Feeding and Nutrition :: Making pellets

[CrazyHouse]

yesterday I had a whole stack of veggies that were going to get tossed if I didn't use them right away so I figured I would blend them all together and try to make my own veggie pellets. I seperated the mash into small pellets and put them on a large cookie sheet and put it in the oven @ about 90F (as low as my oven will go) with the oven slightly open over night (to dry them, not cook them). This morning when I took the tray out there lay about a hundred dry green pellets, I tossed a few into the turtle tank and the turtles attacked them, some of the pellets even floated! Anyway this is my ingredient list: comments, critisisms welcome

Mixed Greens (no spinach) - a handful
Dandelion Greens - a bunch
carrot - 1
sweet potato - 1/2 of a small 1
acorn squash - 1/4 of 1
tuna juice (for flavour)
cuttlebone - 1/2 of a small one, backing removed, ground
T-Rex 2:0 Clacium supplement - 1/4 tsp

Next time:
Rep Cal Herptivite instead of T-Rex
More mixed greens

[grey goose]

Interesting! Do you just put everything in a blender/food processor?

[CrazyHouse]

Yup, blended it until it was a goopy green mess, also if anyone has any suggestions on how to make them more likely to float... right now some do, some don't

[CrazyHouse]

oh yeah, I also added a teaspoon of tomato paste

[grey goose]

Thanks...I think I'm going to give that a try.

[CrazyHouse]

Oh yeah, the smaller you make the pellets the faster they dry

[da sAUCE!]

ingenious. you are a visionary. i suggest a patent. :O

[BullDog]

Excellent idea! About how big did you make the pellets? I'd like to try that some time, but I think it would be hard to make them small.

[CrazyHouse]

I need to figure out a better way of drying them, right now I'm just putting the goop in a baking pan and heating it on the lowest heat. The problem is that it either dries too much or not enough and I'm also not sure what effect the heat is having on the vitamin content. The way its turning out now is slightly moist strips that I put in the veggie clip but I'd like to make something similar to pellets.

[CrazyHouse]

So any suggestions on how to dry this goop would be appreciated. Thank you

[steve]

There is some moisture in certain pellets, so I'm not sure how you would go about making home-made reptomin.

[karbay]

Try a food dehydrater. they are fairly inexpensive and do a good job, though i never used on turtle food.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Wow, Impressive thread! Never thought about making my own turtle pellets!

[scripta_elegans]

I was think that perhaps an ice cube tray and gelatin would make nice little cubes of veggies. I think that might retain the nutrition of the veggies a bit more, and unless you don't have the fridge space, I think it might be easier that drying pellets. That way it would be solid and you could simply drop a cube in the tank. I think to make it float you might try making the gelatin with seltzer water. Not sure that would work, but it might?

[cusm]

You could try a trick I saw on Good Eats for making jerky. Take 2-3 air filters the type used in a central heat/air unit, put the pellets between the filters. Place the filters on top of a box fan and bungee cord the filters to the fan; turn the fan to medium for about 8-12 hours. The host, Alton Brown, says this is the best way to dry jerky, might be worth a try.


Food Network Link