apocalypse910
Active Member
- Messages
- 272
So a few months ago I posted about making sausages for Loki. It was a huge success so I just made batch two. I've been informed that I went overboard this time.
I did the first batch of an experiment, I figured it would be easier for him to eat food this way as he seemed to throw ground meat everywhere and ended up eating more dirt than food. I'll mention that I did my best to feed him out of his cage always as a baby but he's had other ideas lately and goes through phases where he will only eat in the cage. Tegus are very stubborn about very strange things.
I also figured it would freeze up better and be easier to thaw. I'm also having a lot of trouble getting him to eat non-meat foods and the sausages ensure that I could add mixers that he wouldn't pick out.
He seems way more excited about food now and frequently does a little victory lap around the cage with his sausage - he runs over with it and gives me that proud "Look what I killed!!!" pose. His health has been excellent (aside from the salmon scare) so I decided to make batch two. I used a lot more mixers this time as I want to get the meat / veggie ratio closer to what he'd get in the wild. I'm not there yet (want 40/60 or so) but I'm upping the ratio with every batch and he doesn't seem to have any reservations about his healthier food.
Here are the finished sausages - I vacuum packed all of them to prevent freezer burn-
Here are the supplies-
Not pictured - the meat soaked ruins of my home and clothes
Notes-
All the meats are from hare-today and contain meat, bone, and organs
I used natural casings and washed/soaked them for two days to remove extra salt
I soaked the quinoa for a few hours to sprout and then cooked/cooled ahead of time
The fruits I added were run through the meat grinder frozen then mixed with the meat
The exceptions were the blueberries which were small enough to use whole, and the dried fruits which I ensured were preservative free (not sure if it matters but paranoid when it comes to the tegu)
The Menu-
Turkey & ground mango
Turkey, Dandelion Leaf, & Grasshopper
Turkey, Quinoa, Figs, & Raisins
Rabbit, Dandelion Leaves, and Grasshopper
Rabbit and Maine Blueberry
Rabbit, Parsley, and Dates
Phesant & Quinoa
Goat & Cherry
Quail, Rolled Oats, And Blueberry
Chicken, Figs, Raisins, and Mangos
I've been picking food based on his preferences, nutritional content, and aiming to get at least 5 different meats with every order to ensure that he gets a good variety. The veggies/mixers were selected based on the tegu foods list and one of the herbivore lists that was posted. I haven't seen much about quinoa being fed to lizards but the nutritional content is fantastic. I've seen one study of it being given to iguanas as part of a conservation effort, and it is frequently given to birds so it should be safe.
Of course I still round out the diet with other foods... quail eggs, apple snails, grapes, fish fillets, etc... I can't really get him to eat rodents anymore - last time I gave him a rat I literally had to cut it open and stuff it full of dried tuna to get him to eat it. Then again with the mix he's getting I don't think the lack of rodent is going to be problematic. He's very very picky about most other new foods but he's yet to turn down anything in sausage form. The only downside is when I take him for a checkup and they ask what I've been feeding him... "sausages" doesn't exactly make me sound like a responsible owner.
I did the first batch of an experiment, I figured it would be easier for him to eat food this way as he seemed to throw ground meat everywhere and ended up eating more dirt than food. I'll mention that I did my best to feed him out of his cage always as a baby but he's had other ideas lately and goes through phases where he will only eat in the cage. Tegus are very stubborn about very strange things.
I also figured it would freeze up better and be easier to thaw. I'm also having a lot of trouble getting him to eat non-meat foods and the sausages ensure that I could add mixers that he wouldn't pick out.
He seems way more excited about food now and frequently does a little victory lap around the cage with his sausage - he runs over with it and gives me that proud "Look what I killed!!!" pose. His health has been excellent (aside from the salmon scare) so I decided to make batch two. I used a lot more mixers this time as I want to get the meat / veggie ratio closer to what he'd get in the wild. I'm not there yet (want 40/60 or so) but I'm upping the ratio with every batch and he doesn't seem to have any reservations about his healthier food.
Here are the finished sausages - I vacuum packed all of them to prevent freezer burn-
Here are the supplies-
Not pictured - the meat soaked ruins of my home and clothes
Notes-
All the meats are from hare-today and contain meat, bone, and organs
I used natural casings and washed/soaked them for two days to remove extra salt
I soaked the quinoa for a few hours to sprout and then cooked/cooled ahead of time
The fruits I added were run through the meat grinder frozen then mixed with the meat
The exceptions were the blueberries which were small enough to use whole, and the dried fruits which I ensured were preservative free (not sure if it matters but paranoid when it comes to the tegu)
The Menu-
Turkey & ground mango
Turkey, Dandelion Leaf, & Grasshopper
Turkey, Quinoa, Figs, & Raisins
Rabbit, Dandelion Leaves, and Grasshopper
Rabbit and Maine Blueberry
Rabbit, Parsley, and Dates
Phesant & Quinoa
Goat & Cherry
Quail, Rolled Oats, And Blueberry
Chicken, Figs, Raisins, and Mangos
I've been picking food based on his preferences, nutritional content, and aiming to get at least 5 different meats with every order to ensure that he gets a good variety. The veggies/mixers were selected based on the tegu foods list and one of the herbivore lists that was posted. I haven't seen much about quinoa being fed to lizards but the nutritional content is fantastic. I've seen one study of it being given to iguanas as part of a conservation effort, and it is frequently given to birds so it should be safe.
Of course I still round out the diet with other foods... quail eggs, apple snails, grapes, fish fillets, etc... I can't really get him to eat rodents anymore - last time I gave him a rat I literally had to cut it open and stuff it full of dried tuna to get him to eat it. Then again with the mix he's getting I don't think the lack of rodent is going to be problematic. He's very very picky about most other new foods but he's yet to turn down anything in sausage form. The only downside is when I take him for a checkup and they ask what I've been feeding him... "sausages" doesn't exactly make me sound like a responsible owner.
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