Originally Posted by RMBolton;369008

Hello all,

Some may recall my affinity for making my own prepared foods for animals that will take them. (Here is a thread detailing a recipe that I made for E. Box Turtles (Terrapene c. carolina).) I despise live feeders, and I believe people can be lulled into a false sense of security by feeding live (as if ALL live feeders are always nutritionally complete). Sure, there is some control through 'gut loading', but I suspect many keepers do not make the effort. Making your own food is far more convenient and carries with it the power to have complete control over the animal's diet.

To that end, I wanted to share one of my feeding strategies that has worked well for many years. Gelatin suspensions are not new, of course; zoos and private hobbyists have been using them as a vector to ensure complete diets across many taxa. With a little research on natural history combined with a good understanding of nutrition, anyone can tailor this food to a specific animal.

For my opportunistic omnivores (but leaning more towards carnivores), I prepare these little gelatin cubes:



I make a large batch once a year, pour it into lasagne trays to set, and then score it to form many hundreds of small cubes. The slabs go into the deep freezer where I can then break off cubes as needed. It couldn't be simpler.

The pictured cubes contain blended whole rodents, trout, and shrimp, as well as Aqua Max trout chow, Nasco turtle brittle, dandelion greens, sweet potato, butternut squash, calcium, vitamin D3, and other vitamin/mineral supplements. The mix is then set with gelatin. It really couldn't be any easier!

So, get creative and explore other more convenient and nutritionally complete methods of feeding!

Here are some animals enjoying the food:

Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii)

Razorback Musk Turtles (Sternotherus carinatus)

Blotched Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma mavortium melanostictum)

Ukrainian Fire Salamanders (S. s. salamandra)