Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Dill just LOVES mulberry leaves!
Here she is just starting on a huge mulberry leaf....

And here she is moments later...having almost polished off the leaf. By the time she was done I was left holding just the stem.

Too bad she doesn't like them after they have been frozen. Once winter comes, she'll be without them until next year.
Poor baby.
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Kim

SOUTHERN FLORIDA CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (SFCRC)

Location: LEE/1.

Kim,

Dilly-Beans looks great in those pictures. She is a beautiful Corucia.

I was telling Jess, I need to try Mulberry leaves sometime.

Sincerely,
Brian
SFCRC

Brian...

Dill says thank you for the wonderful compliments!

She sure does enjoy Mulberry leaves! I was surprised at how enthusiastic she was about eating them.

Wait...scratch that. I should never be surprised by Dills enthusiasm for food! She eats with gusto!

My kids can now identify a Mulberry tree with ease, and whenever any of us come in, one of the questions asked is "did you bring Dill any Mulberry leaves?"
Even my mom and dad harvest a bunch from thier tree and bring them into to town for her.
They are best served fresh off the tree as they don't seem to have much longevity once picked. They dry out rapidily if left out...or turn smelly and soggy if you put the stem in water.

Any idea where I might find the nutritional value of mulberry leaves? I hope they are good for her, as well as good tasting!
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Kim

SOUTHERN FLORIDA CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (SFCRC)

Location: LEE/1.

KIM,

The MULBERRY QUEEN aka Jess.

Jess activity feeds her Corucia Mulberry's and is a firm believer in it's nutritional value for Corucia. She would be the best source on this planet on info on this pair up. Where I live, we don't have access to Mulberrys. Otherwise, Checkout the search engines if you haven't already done so. I do want to feed the Corucia here Mulberrys or a supplement sometime.

Sincerely,
Brian
SFCRC

As much as I wish I had a Ca ratio or somesuch for you, all I can repeat is what one of my favorite exotics residents at our local veterinary teaching hospital told me "an excellent calcium and long dietary fiber source for herbivorous reptiles" I love it because the PTS love it, it is FREE, and super fresh veggies are generally a little higher in vitamins than store bought. I also think the fiber content is probably a lot closer to some of the plants/trees they would be eating in the wild because so much of our store available produce has been modified to human tastes- and most of us don't like to have to chew up lots of fiber in our greens.
There are two neighbors with huge mulberry trees, and they allow me to lop whole branches off for my PTS, so they can eat very naturally and climb around and eat leaves directly off the branch. Mulberry trees are very prolific growers, and when you lop small branches off, they resprout from near the cut almost all year long. The PTS especially relish the new growth, and will actually eat the branch and bark itself when it is still green. They will also eat the fruits and flowers, but most people plant fruitless mulberry as a shade tree because the fruited version is VERY messy.
cheers, Jess b

Your Highness, (lol)

Which one of your Monkey Tails is pictured?

Best Regards,
A loyal subject

Ha! I could get used to being a Majesty- perhaps I can get my husband to call me that

The PTS eating mulberry is "Thelma" aka "thin thelma" belonging to Dan, but being long term babysat by me. She was one of the PTS purchased by Dan F. over the internet 2 years ago, which arrived along with "Louise" aka "Less legs Louise" aka "less legs Louis". They arrived in a pitiful emaciated/dehydrated/bitten state. Louise/Louis needed one of his entire back legs amputated due to a horrible infected bite wound. Thelma is currently very fat and expecting a baby in the next month! She is the only non striped, non- spotted PTS in this house- she is matte brown, and very petite.
Cheers, Jess QB

From a paper presented at the a conference of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN:

"Velázquez (1992) found mineral contents of 205ppm for calcium, 55ppm for Phosphorus, 6.0ppm for iron and 0.4ppm for zinc."

That's a Ca ratio of about 4:1.

The Velazquez paper cited is a graduate thesis written for the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology in Guatemala, and I can't find a copy of it. The conference paper that quotes it can be found at: http://www.fao.org/ag/AGA/AGAP/FRG/Mulberry/Posters/Html/Uribe.htm

Another study finds crude protein to be about 20% and total protein to be about 88%.

That study is at: http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd12/2/yao122.htm

-Z

n/p