- Joined
- Nov 7, 2012
- Messages
- 5,173
- Location (City and/or State)
- South of Southern California, but not Mexico
Hi, I have embedded a few links in here, it's the green text.
I got some organic agar agar and made a gel from the stuff I have and use & sell. It works really good. It also stores well so making a batch for a single tortoise can be done. I made a gel about 40 years ago following the recipe in the book Turtle and their care for aquatic turtles. Well, now I'm All Tortoise - All the Time. What I see as the problem with gel diets for tortoises is that they are all a fine powder, so the big bits of wholly indigestible fiber are not present. Fiber is a big deal for tortoise nutrition. You may have noticed as well that the Chicken layer crumbles I posted about several days ago have a poor fiber component. So what to do?
I found many recipes for using agar agar on line with varying amounts and ratios for use. They range from 0.9 - 1.3 grams per 100 ml water (about a half cup) to 2 grams per cup of water. I also found recommendations that suggest if you add acidic things to the water agar agar mix you want to go a little higher with the agar agar.
I used one cup of water and five grams of agar agar, as the base. I added 1/2 cup of chicken layer crumbles saturated with hibiscus water - 'tea', and a half cup of moistened Moringa. I used a silicon candy mold to make little squares and they solidified in the frig overnight. Total prep time was about 40 minutes.
More specifically,
1) I made Hibiscus tea from an overnight soak and had several cups, but used just about a half cup to moisten a half cup of layer crumbles. The crumbles soak up all the tea in about half an hour.
2) I portion out a half cup of Moringa and covered it in water.
3) I brought one cup of water to a gentle boil and added 5 grams of agar agar. The gentle boil was not stopped by the addition of the agar agar.
4) I added the hibiscus moistened layer crumbles and Moringa and stirred, and turned off the heat.
5) I spooned the mix into the silicon candy mold, which was sitting on a cutting board (they are flippy floppy). Then placed it in the refrigerator.
Next day, this morning I popped the cubes out of the mold and fed them all out but one for my storage test. See the Bolivian Redfoots chowing down on it. Thanks again Terry Kilgore @Redfoot NERD for the cool animals.
So here's the dealio, there is a dealio BTW.
Send me an email, not a phricking text, an email. [email protected] with your interest to try this out. $7.75 to cover postage is the $ cost (I'll send a PayPal invoice). The rest of the cost is you will be guaranteeing to post a video on Facebook or Youtube of your recipe, and your tortoises eating it, much like the video I posted within one week of getting the stuff. What stuff?
Five grams of Organic sourced agar agar, two ounces of organic sourced hibiscus, rose hips, or cactus chips - your choice of any two ounces of any other thing from the store - dried loose leaf or flowers, AND lastly 2 ounces of either ZooMed non-GMO food (grassland or Forest) or the organic Purina Mills chicken layer crumbles. You must use some of all of the ingredients but not necessarily all of all of them. By 'likes' here on www.tortoiseforum.net which should also be linked to a copy of your video - whoever gets the most 'likes' can have $50 value of whatever (foods or supplies) you want from Kapidolo Farms.
1)send me an email with your ingredient wants to [email protected]
2)I'll send you a PayPal invoice for $7.75 for postage. You don't need a PayPal account for this to work.
3)make the stuff and make a video of your recipe and your tortoises eating it.
4)Post the video on Facebook/Youtube and link that post here IN THIS thread.
I'll count 'likes' midnight-ish on April 30th, and post who the winner is. Then you'll have to tell me what you want out of the store. First ten emails of interest will get the 'stuff' for postage - $7.75. If more people after that want to play along then It will be the cost of a regular variety pack (which for this purpose will have five items, plus two ounces of the ZooMed/Purina food of your choice, and five grams of the agar agar. I'll top that out at another 10. That agar agar is expensive. Potentially zero to 20 videos.
GO
I got some organic agar agar and made a gel from the stuff I have and use & sell. It works really good. It also stores well so making a batch for a single tortoise can be done. I made a gel about 40 years ago following the recipe in the book Turtle and their care for aquatic turtles. Well, now I'm All Tortoise - All the Time. What I see as the problem with gel diets for tortoises is that they are all a fine powder, so the big bits of wholly indigestible fiber are not present. Fiber is a big deal for tortoise nutrition. You may have noticed as well that the Chicken layer crumbles I posted about several days ago have a poor fiber component. So what to do?
I found many recipes for using agar agar on line with varying amounts and ratios for use. They range from 0.9 - 1.3 grams per 100 ml water (about a half cup) to 2 grams per cup of water. I also found recommendations that suggest if you add acidic things to the water agar agar mix you want to go a little higher with the agar agar.
I used one cup of water and five grams of agar agar, as the base. I added 1/2 cup of chicken layer crumbles saturated with hibiscus water - 'tea', and a half cup of moistened Moringa. I used a silicon candy mold to make little squares and they solidified in the frig overnight. Total prep time was about 40 minutes.
More specifically,
1) I made Hibiscus tea from an overnight soak and had several cups, but used just about a half cup to moisten a half cup of layer crumbles. The crumbles soak up all the tea in about half an hour.
2) I portion out a half cup of Moringa and covered it in water.
3) I brought one cup of water to a gentle boil and added 5 grams of agar agar. The gentle boil was not stopped by the addition of the agar agar.
4) I added the hibiscus moistened layer crumbles and Moringa and stirred, and turned off the heat.
5) I spooned the mix into the silicon candy mold, which was sitting on a cutting board (they are flippy floppy). Then placed it in the refrigerator.
Next day, this morning I popped the cubes out of the mold and fed them all out but one for my storage test. See the Bolivian Redfoots chowing down on it. Thanks again Terry Kilgore @Redfoot NERD for the cool animals.
So here's the dealio, there is a dealio BTW.
Send me an email, not a phricking text, an email. [email protected] with your interest to try this out. $7.75 to cover postage is the $ cost (I'll send a PayPal invoice). The rest of the cost is you will be guaranteeing to post a video on Facebook or Youtube of your recipe, and your tortoises eating it, much like the video I posted within one week of getting the stuff. What stuff?
Five grams of Organic sourced agar agar, two ounces of organic sourced hibiscus, rose hips, or cactus chips - your choice of any two ounces of any other thing from the store - dried loose leaf or flowers, AND lastly 2 ounces of either ZooMed non-GMO food (grassland or Forest) or the organic Purina Mills chicken layer crumbles. You must use some of all of the ingredients but not necessarily all of all of them. By 'likes' here on www.tortoiseforum.net which should also be linked to a copy of your video - whoever gets the most 'likes' can have $50 value of whatever (foods or supplies) you want from Kapidolo Farms.
1)send me an email with your ingredient wants to [email protected]
2)I'll send you a PayPal invoice for $7.75 for postage. You don't need a PayPal account for this to work.
3)make the stuff and make a video of your recipe and your tortoises eating it.
4)Post the video on Facebook/Youtube and link that post here IN THIS thread.
I'll count 'likes' midnight-ish on April 30th, and post who the winner is. Then you'll have to tell me what you want out of the store. First ten emails of interest will get the 'stuff' for postage - $7.75. If more people after that want to play along then It will be the cost of a regular variety pack (which for this purpose will have five items, plus two ounces of the ZooMed/Purina food of your choice, and five grams of the agar agar. I'll top that out at another 10. That agar agar is expensive. Potentially zero to 20 videos.
GO