Freeze Dried Veggies

[beckerd58]

My dehydrator broke a month ago. After searching Amazon I decided to order freeze dried peas, broccoli, carrots (and my favorite) corn. Oh also bell peppers.
I understand that anything dried will be sweeter so these are given in moderation. I love the feel of freeze dried veggies as I crunch on them. My degus agree.
Along with their hay, Subscription Vita Degu Food,
greens from garden, pumpkin and sunflower seeds they get the freeze dried veggies. I also give them wheat germ with Exotic Nutrition Degu Booster (multi-vitamin) mix in.
Not sure why I went into what all they eat, if I'm really being honest I'd put in here that they also eat fresh apple trees. I had 3 now I'm down to 2. They love the leaves (fresh and dried) as well as the wood. Looking at my trees, they look sick, but it's from me gathering leaves and snipping branches. One died due to weather (too much rain the no rain for weeks). I dried the whole tree, including roots and have been feeding it to them. Houston is not apple tree county so what we can grow here are small.
I was just wondering if anyone else uses freeze dried veggies.

[winic1]

I use dried veggies and some freeze-dried veggies. Air dried are harder and more solid, so they wear on the teeth more, the freeze-dried ones I use as treats.

I get mine from North Bay Trading Company. www.northbaytrading.com They have a huge selection. They also sell really good people-stuff: bean soup mixes, and dried and freeze-dried fruit. Never had a bad item from them. Made my guys a dried veggie mix of broccoli, celery, red and green peppers, green beans, savoy cabbage, zucchini, tomatoes, peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes; going heavier on the green veggies and lighter on the sweeter ones like carrots.

(and me and the family got our own treats: freeze-dried blueberries, bananas, strawberries, grapes, sour cherries....)

[beckerd58]

Didn't even think about the teeth. Great point and once again this old dog has learn something new. Thank you for the link will check it out and probably put in a order. Having the dehydrator break was probably a good thing. Sometime a girl just has to admit she can not do everything. What would us newbies do without you all!

[moletteuk]

Lots of good things there to add interest to the diet, which is great. However, most of the things you mention are high in phosphorus and low in calcium, so you probably should think about ways to add some extra calcium in to their diet. So extra forage would be good, in particular, dandelions, plantains (Plantago sp) and kitchen herbs tend to have high calcium, and you should be able to buy alfalfa which is good for calcium. Also, some high calcium oil seeds would be a good addition. See nutrition charts for further info, or ask deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15602/vegetable-seed-nut-nutrition-charts

[beckerd58]

Thank you both for taking the time to send info and links. I've ordered the air dried veggies, herbs and seeds as per the links chart. I used www.sfherb.com ,
www.northbattrading.com and www.fuzzieskingdom this is my degus first time getting a seed mix. Once again thank you for your help

[beckerd58]

With the new shipment of seeds and opening them up, the degu room smells so good!

[moletteuk]

That's great, the seed mix must be really fresh and well stored to smell so good. How are they liking the seeds?

[beckerd58]

You know when you serve a good meal and all the family are so busy eating the conversation takes backseat for a bit? That was my degus. Just sounds of crunching.