Herbivorous & omnivorous reptiles

Herbivorous and omnivorous lizards, turtles and tortoises are fond of highly-nutritious alfalfa sprouts as well as other kinds of sprouts. Fortunately, for reptile caretakers, it's easy to grow these sprouts.

Why bother? Well, it's economical for starts--less than $.25 cents a quart for home-grown alfalfa sprouts vs. $.80-1.20 for a pint of storebought. More importantly, growing your own is the only way to be sure you're feeding the reptiles in your care absolutely fresh greens without any risk of contamination from pesticides, fungicides and cleaning-product residue. (In a recent scandal in Oregon, a grocery store produce-manager admitted he regularly sprayed vegetables with RAID to kill fruit flies!)

First, you need seeds. Alfalfa seed is available in all health food stores and health food departments of supermarkets , often in bulk. Call around--prices can vary widely. $3.50-4.00 lb. is average. A pound of seed will grow about 20 quarts of succulent sprouts.

Please note: Farm supply and feed stores also sell alfalfa seed, but it's virtually always chemically-treated and sold strictly for hay-planting purposes. Organically-grown seed is preferable for sprouting, but untreated seed is essential!

In addition to seed, you need: a wide-mouthed quart jar, a 5" square of thin porous cloth (a piece of old panty-hose or cheesecloth is fine) and a rubber band.

Or you can use a wide-mouthed canning jar, a jar ring and a square of thin material or fiberglass screening.

To grow alfalfa sprouts for feeding reptiles:

1. Put 2 tablespoons of seeds in the jar and cover with about a cup of lukewarm water.

2. Cover the jar mouth with cloth or screening and secure with the rubber band or jar ring.

3. Soak overnight (8-10 hours).

4. Drain off the water. Leave the screen in place and fill the jar with fresh lukewarm water, then drain again.

Be sure to drain sprouts thoroughly! If the seeds sit in water they will rot. Many people leave their jars of growing sprouts resting upside down on a saucer to ensure good drainage. This is fine, but the edge of the jar needs to be propped up a little to

let the growing sprouts get air.

5. Rinse and drain twice a day for 4 or 5 days until the sprouts

fill the jar. On the last day, put your sprouts in a window to let them absorb sunlight and "green up." This increases their nutritional value substantially. If the weather is very hot, though, you'll have to skip this step. If you put a jar of sprouts in direct sunlight on a hot summer day you'll end up with smelly slimy "sun-stewed sprouts" that no one will eat.

6. Refrigerate--and go ahead and start a new batch of sprouts while you're thinking of it. Alfalfa sprouts keep well for 4-5 days in the refrigerator and up to two weeks if you rinse and drain them every couple of days. If refrigeration is inconvenient, you can keep sprouts alive for quite a while by continuing to rinse and drain them twice a day. They will get tough and a little bitter the longer they grow though.

Offering a variety of foods is the key to good nutrition, of course, and a steady diet of alfalfa sprouts--nutritious as they are--won't keep a lizard, turtle or tortoise healthy.

Happily, though, there are lots of other sprouts besides alfalfa that you can easily grow too. Most unprocessed edible seeds can be sprouted using the above method. Mustard and radish seeds and millet can be purchased inexpensively at health food stores. I

often grow these in combination with alfalfa seeds to provide nutritional variety and taste-temptation for picky eaters.

Raw unhulled (in the shell) sesame and sunflower seeds contain valuable fatty acids and protein which are especially beneficial when an animal needs a nutritional boost. These seeds can also be purchased in bulk at health food stores. 1/4 c. of unhulled sesame seeds or 1/2 c. of sunflower seeds will grow a quart of sprouts (the shells will float off the sprouts during rinsing after a few days of growing). Most health food stores also sell raw pumpkin seeds (in the shell) which are easily sprouted like sunflower seeds. These seeds offer a particularly rich source of protein and fatty-acids, and many people (including me) believe they help eliminate intestinal parasites.

Any whole raw dry bean or pea can also be sprouted. Soy beans and mung beans (available in bulk at health food stores) are very nutritious and digestible when sprouted. Lentils, red beans, whole dry peas (not split peas), black beans, etc. are all easily sprouted (3/4 c. dry beans per quart).

You can also sprout wheat, oats, barley and corn. These can be purchased very inexpensively (less than $.25/lb) at feed stores. Be sure you get the whole grains rather than rolled or cracked grains. They all sprout readily (use 1/2 c. of seeds per quart) and provide palatable high-quality nutrition.

Dry seeds should be stored in tightly closed containers to keep weevils out (weevil-damage prevents sprouting). Seeds containing lots of oil (sesame, sunflower, pumpkin) should be refrigerated to prevent their becoming rancid.

Carnivorous reptiles can also benefit from sprout nutrients when their feeder animals are fed sprouts for their last supper. Chickens, rabbits, mice and rats all relish sprouts. If you raise these animals yourself, you'll also find that adding small amounts of sprouts to their regular diet is an easy and inexpensive way to improve health and productivity.

A final note--fresh alfalfa sprouts, sprouted millet, mung beans, radish seed, and mustard seed are all tasty and nutritious salad-foods for people as well as reptiles and rodents. Cooked bean sprouts are tasty and digestible too. I eat them myself and feed them to my family as well as to iguanas and rats. I recommend that you do the same.