Dehydrating grasses/weeds to later rehydrate during off growing seasons?

[aztortoisegal]

I was wondering, since this is commercially available, would it be realistic to dry my own weeds, flowers, grasses for later rehydration to feed with? We only have about half a year when weeds and other plants will grow abundantly, the rest of the year it is too hot for most plants that aren't die hard cacti or trees. Thoughts?

 

[Jacqui]

I dry some, just because I can then know exactly what I am feeding and it costs me nothing to dry it. I do a lot of mulberry leaves especially. It's kinda in my mind more what do you have more of time or money. Time goes to collecting and drying over money going to buy the pellets.

 

[aztortoisegal]

Do you rehydrate them later? Will they eat crunchy dry plants? And is there a recommended way to do that, to inhibit mold or anything else that wouldn't be good for the tortoise? Thank you for your help! I like the idea of being able to save food for him for later. I can certainly afford to keep him supplied with that packaged stuff while he's still so small, but I'd rather collect food myself, supply him with a variety of good stuff. Thanks again!

 

[Len B]

I do it, I only rehydrate "with warm water" what they will eat at each feeding. They will also eat the dry plant crumbles when sprinkled on other foods.

 

[aztortoisegal]

Awesome, thank you!

 

[Jacqui]

I do it, I only rehydrate "with warm water" what they will eat at each feeding. They will also eat the dry plant crumbles when sprinkled on other foods.

Exactly the same as here. All I do to dry is spread them out single layer on some newspaper upstairs in my house. Every so often I turn them over. When dry, I bag them up.

 

[pepsiandjac]

i put weeds in food processor then freeze them in freezer bags or icecube trays

 

[aztortoisegal]

Awesome help, thank you! Soooo, I'll be the weirdo of the neighborhood from on, raiding people's weedy front lawns. Who would ever guess that finding a big patch of juicy weeds would be a good thing?! Ha ha ha!

 

[aztortoisegal]

Seriously, this guy is gonna get gooooood food from now on! Fields and fields of alfalfa around here, as far as the eye can see. Clover everywhere! Dandelions! Never buying food again!

Edited to add: NO, I'm not gonna steal alfalfa from fields, but I will pull it up from the edges of the roads where it accidentally sprouts sometimes.

 

[TPayne12]

I see this is a fairly old thread, but with winter nipping at our heels, I was wondering if anyone knows if it's okay to dehydrate grasses, weeds, flowers, etc. in the oven? I was thinking a low temp, like 170°F, until dried. Does this method remove, ("bake out") any of the beneficial vitamins, proteins, fibers, etc., needed for a proper healthy diet?

Thanks, all!!

 

[Speedy-1]

I got a bale of Bermuda grass hay , and soak what I am going to give Speedy ! It rehydrates and greens up nice ! 16 Dollars and it will last all winter I am sure !