Another Spring Mix question

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reptylefreek

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So I was reading the ingredients for the spring mix I get from my work (costco) and it says nothing about spinach but at the end of the list it says each package varies. So I know what basic spinach looks like but I dont see any in it. There is a leaf like spinach but has a red stem. Am i blind or what? Anybody else get a spring mix with no spinach in it? I have a sully so I would really rather not feed spinach to him.
 

Meg90

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If it has spinach in it at all, it would say. There's some law about that---every ingredient must be labeled. The usual spring mix I get doesn't have it. The BF had to make an emergency run the other morning however, and the dif organic brand he picked up DID have spinach. I almost had a heart attack! Anouk and Nova had never had any spinach before, and Anouk is over a year old. I suppose the one time won't kill them, but its a pain in the arse to have to pick thru to get the spin leaves out. They bear a startling resemblance to baby romaine. If you pinch the leaves between your fingers to bruise them however, the scent should tell you what it is--romaine or spinach.
 

reptylefreek

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Thanks, Marlin has been doing extremely well in the health dept. since changing a few things, and I would have really been pissed if I was working against him by giving him spinich everday. He's just barely a year now and I know that wouldn't be too good for his growth.
 

Yvonne G

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The spinach in my Earthbound Farms Spring Mix has a red stem.

Yvonne
 
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Maggie Cummings

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I don't think a couple of leafs of spinach would hurt, some is good.
 

Crazy1

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reptylefreek, I also use the Costco spring mix and it sometimes has spinach in the one I get here in IE, CA. It also has red chard which has red stems. I agree a small amount should not be a problem but if it is you can always pick them out. I lay it out on the counter and pick out the stuff I don't want them to have.

You can look up the stuff I wrote up and the comments on Spring mix here http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-8672.html
Hope that helps.
 

Meg90

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Kadaan

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I noticed about a month ago that the spring mix bins carried at my local Costco (Irvine, CA) are from a different company. The new one has more "frilly" leaves (like mizuna and frizee) and less of the big solid leaf ones (like arugula and the red romaine.) Both have spinach. They might have different suppliers across the country, so the mix probably varies by both location and season.
 

tortoisenerd

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Red chard is also high in oxalic acid, although not as high as spinach. I would want to limit it but not exclude it, but my tort won't eat it anyways so I don't bother to give him any of it. I try to buy the spring mix without spinach but can't find any without the chard except for the mixes that don't have much variety (such as just baby romaine or artisan blends, which I do buy on occasion). Yes, if it has spinach it must be labeled on the package. The ingredients may vary thing means that the ratios of the ingredients may vary, or they have have left something out (but they can't add anything more in). The order they list ingredients corresponds to the proportion in the package--the first ingredients is in the highest quantity and the last ingredients is in the lowest quantity--at the time they did the sampling. So, the ingredients may vary thing says that although when they did the analysis they came up with one thing, they have have different proportions in the package you bought.

I agree with Maggie on the spinach/oxalic acid thing. I feed my tort quite a few foods that are higher in oxalic acid such as mustard/dandelion/radish/collard greens, but keep an eye on moderation and making sure he has a good mix of things that have both no and moderate oxalic acid content.
 

Madkins007

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Ah, the oxalic acid debate. The opinion of many in the tortoise world is that oxalates are not a big deal as long as the tortoise is hydrated and the calcium level- apart from the affected plant- is good.

The thing is that most Spring Mixes are low in calcium anyway (Romaine, for example, has only a 1.1:1 ratio of Ca: P), so should be supplemented with a small pinch of calcium supplement- so a couple pieces of chard or spinach are not a big deal.
 
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