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Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods"

Posted By: angelic4296

Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 03/31/11 01:52 AM

OK, I have developed my own tricks to get my gliders to eat various fruits and veggies. However, I would like to hear other people's tips and tricks for getting their gliders to eat any of the following: kale, collard greens, mustard greens, spinach, turnip greens, bok choy etc...those types of leafy greens that don't have a whole lot of flavor to them, but are REALLY good for our gliders in terms of Ca:P ratios and other vitamins.

I've served frozen, fresh, and steamed/cooked - it takes me literally shredding it all up so it's too tiny NOT to incidentally eat for them to eat it. The only thing I've gotten to work is coating them in a very thin TINY coat of honey, but I obviously don't want to be giving them extra honey everynight.

I'm just curious what other people do!! thumb
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 03/31/11 02:15 AM

I have to blend collard greens in veggie relish otherwise mine won't touch it.
Posted By: sunjana1

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 03/31/11 02:48 AM

Ugh, those darn veggies...

I use thawed veggies. If they don't touch them one night the next night I mix in:

Yogurt- plain or no sugar added fruit flavor
or
Brisky's booster milk re-hydrated (1/4 tsp to 1 tsp water)

They almost always will eat them with the Brisky's. Sometimes I'll just slop a dab of their diet into them too.

Someone needs to grow yoggie flavored veggies...
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 03/31/11 02:52 AM

I can't get mine to get it either...they do eat spring mix though..with a couple of mealies on the spring mix.
Posted By: Gizmogirl

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 03/31/11 06:45 AM

I change their food presentation a lot. With the greens I have noticed that if I chop them up they don't like it. I either wrap something nice in the greens, or I leave the leaf in it's original size and just push it through the bars of the cage.





Posted By: angelic4296

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 04/02/11 06:28 AM

Yeah, if I put something like yogurt on it, they tend to just like the yogurt off....

Maybe I'll try some Brisky's or try leaving it whole...

Ugh, the veggies that are the best for them seem to always be the ones they don't wanna touch....
Posted By: sunjana1

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 04/02/11 12:28 PM

If I have to mix in something I use my blended veggies, I just wait for it to thaw and then mix in whatever - its all even throughout and then they don't have the option to lick it off. smile
Posted By: IslandGliders

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 04/02/11 01:19 PM

My gliders only like raw, fresh greens. (Although sounds like you've tried that.)

I serve them one of two ways: bunching them together by the stems and hanging them from the top of the cage (almost like a toy), or shredded in a bowl.

Sorry your babies are being so picky dunno I've been there, but thankfully changing up the presentation seems to work for me (for now).
Posted By: CandyOtte

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 04/02/11 02:20 PM

sometimes it helps to change the way you offer their usual foods. I usually serve dinner to my 3 colonies using divided toddler plates (Walmart $1)



(the mesh desk tray under their plate helps cut down on the amount of food dropped into the cage pan out of reach)

Other nights, I mix things up and using hanging bird cups so they have to forage around the whole cage to find their food.
There are rarely any leftovers on foraging nights.





If you are using fruit smoothies or vegetable relish recipies - especially those using mostly papaya and bok choi - try offering just one or two vegetables and one or two fruits cut in pieces. Your gliders might like picking up a single food to munch instead of the usual mixtures.

I would not have much of an appetite if 50% of my fruit every night was papaya and 50% of my vegetable was bok choi.

Variety can come from using different foods each night, not just serving a lot of fruits/vegetables mixed together.
Posted By: ewm

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 04/02/11 02:50 PM

When I first got my two critters Momo and Petrie I had their veggies and fruit in one bowl and their HPW in another bowl. I was stumped as to why it looked like they barely touched any of their fresh food. So I contacted Tracy our breeder (tjlong on here) and she mentioned putting the HPW all over the food. The next night I went ahead and set up all the fresh food and then added the HPW all over the top of the food and it made a HUGE difference.

Before
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a...7_6486965_n.jpg

After
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/168184_1647539240640_1601710568_31525886_104239_n.jpg

The photos were taken a little over a week after we got them. Some days they completely polish off everything even all the veggies while other days they leave some veggies behind.

I also did a bit of testing with how I presented the veggies by varying the size of the pieces between two different bowls. Mine seem to like bigger pieces of veggies. I think part of that is if they are too small of pieces they loose their juiciness over night. I find that just simply trying different things between the two bowls was extremely helpful in learning what made them eat more of what they had.

I feed mine fresh Kale and Bok choy along with frozen Papaya and then one other frozen fruit. For my secondary fruits I have blueberry, strawberry, kiwi, and mango. Each day I give them a different secondary fruit and if they were really good about polishing off their food the next day I give them a few peas or green beans. They really seem to enjoy the green beans. I've seen some photos of how gliders leave behind the outer bit of the green bean and only eat the center... mine well I don't see anything left behind LOL


Gizmogirl - I love your wrapped blueberry idea. I'll have to try that sometime smile
Posted By: angelic4296

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 04/02/11 03:23 PM

Jana,
Yeah I tried the veggie relish, maybe they weren't fans of what I put in it, but they wouldn't go near the veggies at all that night lol.....I am going to try a different veggie relish without bell peppers, I think that's what might have thrown them off....

Hannah, Evanita, and Candy,
Yes, I think I'm going to try switching up the presentation of it. I'm going to try just leaving the leaves big and whole and hanging them in the cage. That way, it's more like a fun game when they eat it, as opposed to it being right in their bowl. I DO switch up the fruits and veggies I give night to night. For example, last night was corn, fresh baby carrots, collard greens, and black-eyed peas. Tonight the menu is greenbeans, peas, collard greens, and spaghetti squash. Last night's fruit was canteloupe, black seedless grapes, honeydew, and papaya. Tonight it'll be watermelon, papaya (they eat it everynight thank God lol, they love it), blueberries, and kiwi. They definitely don't get the same thing everynight, I don't like the idea of that. They need variety in their diet just like us. I tried the idea of one fruit one night and then a veggie the next, but my babies HATED that and I will never try that again.

I'll switch up the presentation tonight. Thank God it's only the collard greens they're not eating, everything else they like. We'll see if hanging it and leaving it in big pieces helps. Cross your fingers for me!!!! smile
Posted By: angelic4296

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 04/04/11 02:47 AM

Welllllllllll good news! I took out a big leaf of the collard greens, washed it well but left it wet so it would stay crisp/fresh longer and stuck the stem between bars of the cage so that the leafy part hung down. I also "coated" it in HPW to entice them. I checked it about 3am last night and VICTORY! Huge chunks were missing from the leaf and I checked all pouches to make sure they weren't nesting with it lol - NOPE! They actually ate it! SUCH a relief smile

I got really creative tonight and made mini "veggie salads" and mini "fruit salads" in various parts of the cage. They seem to get a kick out of having different areas in the cage to forage and dig in for food. I'm so relieved that all I had to do was switch up presentation, PHEW! smile
Posted By: sunjana1

Re: Tips and Tricks for the "boring foods" - 04/04/11 03:22 AM

Yay! And thanks for posting this and thanks to all the posters with ideas - I definitely benefited from it as well!
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