Not collard :O) I see my collareds picking at the dirt a lot. I keep mine outside about 5 months out of the year. They do pick at most tiny specs in the dirt. I often will place tiny bits of calcium powder on their rocks, and they do try to lap it up a lot of times.
I am familiar witht he bird mix you are referring too. Our feed store sells some similar for chickens and such. It looks a lot like typical oat germ with crushed coral in it. I used to buy it and feed it to my mealworms and superworms. I'm not really sure how much of the Ca the worms consumed, but I would supposed minute amounts would still adhere to their bodies.
They person that feeds the bits of ground turkey is using a small amount. Nothing that would amount to a small pinky or mouse. I think he using it mostly as an additive for his greens. This way he gets his collareds accustomed to eating and picking through the salads. He breeds several species of lizards (baja blue rock lizards, collareds, agama, spinies, etc) and is one fo the top three Uromastyx breeders in the US. He is filled with knowledge of breeding that I can't even begin to describe. He has helped me out multiple times with experience.
I have fed pinies to my collareds, but not very often. If were specking of natural diet, I think sticking with insects and the occasional lizard would be the way to go. They are about as liklely to catch and eat a baby mouse in the wild as they are a hatchling bird. Again if you are concerned about Salmonella, you will avoid feeding lizards as well (they also harbor Salmonella). I'm not too concerned about it. Just brown the turkey, and you've killed the cells very effectively. It is not a spore forming bacteria, so I would not worry about it too much, unless I was feeding lots of raw eggs and meat. Any store bought food has a risk of harboring live Salmonella cells. A few year ago, there were several shipments of lettuce that hitched a ride in a loading truck that was also packed with Contaminated meat. The meat dripped on the lettuce. Actually, it was lettuce and several vegetables that got the fluid. Anyway, this was tracked and found to be the cause of several illnesses.
A second case in which several people were infected from Salmonella was from contaminated Maltomeal cereal. Again, this was the result of meat dripping on some cereal while it was in transit. My wife and parents all got Salmonells in this case, as well as several other people in several different states. Interesting enough, my wife got terribly sick and my parents had no idea they were carrying the bacteria. They volunteered to take a test to see if they had it too, and they did. I didn't take the test. I'm sure I had it as well.
In all honestly, I worry about my dogs giving me something that my lizards. I tend to be less weary (as do most) with their mammal pets than we do with our lizards. I always wash up well after any handling of my lizards or their cages/equipment, but seldom after petting my dog. Dogs eat some nasty stuff when were not looking :O)
That all said, we tend to feed our collared what we are comfortable with. We can share our experiences/successes as well as failures. I wanted to point out the saftey of the minced/browned turkey as a good protein source, not a full meal. I have a feeling this turkey supplement is a great way to add small rations of animal protein, and it is very inexpensive if you are feeding several animals.
Oh...I wanted to bring up one other point with my experiences with feeding mice/pinkies, and I'm sure you (Bob) will be able to share some of your own. I have found that my local petstores have the nastiest rodents for sale. I hate to every buy from them. When I do get pinkies, sometimes they look as if they were dead for too long before being frozen. I've found that buying them in quantity by people that specialize in selling frozen rodents is the way to go. I still haven't ordered them online, becaus I only use pinkies to feed two snakes, and the shipping would kill me, but I have bought them at two different reptiles expos.
I prefer feeding frozen, and I want to be sure the adults were well fed and nourished with vitamins/minerals before buying the young.
all THAT aside, I think the more variety the better. That's one reason I keep my lizards outside a lot of the year. I have plants that attract insects all year they are out (flies, butterflies, moths, spiders, beetles, crickets) that I know they are getting lots of variety. They also have the luxury of eating up the dandelions and greens if my chuckwallas don't get them first ;O)
John E.
