damage. It might not cause him trouble now or in the next year or two but it could when it's passed the point of no return. Just like how a dog seems fine on a low quality dog food... Then when they're older, they're plagued with cancer, skin problems, tooth decay, etc...

I would feed a homemade diet sparingly. Also what are the ingredients in the guinea pig vitamins?


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## TegusRawsome80 (Nov 29, 2012)

Lord. You weren't flamed. If you don't want responses that disagree with you then don't post one of the most controversial large lizard diets ever developed. I agree with the above in regards to the green goo.


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## chelvis (Nov 29, 2012)

Warning about the gelatin, its not a good source of protein its missing a lot of different amino acids. If you look at other gelitain reptile foods (repsady and Mazuri both make one) they add something like fish meal to it to really give it protein. Crickets will help but they are mainly caritine and lacking in real protein, hence the big push for roaches now a days. Ditch the g-pig vitamins as all it is is vit C and not much more, reptiles do not need that much vit C. 

As for the San Diego Zoo diet, they do not even use that anymore. They have there own bug room and get frozen rodents in weekly, fresh veggies and fruits; all supplemented with Mazuri diets and vitamines.. Most zoos now go with the variety is better diet.


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## Dubya (Nov 29, 2012)

Little Wise Owl said:


> The San Diego Zoo diet wasn't flamed for the sake of being flamed. It's not healthy as a staple for any large lizard. Period. I don't understand the need for "complete and balanced" diets when we have a variety of whole prey and fruit/veggies at our disposal. If this is what you want to do for YOUR tegu, then go ahead but I personally wouldn't bother with crazy concoctions that may or may not be causing internal damage. It might not cause him trouble now or in the next year or two but it could when it's passed the point of no return. Just like how a dog seems fine on a low quality dog food... Then when they're older, they're plagued with cancer, skin problems, tooth decay, etc...
> 
> I would feed a homemade diet sparingly. Also what are the ingredients in the guinea pig vitamins?



Look, all of you "whole prey" people: You all talk about a varied diet when you use mainly dubia roaches and rats as a staple. That is just as bad as any other staple. In the wild, a tegu would eat anything it found. If it found a carcass, it would eat the organ meats first like any other predator. Fat and protein first. A tegu would not always have bone, feathers, or fur in it's meal. In captivity there is no possible way to replicate a wild diet, so why not try to make the diet as balanced as we can? The Gelatin diet is working fine. Why can't you "whole prey" people be open to other ideas? You all seem like typical liberals who shout down anyone who doesn't agree with you even if your point doesn't make sense. That is how Obama got re-elected. Jeez!


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## james.w (Nov 29, 2012)

You are correct in saying "In captivity there is no possible way to replicate a wild diet." The idea is whole prey and various fruits and vegetables are a whole lot closer than the "SDZ" diet or your Gelatin based diet. Have you done any blood tests or any other tests done on your tegu to verify that he is "doing great"?

By the way, Obama got re-elected because Romney was a bigger idiot!


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## TeguBlake (Nov 29, 2012)

Lol I love watching people being jerks I think it was cool.


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## Dubya (Nov 29, 2012)

james.w said:


> You are correct in saying "In captivity there is no possible way to replicate a wild diet." The idea is whole prey and various fruits and vegetables are a whole lot closer than the "SDZ" diet or your Gelatin based diet. Have you done any blood tests or any other tests done on your tegu to verify that he is "doing great"?
> 
> By the way, Obama got re-elected because Romney was a bigger idiot!



You will understand why Obama is bad when you grow up and start paying real taxes and trying to raise a family and when your pension plan is in the toilet due to Gov"t spending. Pensions are invested in, yes, CORPORATIONS! Free college now will cost you for the rest of your life. If you are lucky, health care rationing will make your payments shorter. Ask anyone who came here from Europe. Nobody who came here from communism or socialism would ever go back. Take a big swig of the Kool-ade and Talk to me in 15 years.


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## Deac77 (Nov 29, 2012)

Idk about the other "whole prey people" but I feed mice,rabbits,quail,chicken, fish, fruits and veggies, and a large number of other WHOLE animals not mainly rodents I do offer insects but he doesn't care for them and he gets organ meat about every other day be it chicken or beef or lamb or who knows what including when we have deer cleaned I have them save the organs for me the point being it seems more varied than both the San Diego or this one I know they won't always get the whole prey and mine don't but it seems more complete than this (and all organs are supplemented with vitamins or calcium)


On a side note to help yours why not add earthworms they are one of the best feeder insects available just a thought to help up protein


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## TegusRawsome80 (Nov 29, 2012)

I am by no means a liberal but you sir are by far one of the biggest idiots I've "met" on the internet. Obama won because the majority of the nation preferred him to Romney. I personally voted for neither of them, but instead chose a third party option which in my opinion makes me unbiased politically. You are exactly why people tend to stay way from forums. You're rude, abrasive, and relatively offensive in general yet get offended when other people respectfully disagree with the diet you feed your tegu. The simple fact is you are feeding a relatively cheap and inadequate diet and people called you on it. You can continue that if you want but your opinion that your tegu is doing "fine" is completely useless in my opinion. You have very little experience raising tegus from what I have seen, and have tried no other diets raising tegus besides the green goo solution. If you post something controversially, expect controversy. If you can't handle other people's opinions then keep yours to yourself and don't post it on a forum where you KNOW that not everyone will agree with you. Also, if you want to blab about government spending then you should look at the presidency of one George "Dubya" Bush.


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## james.w (Nov 29, 2012)

Dubya said:


> james.w said:
> 
> 
> > You are correct in saying "In captivity there is no possible way to replicate a wild diet." The idea is whole prey and various fruits and vegetables are a whole lot closer than the "SDZ" diet or your Gelatin based diet. Have you done any blood tests or any other tests done on your tegu to verify that he is "doing great"?
> ...



Just a little information for you. I am grown enough, I pay real taxes, I have 3 kids, a wife and own/run a business with my wife. I'm not sure how much more growing up I can do. Maybe you should stop blaming others for your situation and put on your big boy pants.


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## Dubya (Nov 29, 2012)

TegusRawsome80 said:


> I am by no means a liberal but you sir are by far one of the biggest idiots I've "met" on the internet. Obama won because the majority of the nation preferred him to Romney. I personally voted for neither of them, but instead chose a third party option which in my opinion makes me unbiased politically. You are exactly why people tend to stay way from forums. You're rude, abrasive, and relatively offensive in general yet get offended when other people respectfully disagree with the diet you feed your tegu. The simple fact is you are feeding a relatively cheap and inadequate diet and people called you on it. You can continue that if you want but your opinion that your tegu is doing "fine" is completely useless in my opinion. You have very little experience raising tegus from what I have seen, and have tried no other diets raising tegus besides the green goo solution. If you post something controversially, expect controversy. If you can't handle other people's opinions then keep yours to yourself and don't post it on a forum where you KNOW that not everyone will agree with you. Also, if you want to blab about government spending then you should look at the presidency of one George "Dubya" Bush.



Obama spent 4x Bush.


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## TegusRawsome80 (Nov 29, 2012)

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/06/01/Whos-the-Biggest-Spender-Obama-or-Bush.aspx#page1
Let's look at the amount they RAISED spending, forgetting for the moment the fact that Obama did NOT spend 4x the amount of money Dubya did.


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## Dubya (Nov 29, 2012)

TegusRawsome80 said:


> http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/06/01/Whos-the-Biggest-Spender-Obama-or-Bush.aspx#page1
> Let's look at the amount they RAISED spending, forgetting for the moment the fact that Obama did NOT spend 4x the amount of money Dubya did.



You will understand when you grow up. Where are you going to work after college? A corporation? McDonalds is hiring people with liberal arts degrees. Corporate greed=progress=jobs. Get used to the real world.


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## james.w (Nov 29, 2012)

Why is your response to everything " you will understand when you grow up?".


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## TegusRawsome80 (Nov 29, 2012)

You are idiotic. It's funny that you sound like one of those people who hopes that the government will come in and give him a job or some money, yet you tell me to grow up? No offense to people who are getting or have gotten liberal arts degrees, but I don't see a whole lot of value in those. Not a huge surprise they are working at McDonalds. I am majoring in Business, with a specialty in Marketing and I will likely go into sales. I don't however, plan on relying on a president to create jobs for me nor will I whine about my pension on the internet.


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## Dubya (Nov 29, 2012)

TegusRawsome80 said:


> You are idiotic. It's funny that you sound like one of those people who hopes that the government will come in and give him a job or some money, yet you tell me to grow up? No offense to people who are getting or have gotten liberal arts degrees, but I don't see a whole lot of value in those. Not a huge surprise they are working at McDonalds. I am majoring in Business, with a specialty in Marketing and I will likely go into sales. I don't however, plan on relying on a president to create jobs for me nor will I whine about my pension on the internet.



Thank God you are majoring in business! I also am not relying on govt handouts. I have a good private sector job. My pension is private sector and does not rely on govt. It does, however, rely on the stock market. Wall Street. You are a real adult with real plans for the future. But this president is not in the business of creating jobs. He is in the business of entitlements and making civil service fake work. I will be leaving the work force in a dew years, but the brainwashed youth and their kids will be paying the tab. But I guess my generation are ALL idiots. I hope when tshtf while I am not too old to fight.



james.w said:


> Why is your response to everything " you will understand when you grow up?".



Because that is when you will understand. 15 yrs from now. Trust me. I used to be like you.


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## TeguBuzz (Nov 29, 2012)

I majored in Political Science. Now I'm in law school but I work as a broker internationally for a real estate company based in Dubai.


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## laurarfl (Nov 29, 2012)

So how about that gelatin diet?


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## TegusRawsome80 (Nov 29, 2012)

We already established it was lacking. =)


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## SomethingTegu (Nov 29, 2012)

What kind of gelatin is that, did it come from a jello packet? Sugar or sugar free? I have 5lbs sitting near me of pure unflavored beef gelatin powder that I use as a supplement for myself, it's really cheap in bulk on Amazon. I was thinking about how much it helped me perform in high intensity running and weightlifting with more ease, how we as people generally do not get enough of it in our natural diet, and that animals may not be getting enough of it in their diet if they don't consume whole prey that often. 

I would agree with adding fish to the gelatin meal one way or another, to make the protein complete. Adding in some fat to the meal wouldn't hurt. Another thing, if that gelatin is coming from jello type packets I would ditch those due to the "natural"/artificial flavoring which for some natural and artificial flavors have shown some evidence to be bad for human health, so we cannot be sure it has no negative side effects being a part of a reptile's diet. 

I was thinking of a way to flavor the gelatin in semi-cooked form without using any shady additives, and one idea that came to mind was buying one of those big bags of mixed berries, thawing a half cup or one full sized cup full, squeezing some of them of their juices into the gelatin mixture, and putting the rest inside the yet to be jello'd gelatin.

Of coarse, I support feeding lots of whole prey, feeder bugs, fruits, and vegetables the most because it's rather obvious how well that works for tegu... But feeding gelatin once or twice a week with the rest of their food some gelatin could possibly be beneficial to the tegu diet.


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## Dubya (Nov 29, 2012)

TeguBuzz said:


> I majored in Political Science. Now I'm in law school but I work as a broker internationally for a real estate company based in Dubai.



"Sniff" I love you, man!
[attachment=5868]


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## kim86 (Nov 29, 2012)

This is just one weird ass thread.


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## Little Wise Owl (Nov 29, 2012)

Wow, get your politics out of here. This is a tegu forum.

Regarding the TOPIC OF THE THREAD:
We don't know enough about tegu nutrition to formulate a single food item to be "complete and balanced". In order for this to ever happen, studies and extensive feeding trials would need to be done followed by extensive blood work. You'll have to do a lot of guessing and go through a lot of trial and error to ever come up with something useful. Do you want to risk your tegu's health just so you can make a non-natural diet?

Until we know what exact nutrients a tegu requires to THRIVE (not simply survive), stick to what we know. And what we know is that tegus are scavenging omnivores. Their diet consists of small mammals, birds, insects/arachnids, amphibians, mollusks, fish, eggs, carrion, ripe fruits, and vegetables/leafy greens. While we may not be able to provide the EXACT species a tegu would eat in the wild, I think we have a pretty damn good selection of healthy, whole foods.

Small mammals: Mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters, even piglets
Birds: Quail, chicks, whole chopped up chicken (entrails and feathers included)
Invertebrate: Crickets, roaches, superworms, hornworms, earthworms, snails, locusts, mantises
Fish: Sardines, mackerel, smelt, salmon

Not to mention the vast amount of fruit and vegetables easily found in grocery stores along with meaty scraps to even further the variety... A varied diet is easily attainable if you care enough to offer one. 

To address you gelatin concoction itself....


> Dubya's Down Home Te-Goo:
> 
> 1 pound (after cooking) gelatin (for protein)
> 2oz freeze dried insects (your choice)
> ...



Gelatin is lacking in any real nutrients. Seeing as it's the bulk of the diet, you're essentially just giving your tegu empty calories. 

Insects by themselves are mostly useless. What are these insects gutloaded with? Are they even gutloaded at all? 

Calcium is necessary but is it enough? What is the Calcium/phosphorus ratio? I would personally use human grade bone meal due to its balanced Ca: Ph ratio.

Kaytee Guinea Pig vitamins... All I can think of is "Why?" First of all a guinea pig is a herbivore and a tegu... is not. Secondly, domestic pet vitamins are usually meant to be fed with an already vitamin enriched diet so the vitamins/mineral amount is reduced. A full dose of a multivitamin for a pet that's already fed a diet enriched with vitamins/minerals would cause more harm than good. Using a domestic pet multivitamin will likely have your tegu missing out on a lot of key vitamins/minerals. Not to mention, you don't know how well your tegu is absorbing said vitamins/minerals or where they were sourced from. 

Your diet seems very unbalanced and, in my opinion, quite dangerous if used long term. He might seem fine now but down the road he'll likely start showing health issues and by that time, it may be too late. A varied diet with fresh, whole foods will be 100% more complete and balanced than any homemade mess.

And for the record, I think a rat is more nutritionally complete than any homemade recipe.


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