Archive for May, 2011

watercress is an ideal staple food for herbivorous lizards

May 20, 2011 at 11:54 am · Filed under vegetables lizards can eat

Watercress is a nutritionally sound green leafy staple food as it has a calcium to phosphrous ration of 2:1, it also has 2% protein and 0% fat.

The green mustardy, slightly spicy tasting leaves are also sources of  Folate, Pantothenic Acid and Copper, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Manganese.

Both our Iggy and uromastyx love watercress, and will eat it from our hands.

For smaller lizards separate the leaves from the stalks and give just the leaves but if you have a uromastyx they do generally like stalky bits too, just break them into manageable bits.  Our big iguana has the stalky bits left attached to the laves but not in big clumps as he can be a bit of pig at feeding times and gobble too  much at once.

Watercress is not easy to grow in most peoples back gardens as it requires large quantities of semi-alkaline water but is readily available in most supermarkets but at over £1 per bag, so my alternative is to grow american landcress, it does have a slighttely higher ratio of phospherous than watercress it is still fine to feed to herbivorous lizards.

As with all foods for lizards never limit your reptiles to one type of food, always alternate between a variety of foods and never consistently offer one type of food.

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Time savers in the Lizards veggie garden

May 19, 2011 at 11:40 am · Filed under general

Life has been so busy and spring kind of crept up on me.  I realised I had been neglecting the lizards veggie garden and had a spurt of activity.

I eagerly set about getting the containers ready with compost on a really Saturday afternoon, only to find out all my vegetable seeds had gone mouldy over the winter and I had nothing left!

Panic! Luckily we live very close to a Range store which stocks ready to plant out vegetables and fruit plants.

I’m saved: with 15 minutes to store closing time, I leave with two Courgette plants, two Butternut squash plants, a Coriander (or Cilantro as our American cousins like to call it) and some Mangetout plants., along with a selection of Nasturtium and Parsley seeds.

All ready to be planted out, with none of the hassle of waiting for seeds to germinate, careful picking out and replanting into containers.  This is a great time and space-saving tip.

If you are new to growing veggies for your lizards then this is agreat way for you get started with commonly available veggies from reputable stores.

Alternatively I find local craft fairs and markets a great source of ready to plant veggies.

if you have neighbours who are into growing vegetables get talking and ask them if they have a surplus of a vegetable you need, they might be able to give you some ready to plant out specimens, from their prickings, as generally when growing from seed gardeners produce too many seedlings

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