Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For those of you not on a farm, thats Timothy and Alfalfa. I raise various grasses for my torts. I was wondering about feeding them to my BDs... any thoughts????

here is the page with the different grasses
www.turtlecafe.com/products.pl?CatID=10
-----
Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

one word- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

NP
-----

Webshots photos
www.Mystical-Dragons.com

I'm wondering the same thing... As far as I know Alfalfa is great as a staple food for beardies!? Don't know anything about Timothy, though.

As far as I can tell, Alfalfa and Timothy hay are fine for dragons, the fresher it is the better though, as the vitamines in hay fade relatively fast (more than 50% gone in 6 months). I wouldn't recommend it as a stable, as collard greens etc have more calcium than hay does, but don't see why it can't be mixed in with other dark leafy greens. Also, should use the leaves more than the stems, as hay (timothy and alfalfa) can have very woody stems.

Alfalfa sprouts are good too but don't contain as much calcium as the older plant but do have a fairly high water content so work great as a topping to the dragon's salad.

I have checked several of my bearded dragon books and Alfalfa sprouts and hay and Timothy hay have been listed as good foods for dragons. If there is any more up to date information on why hay should not be fed to dragons, certainly would love to hear it.

A lot of alfalfa sprouts carry salmonella.
-----
Kylie

AIM: MatchFlameStick
ike

first off its not a lot its actually a very small amount and from a cursery search, those involve people. The farm trade would be in deep trouble if alfalfa were pulled from the market. Do a google search for alfalfa and salmonilla.

second, I asked about grasses in general since I am growing it and feeding it to my torts. so even if you rule out alfalfa there are over a dozen other types of grasses
-----
Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

No offense, but I think you need to start taking advice rather than just giving it. It seems like the advice you are giving is from a petco bearded dragon pamphlet or something. There's a lot of valuable information on this forum, so just sit back and ask questions for a while. Answering no to a question you don't really know the answer to is not a good idea. Also, most substrates marketed to be safe to use with reptiles are less safe than stuff you can pick up at home depot. There isn't anyone regulating what claims can or can't be made, so if calci sand wants you to believe that their sands are safe (and they are much more dangerous than regular silicon free sand...it does not dissolve as they market it to).

I don't mean any disrespect, but if you truely want to learn something about reptiles, you have to be open to more opinions than just that of your local petshop, who are almost always less knowledgable than the majority of the people on this board.