Tuesday 15 February 2011

How to grow bean sprouts.

If you look after a green iguana you want to make sure it get's fed properly. A good variation is of much importance as they are fussy eaters. I remember my big boy being rather complicated when I 'rescued' him about 2.5 years ago. He didn't like eat what I offered, turned up his nose or would ignore it, because he didn't know it. Though it took a while, he's now basically tucking into anything I present him. He's learned I'm a good food provider, the little bugger.

Recently, I decided to dust off my biosnacky germinator and went back to growing my own sprouts again.

Bean sprouts

Not only for the iguana, but also for me. I grow mainly alfalfa, but I also love bean sprouts and purple radish and ordinary salad cress. The iguana loves all of them, so do I. Alfalfa and radish sprouts are brilliant on a salad. I particularly like the radish sprouts on fresh rye or sourdough bread, on PHILADELPHIA cheese with a pinch of salt. Delicious. To grow your own sprouts is also much cheaper, given that the iguana eats so much now, that he's so huge.

Here a comparison, him 2.5 years ago and today:



2 comments:

  1. did the sprouts make him change color? I noticed my iguana turned that whitish hue when the weather got cold and dry. But i looove growing sprouts too and would love to feed them to the iguana. thanks for the info. Did you happen to potty train him and have any advice?

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  2. Hello, Mallory

    I love having other iguana owners popping by. Tell me about yours :-)

    Didn't even see your comment until now. Somehow blogger has to improve that, I think. It should come up as 'comment unread', which it doesn't. Weird.

    Okay to your questions: No, I didn't notice any colour change because of feeding bean sprouts, they go pale when it's cold, that's correct. They also go dark when they are stressed.

    I couldn't train him to go to a particular place, he just does his business wherever he feels, mostly, like in nature, from the cork bark he's sitting on, to the floor. I have linol on the floor of his vivarium for easier cleaning.

    My female iguana, however was trained. I got her from a very young age and as soon as I had her free-roaming (not recommended, by the way!)and I saw her preparing for doing her business I grabbed her and put her into a ca-litter tray. Repeated it every time and she learned.

    It's another thing people don't realise when they buy iguanas: they make huge messes and the urin has a high acidity.

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