# Prickly Pear Cactus pads ouch!!



## SulcataPappa (Aug 24, 2007)

I found out that my friend has a big prickly pear cactus plant. So I thought to day would be the day my 6 month Sulcatas had some. I cut one with my knife and to my suprise its not the big thorns that hurt. Two hours later and a hundred tiny thorns removed from my hands. They were trying it, but they tasted it and then went to bed. My wife still cant stop laughing , she keeps saying "prickly hand pear". How do you remove thorns with out pain ,off the pads? Is the store a better idea?


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## dingogirl (Aug 25, 2007)

I have found that if you burn the thorns it's much easier, Although you will always get some of the buggers in your hands.



und out that my friend has a big prickly pear cactus plant. So I thought to day would be the day my 6 month Sulcatas had some. I cut one with my knife and to my suprise its not the big thorns that hurt. Two hours later and a hundred tiny thorns removed from my hands. They were trying it, but they tasted it and then went to bed. My wife still cant stop laughing , she keeps saying "prickly hand pear". How do you remove thorns with out pain ,off the pads? Is the store a better idea?
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## AnnaSFA (Aug 25, 2007)

You can burn them off. It works the best. Our, you can buy the pads at your local grocery store for VERY cheap and not have to worry about it. Thats what I do. We have a plant as well, but I would rather just buy it.


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## Jentortmom (Aug 25, 2007)

I agree buying would be a lot less painful, you can also purchase them online from diiferent stores.


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## Crazy1 (Aug 26, 2007)

You can always use tongs to handle them. I use the pads they call thornless however they are not, but they do have less torns. I just put them on my gas burner and sear the thorns off. Then I use tongs and a fork to skin them and never really touch the pads until they are skinned. Buying them cleaned and cut at the store always beats the work of cleaning. But when the stores don't have them or if you live in a place that dosen't sell them, Remember tongs and a fork will really save you the pain from those tiny tiny thorns.


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## Bansh88 (Aug 26, 2007)

ya. the little red, hairlike thorns are the ones to watch out for. I hear you can throw them on the BBQ to get that off. The big thorns can be removed fairly easily.
Don't forget to look for cactus berries that are comming into season right now. Tortoises love it! Lot of sugar so don't make a diet out of it but a nice treat for sure.


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## Tegan (Aug 26, 2007)

I have loads of pickly pear on my property. We do have a few spineless prickly pears out here to that I feed to the heard and throw on the grill as well. They look just the same as the other there is just none of big spines and very fue of the little one. The small ones that are left I take off with a potato peeler. Seems to work great. Just make sure you get the smallest pads possible if your torts don't have a nice strong bite yet.


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## transtort (Sep 2, 2007)

SulcataPappa said:


> I found out that my friend has a big prickly pear cactus plant. So I thought to day would be the day my 6 month Sulcatas had some. I cut one with my knife and to my suprise its not the big thorns that hurt. Two hours later and a hundred tiny thorns removed from my hands. They were trying it, but they tasted it and then went to bed. My wife still cant stop laughing , she keeps saying "prickly hand pear". How do you remove thorns with out pain ,off the pads? Is the store a better idea?



My husband got some of the spikes stuck in his head.He bent down and head butted it


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