Fresh Fruit...

[Tigergenesis]

If feeding fresh fruit, do I have to puree it or just mash, dice or slice?

[Marla]

Unless you're feeding something particularly pulpy, I'd mash it pretty well. Even Sandiego, who is over 35 grams, prefers his food smooth over lumpy and will spit out lumps. He leapt out onto Jessica yesterday as she was delivering his papaya and cgd dinner and went straight for the food, but spit out the lumps he came to.

[Tigergenesis]

LOL. That's so funny. I figured I'd go the fresh fruit route as often as possible. She's so tiny that she can't eat a whole jar of baby food before I have to toss it (2-3 days). At least with the fresh fruit I can eat it and so can my blue-tongue skink (he/she will be arriving Saturday!). Thanks!

[Marla]

You're welcome! You might think about preparing it ahead of time and freezing a teaspoon or so in each compartment of ice cube trays, then storing them in freezer bags and labeling them with what variety of fruit it is, whether it has cgd, ggd, vitamins, or nothing mixed in, and when it was frozen. That way you can safely buy and use organic baby food or fresh fruit and not worry about wasting it. You can put a half teaspoon or teaspoon worth in her dish in the morning before you leave for work and have it ready to feed her when you get home. I would bet that any plain baby food or fresh fruit that you freeze would be usable for your skink the same way. (By the way, going off topic, it seems that my dog is a herper at heart, too, as he was trying to catch a juvenile five-lined skink in my carport a few days ago. :lol: )

[Tigergenesis]

LOL! That's so sweet - your dog was trying to add another reptile to your collection. I thought about freezing her baby food, but she eats so little in a day that the cubes would be almost invisible! But since I'm going to give some to the skink I might freeze the fresh fruit in larger cubes and just divide it up.

[Marla]

Buddha is helpful that way. The freezing really does simplify the fruit and avoid waste as far as possible, regardless of whether it starts out fresh or in a jar. I don't know if you can find them, but I often see ice trays with little shapes like stars that make smaller "cubes" (not really cubes if they're stars, are they?) that would be easy to use to make smaller servings. I like to give mine more than I know they'll eat, anyway, because it doesn't dry out as quickly that way.