Reptile & Amphibian Forums

when feeding pumpkin and squash how do you serve it? raw and sliced up, or do you skin it?
Thanks!

Good question. It depends on the squash:
Summer squash & zucchini just get grated, some of the tougher skinned ones get the rind removed before serving. Butternut is the worst: it has a very hard skin.
Try this: if you can slice a wedge and its fairly pliable ( bends easily when twisted), then leave it on. I know some pumpkins are thin skinned, and the skin is probably loaded with betacarotene.
I grate the flesh on all of them.
Hope that helps.
Stephanie

to adults?

Honestly, in my big outdoor enclosures, I like to do this... take a vegetable of some kind (tomato, zucchini, squash, pumpkin) and baseball swing it against the fence so it splatters all over or falls and crunches up a bit on the ground....or just step on the thing a bit. Adults will take it from there if they can find a crack in the armor. I saw a photo of a box turtle sitting inside a jack-o-lantern eating it from the inside.

Anyway, they can handle it on their own. If you have one veggie and lots of pens, cut it into big hunks, shell and all, and distribute. Mine will eat even the rind of most mellons.

For babies I shave it across a grater, rind and all.

I do think that adults like the stimulation of tackling unwieldy food and finding it in odd places on occasion in their pens. It seems to encourage them to wander a big more. This is just my personal feeling, not at all scientific or anything.