Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just found a great store by me that sells dandelion greens (yay) and has lots of dried peas and beans that you can buy in bulk. I have a Mali who is around 9 months old and want to give him some of these dried peas, but I'm not sure if I should be soaking them first. I tried to eat one and almost broke a tooth on it! So I'm wondering if he's going to be able to eat it the way it is or if I should soak it. He's only about 3 inches long not including tail. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks!

How large are the peas? At first for my dry mix i was using the blender to chop up some of the lentils and dried peas but after reading some people's experiences here, and watching my Uro crunch away at them like they're nothing, i stopped making them any smaller.He has no problem crunching away still and is as happy as ever to munch on his dry mix when he feels the need.Unless the peas are just too large to get in his mouth comfortably, you're probably fine not softening or making them smaller.Plus in a small way it's just a bit more exercise and stimulation lol.I'm constantly amazed at how strong his little jaws are when he eats that stuff, i didn't think he could break them up that easily.I guess it makes sense that they'd forage for seeds/dry edible stuff in the wild and be adapted to deal with that.

Just my thoughts though,

Spanky

Thanks for the advice. They are pretty small, I think they are the kind you would use for soup and they are split in half. I don't think he's going to have a problem with them. I've put some in his food dish and I think the big problem is trying to get him to actually go to the bowl. I usually either hand feed him or plop greens in front of his face, so he doesn't really get them concept of a food bowl. He's spoiled that way I guess! Thanks again!

Sounds like your mali is off to a great start.
Alot of the breeders are hesitant to offer dry good to young uros unless hey were eating very well on greens.
Groundthe beans up in a coffee grinder-if you make it fairly fine there should be no harm in offering it-It is a good source of vegetable protein-so the books say....

Mine go nuts for it.

You an make some interesting mixes based on different ingredients.
Mine is :
15 bean soup mix( without seasoning packet
red lentils
split peas
bee polen
Tortoise dry food(mazuri)
Zupreen Avain maintenance - finch
Bird seed -finch no sunflowers - small

The bean mix,lentils, peas, polen, all go into the grinder for about 30 seconds.
I add miner-all Outdoor to it - about a teaspoon to about 4 cups of mix.

>>Thanks for the advice. They are pretty small, I think they are the kind you would use for soup and they are split in half. I don't think he's going to have a problem with them. I've put some in his food dish and I think the big problem is trying to get him to actually go to the bowl. I usually either hand feed him or plop greens in front of his face, so he doesn't really get them concept of a food bowl. He's spoiled that way I guess! Thanks again!

Thanks, I think I'll try it! It sounds really tasty....hee hee. I actually have another question...Right now the substrate I have him on is parakeet seed. I was told that millet was the best thing to put him on, but I couldn't find straight parakeet millet at the pet store. So I bought the one that looked like it had the least amount of other ingredients. He does fine on it and I don't think he actually consumes much of it. I did find plain old straight up millet at the same farmer's market that I found the dandelion and dried peas. Is this the stuff I'm looking for or is it different than actual millet intended for parakeets? I just want to make sure before I go buying a bunch of it and it's not what I want.