Anybody feed pumpkin to their Hermann's?
Pumpkin and Hermann's
- Thread starter Moozillion
- Start date
I don't have a Hermanns, but all torts can eat it. It's also good as a natural dewormer. Grind/blend all parts, even seeds and feed.
Thanks!
wellington said:
Ditto. Just one more answer for you.
I feed it to all of mine. I usually grate it and mix it in small amounts with the greens.
I just feed whole pumpkins to the big sulcatas.
Good thread!
I learned somethin else! [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]
I learned somethin else! [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]
wellington said:
The de-wormer is the seeds, chopped up as fine as you could manage it (I use my own personal Ninja Machine, at my wife's request
), along with some of the pumpkin meat, to about the consistency of pudding...never seen a tortoise, of any species, turn this goop down!I make a big batch and freeze most of it, so as to feed some once a month...otoh, feeding any kind of fruit too often can upset the "bugs" in a tortoise's guts.
And if you want to cheat, some Latino stores sell the pumpkin seeds, they are called pepitas, already ground into a powder because ground up pepitas are used in some mole (mo-lay) recipes. Easy peasy. Of course, freshl is always best. Also, some farmers use these natural dewormers (wormwood is another one) a day before a full moon, during a full moon and last day, day after the full moon. It is believed that parasites are more active then, detach from the intestinal lining because of this restlessness and are therefore easier to flush out with the remedy. Scrubby clean. Less parasites = more possible assimilation of nutrients for our tortoises to benefit from. Win.
I do canned organic 100% pumpkin with Littlefoot...it's his favorite! Fresh is better, obviously, but I don't have the ability to grind up pumpkin and he won't eat chunks. I mix just a little bit in when I feed him Mazuri...he won't eat it plain. I have it on hand all the time for my kitty with poopy issues, so it's an easy thing...I empty the can into a tupperware container and refrigerate it for about 1 week.
BeeBee*BeeLeaves said:
Didn't know that pepitas were ground-up pumpkin seeds...useful information! Gracias!
I'll try out the "by the light of the full moon" de-worming procedure, too...a lot of "old-time things" actually work...maybe this one of those examples.
Terry, pepitas is the hulled/shelled pumpkin seeds. The ground up pumpkin seeds are used in mole pipian. The powdered pepitas, I have seen them referred to as "alguashte semilla molida" but I think that is an El Salvadoran term.
