[FinnickHog]

It's done! Now I just need me a gecko!

 

[twobytwopets]

You sound like me when I go to the nursery. Now I have to order my plants and seeds online. So now I have well over 100 catalogs for plants, because I have to comparison shop.
If I go to the greenhouse or nursery I am like a kid in a candy store, I want them all, need them all and will buy as many as my credit card will allow.

 

[FinnickHog]

I like to be able to go and poke at them before I buy them. My mom buys all of her plants online now but it just isn't the same to me.

When I was living in Calgary I'd go to the frog peoples' house to get flies and stuff, but they also build their own vivariums to sell, so they had a crazy selection of tropical plants. I'd go in with $100 expecting to spend $30 and come out with bags and bags of plant clippings. At the last reptile expo I walked by their booth complaining that I only had $7 left, and they sold me a begonia.

I wouldn't be so bad if they weren't enabling my addiction!

 

[twobytwopets]

I usually just do the seeds online unless it's something I've failed at starting from seeds in the past.
My normal common variety plants I will sometimes buy started. But prefer to get most started here, and i like some really strange vegetables.

 

[FinnickHog]

Like what? I've only ever grown string beans, peppers, tomatoes, and herbs .

I am obsessed with how this viv turned out. The buffaloberry didn't make it, but everything else looks so good!

 

[twobytwopets]

I prefer heirloom on just about everything. That goes double for tomatoes.
I have a weird thing about colors. Purple beans, orange or purple coliflower, yellow tomatoes, black tomatoes.
Peppers, we tend to go overboard. Hot peppers, sweet peppers, cayenne peppers for the birds. Then some oddly shaped ones.
We also try and add new stuff every year, usually something we hadn't tried or something more exotic.

 

[Salt&PepperHedgie]

Your pets are adorable! I love Finnick's picture, his face is smashed! Cool channel by the way

 

[FinnickHog]

I've never even seen half those vegetables! That's so cool!

Thanks Salt!

 

[twobytwopets]

http://www.rareseeds.com

Ashley will now be busy for the next 2 hours looking at vegetables. Leave a message at the beep!!!!!

 

[FinnickHog]

That radish is the size of that child! This is so cool!

 

[FinnickHog]

I was at the pet store today (yesterday now I guess) getting my weekly pile o insects and I found some new food for Finnick to try!

Merrick released a line of dog food a while ago with dried raw chunks in the kibble mix, and I was looking at it, but the specs just weren't right. The cat one is out now, and there's also little wet pouches. I picked up the duck, whitefish, and rabbit ones to try for now as an extra mix-in to Finn's veggies and bugs. Here's the rabbit one: http://www.merrickpetcare.com/cats/...Protein-Rich_Morsels_in_Gravy_Cat_Food&id=343

There aren't that many ingredients which is nice. Once the water weight is accounted for it's 47% protein, 16% fat, 6% fiber, so not too bad, and since I'm mixing it with veggies and bugs it will balance out perfectly. I'll be trying it out tomorrow!

I picked up a small bag of the kibble too just to give it a try as a treat. I don't like it as much as the wet food but it's not terrible.

This one is "game bird" http://www.merrickpetcare.com/cats/..._Backcountry_Game_Bird_Recipe_Cat_Food&id=321

Turkey, salmon, and chicken aren't game birds. The game shows up 11th and 12th on the list. I laughed a little. But the ingredients aren't bad if you ignore the name, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[FinnickHog]

He likes it! It's all gone and more than usual of his normal food is left. I think I'll gradually transition out the canned food and use these Merrick pouches for the meat portion instead.

I'm planning on doing a step by step video for how I make my hogfood, so I can go over the changes then.

And now I'm off to feed the snake army!

 

[FinnickHog]

I've been hacking away at the spreadsheets for common fruits, veggies, meats, and insects today. Insects is as done as it's getting, I think. A lot of nutritional information just doesn't seem to be available. And the meats one is finished!

I'm going to dig through some scholarly articles and see if I can find any information on the vitamins and minerals in insects, and I'll finish fruits and veggies in the next few days, and then I'll post all of those along with my calculator as one big post.

I'm still trying to figure out how to calculate Ca: P ratio and adjust the calcium... I think it'll have to be weight based...

 

[twobytwopets]

Alternate source of information, possibly. Could be those people that eat bugs. I don't know if they might have additional information or not.

 

[FinnickHog]

I found a retailer out of Thailand that ships pretty much every insect you could imagine. They have rhino beetle larvae, lightly seasoned. But the packaging doesn't even have an ingredients list, let alone nutritional info. I'll keep digging there in case I'm just blind. This is their product here: http://www.thailandunique.com/edible-insects-bugs

I've also found a few blogs by people who eat bugs with some data, but a lot of information is missing. Like where they found their numbers, or what measurement the vitamins or minerals are in. "27 magnesium" really isn't very helpful :lol:.

 

[twobytwopets]

I checked Amazon and found distributed selling those, hoped that there might be more info on the back of the bag or Amazon sites. Nothing there. At least the ones I checked.
Now I wonder if a college entomology department would know of anything.

 

[FinnickHog]

Weird, right? It's a health movement towards eating insects, yet nobody knows the detailed nutritional information for what they're eating. Not that I would eat bugs anyway. Yuck. :lol:

 

[twobytwopets]

The way I see it, when I feel like eating a bug, I'll jump on a horse or motorcycle and talk.
But there is no information on them. Not even how many weight watchers points they are.

 

[FinnickHog]

It's really strange!

 

[FinnickHog]

I had one of the worst days of my life yesterday and it's going to take some time to recover, so I'll be taking a short hiatus while I cope.

I should be back within the week, but if anyone needs me urgently, pm me. I'll try to check those.