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Post by malteser60 on Oct 3, 2011 10:22:14 GMT
I have cut cherry tomatoes in thin slices and dried them on top of a heater (Scottish summer ). Within two days they became hard little disks like the one you see in the picture. It worked really well. Fred, right there you have outlined my current issue with drying food for the degus. Down here in the midlands it's still warm enough not to need any heaters/central heating on. However it is so difficult to dry things inside right now. Clothes, for example, take about two days to dry inside, resulting in damp-smelling clothes. I can put the dehumidifier on but it does run the electricity bill up something chronic. I tried drying flowers but they just got mouldy instead. Still haven't tried the oven technique though, which I think I will just for vegetables as I can dry vegetables in small batches seeing as they're bought at supermarkets rather than foraged for.
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Post by fred on Oct 3, 2011 10:47:48 GMT
I understand the problem. I have been “lucky” in that up here it was so cold for much of September that I needed to have the heater in my living room at low level. These were ideal conditions for drying. I am looking into the question of a food dehydrator again. If the cheap models are good enough for the purpose and electricity consumption can be kept at a reasonable level, it may be a solution.
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Post by smithomatic on Oct 3, 2011 19:03:21 GMT
Fred, have you tried the airing cupboard? or the room where the boiler is kept?
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Post by Kat on Oct 7, 2011 8:45:22 GMT
@ Fred These look very interesting. I know that the middle one is a dari cobb. Do you know what the others are called? Also I feel silly asking this. Are pearl barley and barley the same? Kat x
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Post by malteser60 on Oct 7, 2011 8:50:52 GMT
I'm pretty sure pearl barley is just polished barley so it looks good to sell.
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Post by fred on Oct 7, 2011 8:56:41 GMT
As you know I am very bad at this, so I had the left one identified for me by a knowledgeable person at Dobbies garden centre. The left one is flax (Linum sitatissimum). When you crack the pods(?) open, it's linseeds in there. I don't know what the one on the right is.
I am using these as treats and so far it's best and healthiest I have come across. Highly recommendable!!
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Post by Kat on Oct 7, 2011 8:59:28 GMT
Thanks you both of you. @fred I will be looking out for these things. malteser60 Great I have a bag in the cupboard. Has anyone seen these Millet flakes! Are they suitable? Kat x Sorry for all the questions.
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Post by fred on Oct 7, 2011 9:09:09 GMT
I think they are the millet equivalent of porridge oats. Since they have half the fat, they could be a healthy alternative. The more the better, thats what this thread is for
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Post by Kat on Oct 7, 2011 9:14:42 GMT
Ah Good. My boys do like oats but I feel bad about letting them have them. I found the flaked millet in Holland and Barrett. 500g for £2.49.
Kat x
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Post by deguconvert on Oct 7, 2011 14:22:55 GMT
You know . . . I know Canada is a blessed country to live in, and I am thankful to be here. Truly! But when I see what a limited foods selection we have, not just for degus but for humans as well, I feel . . . envious.
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Post by winic1 on Oct 7, 2011 18:29:07 GMT
I see some questions about translating plant names and being sure you're getting the right one. No matter what a plant is called locally, all plants the world over have the exact same unique scientific name, no matter what where it grows or what language is spoken there.
So, if you see a plant or seed name in another language, look for the scientific name, which is often listed right after it. Should be italicized (but not always). (might also be underlined instead) Will take the form of two words--as it consists of: Genus species . Sometimes the species name is abbreviated "sp" or "spp." But the Genus name will always be capitalized, species name should be lowercase.
The Genus name is like your family name, your last name. The species name is like your given name or first name. Each Genus species combo describes one specific species of plant. only.
So, no matter what the local name or language is, if you can find the Genus species name, you can look that up (search it) and find out what it is in your own language. guaranteed correct.
Example: Avena sativa = oats Panicum miliaceum = proso millet, also called common millet, broom corn millet, hog millet or white millet
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Post by fred on Oct 7, 2011 18:45:33 GMT
winic1 This is an important point. We are already using the scientific names in the safe woods list and need to start using them in the nutrition threads. There are quite a few plants were the same common name is given to different species in the UK and North America. In the cases I have seen so far, a confusion wouldn't have had any negative results but I am sure there will be a few examples out there where nasty surprises can be had. So let's do it properly from now on
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Post by winic1 on Oct 7, 2011 19:02:02 GMT
I am so glad to find this site and thread. I'm in the USA, and the only other degu-person I have ever heard of locally is the person we got our first one from (who was giving away the lone male from her first set of babies. Never met her, degu was in a local, privately owned pet shop in an old 5 gallon fish tank, with a wire-bar wheel and food bowl only, marked "free" for the whole rig & goo. So sad.)
I have vision difficulties, and so have been reading and skimming this thread as I can, little by little, so the answer to this may be somewhere in here, but has anyone found a place to buy these natural foods in the USA/Canada? I'm seeing many items I can grow or collect myself, but winter is coming rapidly, so can't do much this year except try to buy. Have wanted to expand their diet, and make it more natural, but didn't have anything to go on other than researching the flora of their natural habitat, and trying to find local equivalents of the Chilean plants, and then still being a bit scared to try.... Until I get better at this, I'd love to just buy them some better stuff than their pellets and hay for their main food.
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Post by fred on Oct 7, 2011 19:30:58 GMT
It seems very difficult to buy pet products that are suitable for natural mixes in North America. I have spend several hours searching the web and it was a very frustrating experience. I can only recommend to start with dried kitchen herbs and vegetables for now. You should be able to find suitable seed mixes but need to be careful that they don't have additions such as cod liver oil.
We will start a plant identification and discussion thread in spring. For now, if you have any plants you are interested in, just let us know and the other German members and I can look whether we find any information on the German forums.
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Post by malteser60 on Oct 7, 2011 19:43:24 GMT
Also I feel silly asking this. Are pearl barley and barley the same? kat, did a quite google/wikipedia search and pearl barley is as I said, polished, but it also removes the nutritous outer bran husk as well to make it easier for cooking and eating (i.e. chewing). It's the same as brown rice and white rice. Ok, I'm going to go into a rant here now just to warn you. Ok, so white rice is brown rice with the outer husk, bran and germ removed and the milling process leaves you with the white rice. Essentially that white rice is pure starch that has no nutritious value and gets converted to sugar straight away. Brown rice, on the other hand, has none of that happen, and far far more nutritious for you as all the nutrients are NOT removed. But what reallly annoys me is that in the supermarket brown rice is more expensive than the white rice that has had processing to it. When the supermarkets get blamed for obesity you may think, well, people eat and buy what they want, the supermarket does not force you to eat the wrong food. But when the supermarket makes crap junk food dirt cheap, and nutritious food expensive (even when that food is actually cheaper to produce) then yes I do blame the supermarkets. Phew, ok rant over. this kind of stuff reallly does wind me up. All I want to do is just eat healthily. No strange weird diet, or some special diet, just good healthy food. Yet I have to pay 2-3 times as much. Oh, didn't I say the rant was over! Oops, sorry!
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Post by NightwishRaven999 on Oct 8, 2011 2:18:40 GMT
I am so glad to find this site and thread. I'm in the USA, and the only other degu-person I have ever heard of locally is the person we got our first one from... Salut ! We are glad to hear you are finding this forum useful and we are happy to have you onboard with us. You and I appear to be the closest neighbors on this forum When spring arrives, we will be able to help each other find good plants and flowers as the type of vegetation in your area is similar to the one here. As was mentioned, the best option for us right now, is to purchase flowers, plants, herbs and vegetables from the market and dry them ourselves. We still have some time left to collect plants and flowers and create a reserve for the long winter though. You may also find some useful information regarding natural foods in the Blog section of the forum. Some of us have shared our experiences at drying various vegetables and plants. We do not have access to pre-made mixes, but as shown by Fred's latest mix and other examples, it is very possible for the people of North America to take part in this 50% natural nutrition project.
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Post by deguconvert on Oct 8, 2011 3:43:38 GMT
Something you can look for that you can hopefully find is Timothy Hay that has extras in it. Living World (Hagen) makes some that are called Timothy Toppings, and another company called Kaytee makes some different combinations called Timothy Hay Plus. Some have flowers, some dried veggies. They aren't what you would call a great variety of things, but they are certainly more than just Timothy Hay, and at the moment, thats about the best we have over here. Oxbow also makes some Timothy Hay mixes, but I haven't found them in store just yet.
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Post by winic1 on Oct 8, 2011 7:05:55 GMT
what about something like this:
Healthy Herp Veggie Mix Instant Meal Reptile Food - Bulk Jar Ingredients:Dry dandelion greens, dry red clover tops, freeze dried leeks, freeze dried carrots, freeze dried zucchini, freeze dried corn, freeze dried peas, freeze dried green beans, dry Calendula flower petals, calcium carbonate. (Lightly dusted with calcium. Use as a daily diet, as a dietary supplement, or as a treat.)
is the calcium a problem? (probably can shake/blow most of it away) could pick out the corn. This I can probably find in a local store and not even have to order.
Some bird sites seem to have dried flower-type mixes, but I'm too tired to get into checking them out right now.
What about bird seed mixes? With 16 parakeets in the house, we buy that in 25-50 pound bags, so it's already here. Aside from picking out the pellets, would there be anything in there that goos shouldn't have? Is a little pinch of seed mix okay? I would guess all the vitamins and ground meals are in the pellets. few of the seeds are colored, those would be pickable, too. (have petite 9 year old daughter with tiny fingers): Canary grass seed, white millet, red millet, small yellow millet, oat groats, wheat, safflower, niger seed, flax seed, rape seed, hulled sesame seed, calcium carbonate, lettuce seed, peanut pieces, rice, hulled sunflower, dehydrated carrots, caraway seed, toasted corn flakes, buckwheat, honeydew melon seed, coconut, dried papaya, fennel seed, anise seed, ground corn, dehulled soybean meal, ground wheat, dehydrated spinach, wheat middlings, dehydrated apples, dehydrated chives, dicalcium phosphate, corn oil, salt, dried whole egg, dried beet pulp, wheat germ meal, l-lysine, corn sugar, brewers dried yeast, dehydrated alfalfa meal, vitamin A supplement, choline chloride, ferrous carbonate, riboflavin supplement, dl-methionine, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin E supplement, manganous oxide, zinc oxide, orange oil, niacin, ethoxyquin (a preservative), menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), copper oxide, cholecalciferol (source of vitamin D3), calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, canthaxanthin, folic acid, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate, biotin, dried bacillus coagulans fermentation product, dried bacillus licheniformis fermentation product, dried bacillus subtilis fermentation product, beta carotene, sodium selenite, artificial colors. Guaranteed Analysis: Crude protein (min.) 15%, crude fat (min.) 6%, crude fiber (max.) 10%, moisture (max.) 12%.
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Post by fred on Oct 8, 2011 10:08:28 GMT
If you can easily pick out all the other stuff, the seeds from the parakeet mix should be fine. You need to be a bit careful that you don't have too much of the oilseeds in it, if necessary you can dilute them with millet or other grass seeds you can get on their own. As deguconvert mentioned, there are actually quite a few hay preparations with suitable extras in it. I also found these two grass hays which look quite good to me: www.epetproducts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=53_262&products_id=6220 ; www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=16699 . You can add them to your standard hay. Degus are quite good at picking the food bits from the bedding bits. I wouldn't recommend the Healthy Herp Veggie Mix. I think you and your degus would be much better off if you concentrated for now on a few herbs and veggies which you can buy locally. How are they with fresh greens? Anything they eat fresh you don't need to dry of course. If you can get your natural nutrition started at a low level over winter, you will be in a much better position come spring.
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Post by winic1 on Oct 8, 2011 15:48:58 GMT
They won't go near fresh anything, except fresh grass from the yard. (Well, they will go near it, walk over it, poop on it....). Was thinking of the reptile mix as just treats/mixing in with the hay and pellets. Going out to a town with pet stores today, will look for some of the hay mixes. Have seen one of the Kaytee mixes in the past (during our hamster days), it was mostly just their hay with a few dried carrot slices & stuff thrown in, and the price doubled or tripled.
Frost hasn't killed my marigolds or mints yet, and there's still a little parsley and basil, so will harvest those. Have found in the past that putting them on a net sweater-dryer over a fan dried things out rather quickly. With the marigolds, is it just the flowers, do I include the seeds, the whole plant...? I have hibiscus bushes (Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus))--flowers, seeds, leaves, twigs, any part of them okay? It's a late fall this year here, stayed warm longer, so most trees/ leaves are still green, tho not for much longer, weather has finally turned cold at night. I'm in a deciduous forest-maples (Acer sp.), oaks (Quercus sp.), beech, birch (Betula sp.), ash, butternut, dogwood, willow (Salix sp.), tulip tree (Liriodendron gigantea). Lots of little weeds in the lawn, dandelion, oxalis....
{In my former life (before kids, before accident) I was a biologist/botanist. Ancient knowledge coming back out through eons of dust. Vision no good for reading, so if it's okay I'll keep asking rather than read & research on my own, can only do a little at a time.}
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