I feel like a mad scientist, or rather, at this point, a sociopath; putting random animal-like items into a blender is not normal behavior.
Tegus are omnivorous animals, though many juveniles prefer meat and whole-prey over fruits and vegetables. Despite her size, my tegu has become a voracious eater and has undeniably pushed me past my comfort zone when dealing with her “preferences” – preferences, as in all animals/food items being finely chopped to her desired size: (minced, not ground).
I found this post a few days ago when searching for different foods that are safe for my tegu, and decided to give my local Asian market a try.
Here is the post I found: Thread: Todays trip to the Asian Market... Tegus got some yummies!
Although I am part Vietnamese, trips to the Asian market freak.me.out. I feel like a helpless puppy, with no ability to convey, well, anything. "Ma'am, where can I find . . ." oh . . . you're running away from me. Wait, did she even work here? "Uh, I'm looking for silkworm pupae. Yeah. The stuff, you know, that looks like a worm, but it's a pupae . . ."
Disheveled, confused, and ready to give up, I finally find my way to the correct freezer. Jackpot! Here are a few items you can find at the market:
silkworm pupae - they come precooked
frog legs
silverfish (the fish, not the bug)
gizzards: chicken, turkey
animal hearts: chicken, turkey
a variety of snails
duck eggs (balut)
grasshoppers
krill
plucked quail
I snatch up a container of silkworm pupae, duck hearts, shrimp, and a duck egg, and dash out of the store in search for my life-saving bottle of hand sanitizer located in the car. I survived.
Home and Magic Bullet ready, I begin concocting a mixture of duck, shrimp, duck heart, and pupae. Okay. It doesn't look so bad once it's the consistency of ground turkey.
But will my tegu eat it?
NOPE. Of course not.
For some reason, my tegu does not like ground food: ground turkey, ground chicken, ground anything. I am not sure if this is due to the consistency (I do observe her wiping her face along the floor more than usual when trying these foods), or some other reason. Instead, she prefers her foods be finely chopped into small chunks.
Separated and not ground up, the balut (cooked) and turkey hearts were favorites. She refused to eat the silkworm pupae.
Overall, the trip was a success, although I don't think I'll be purchasing much from the Asian market at the moment. I believe it will be a great place to get a good amount of food for a reasonable price when my tegu is slightly larger, but currently she is quite small and there was a bit of wasted food, even when accounting for freezing most of it for later use.
Oh, and here is a picture of the brat looking smug. Note: the red by her eye, on her nose, and around her mouth is just food.
Tegus are omnivorous animals, though many juveniles prefer meat and whole-prey over fruits and vegetables. Despite her size, my tegu has become a voracious eater and has undeniably pushed me past my comfort zone when dealing with her “preferences” – preferences, as in all animals/food items being finely chopped to her desired size: (minced, not ground).
I found this post a few days ago when searching for different foods that are safe for my tegu, and decided to give my local Asian market a try.
Here is the post I found: Thread: Todays trip to the Asian Market... Tegus got some yummies!
Although I am part Vietnamese, trips to the Asian market freak.me.out. I feel like a helpless puppy, with no ability to convey, well, anything. "Ma'am, where can I find . . ." oh . . . you're running away from me. Wait, did she even work here? "Uh, I'm looking for silkworm pupae. Yeah. The stuff, you know, that looks like a worm, but it's a pupae . . ."
Disheveled, confused, and ready to give up, I finally find my way to the correct freezer. Jackpot! Here are a few items you can find at the market:
silkworm pupae - they come precooked
frog legs
silverfish (the fish, not the bug)
gizzards: chicken, turkey
animal hearts: chicken, turkey
a variety of snails
duck eggs (balut)
grasshoppers
krill
plucked quail
I snatch up a container of silkworm pupae, duck hearts, shrimp, and a duck egg, and dash out of the store in search for my life-saving bottle of hand sanitizer located in the car. I survived.
Home and Magic Bullet ready, I begin concocting a mixture of duck, shrimp, duck heart, and pupae. Okay. It doesn't look so bad once it's the consistency of ground turkey.
But will my tegu eat it?
NOPE. Of course not.
For some reason, my tegu does not like ground food: ground turkey, ground chicken, ground anything. I am not sure if this is due to the consistency (I do observe her wiping her face along the floor more than usual when trying these foods), or some other reason. Instead, she prefers her foods be finely chopped into small chunks.
Separated and not ground up, the balut (cooked) and turkey hearts were favorites. She refused to eat the silkworm pupae.
Overall, the trip was a success, although I don't think I'll be purchasing much from the Asian market at the moment. I believe it will be a great place to get a good amount of food for a reasonable price when my tegu is slightly larger, but currently she is quite small and there was a bit of wasted food, even when accounting for freezing most of it for later use.
Oh, and here is a picture of the brat looking smug. Note: the red by her eye, on her nose, and around her mouth is just food.
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