Getting a hold of mulberry leaves?

[Holycow]

Mulberry trees don't seem to grow in my local area... I have been on the lookout for some time. I even have a mulberry seedling growing (very slowly) in a pot. Does anyone know if there is an online retailer which sells mulberry leaves (fit for consumption) by the box or something? I'd really like to make them part of my torts diet rotation.
thanks.
--Jeff

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Where are you Jeff?

Boy oh boy do we have mulberry everywhere around here!

Sent from my TFOapp

 

[ascott]

http://www.sungardensinc.com/Mulberry-Trees.html

http://www.sungardensinc.com/Mulberry-Trees.html

 

[Holycow]

Waaaaaaaaaaay down in the southeast US. Homestead, FL about 20 miles north of the Key Largo.

---

http://www.sungardensinc.com/Mulberry-Trees.html

http://www.sungardensinc.com/Mulberry-Trees.html

As I mentioned, I do have a pitiful "mulberry tree" growing in a pot. My mulberry tree is about 6 inches tall and has exactly 5 leaves, one was chewed on by a snail and one has turned yellow and is threatening to fall off. The plant does not seem to have grown at all in the last 3 months. The leaves on the tiny sapling do not seem to be getting larger or showing any signs of doing anything except attracting snails which I remove from the vicinity of the plant nightly.
I am concerned if I were to remove one tiny leaf from this plant it would essentially remove 20% of it's bountiful harvest so far. This is why I was asking if anyone knew where the leaves could be purchased.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I'd have thought about sending you some....but sending to FL? No clue what to do there... Lol

Hope you find someone/ somewhere that can send it your way

Sent from my TFOapp

 

[wellington]

I don't know where you can buy leaves. However, I did just email Coastal which sells mulberry trees about once a year and also silkworm food which is made from mulberry leaves. I had asked if the prepared silkworm food is just ground, dry mulberry leaf or if other things are added. I also asked if they have considered selling just the leaves. I will let you know what I find out.

 

[Yvonne G]

Seems to me that Coastal (that's his username) is in Florida??? And he raises silk worms, so I'm sure he has mulberry trees. I know he also sells mulberry trees. Send him a PM and get his advice about growing them where you live.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

I don't know where you can buy leaves. However, I did just email Coastal which sells mulberry trees about once a year and also silkworm food which is made from mulberry leaves. I had asked if the prepared silkworm food is just ground, dry mulberry leaf or if other things are added. I also asked if they have considered selling just the leaves. I will let you know what I find out.

Interesting idea!

 

[wellington]

Just so you know I haven't forgotten. I have not heard back yet. I have tried to look up silkworm food recipes, to find the ingredient but have not had much luck. There is mulberry teas. I had been wondering what is all in those? Hmmm. Must try some more research.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

Dwarf weeping mulberry. That is what I grow and you can grow it in pot or barrel. Here is what it looks like:
https://www.google.com/search?q=dwa...gKoxYHoBA&ved=0CCwQsAQ&biw=1518&bih=563&dpr=1
Here's a vendor is St Petersburg Florida ...
http://shop.tropicalfruit.com/Dwarf-Weeping-Mulberry--3-Gallon_p_143.html
Here is a dwarf mulberry on Amazon ...
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BB8VOW/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

One of the benefits of whole leaves, fresh or dried, are the veins, or vascular tissue in the leaf. That is the vital long fiber. Powdered may or may not have all the nutrients, based on many factors, but it won't have the long fiber.

This is true with all the tree and shrub leaves. Even plantain has those veins in its leaves.

Will

 

[wellington]

I don't think they want another tree, they are growing one now. Trying to find some place that sells just the leaves. Thanks for the info though. I wouldn't mind getting another one. Although mine has lots of leaves, it isn't growing to fast, but I did just get in this spring

---

Will, would it still be worth feeding the powder if any other ingredients were tort safe?

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Feeding just the powder with what else?

Another way-to-long post from me comes now . . .

When I was a preteen I took a summer school herpetology class at the Cal Acad of Sciences in Golden gate park. The instructor talked to the audience, me and a bunch of other similar aged kids.

One lesson about how animals evolve and adapt over time to what there is in their environment and what they do it with influenced my thinking, it's still in my head today. That lesson was about the gut content of a population of aquatic salamanders. I don't recall the exact statistics but is was something like: Of 78 salamanders surveyed gut contents we found included 28% aquatic beetles, 21% aquatic snails, 15% terrestrial beetles, 26% undefined insect parts, 6% aquatic plants, and 4% small sticks.

"Small sticks", so do the salamanders wander around in their pond and eat those stick on purpose, or is it incidental to their eating the other stuff? It is incidental.

The second question is where the evolution and adaptation comes in. Salamanders have been eating small sticks for a good long time (deep time). A few may have died along the way with a perforated gut, but for the most part the food obtained has outweighed the peril of the small sticks. That actual second questions is, "do the sticks impart some benefit?" that may be a stronger signal and a good thing, more than the occasional perforated gut as a signal.

Back to tortoises.

Long fiber, defined as particles so big they are defecated as recognizable pieces of the plant consumed is a critical diet component for every tortoise, every age class, every size. To a one inch hatchling it is a different size particle than to a 400 pound Galapagos, but equally important.

Some species get this fiber from eating seedy things, most from the veins and vascular tissue from leaves, Grass leaves, shrub leaves, tree leaves etc. The lack of these things in the soft lettuce bought in grocery stores is a large part of why those greens are not an acceptable food source (but that can be remedied).

So the nutrients in the mulberry powder are no doubt a good thing, (I don't know about other additives in that particular product), but what else is being fed is part of the answer to your question.

I look at the stool of all my animals many times throughout the week. When I had fed just the chows, I did not see any of the long fiber I wanted to see. I don't use chows alone anymore.

"The tortoise Library" by Mark has the readily accessible documents that talk about what the long fiber/seeds etc. do in the gut. In short it allows the tortoise a certain "gut health" that is not available any other way.

Torotises need it, just like the benefit of the stick for the salamanders, they need something in their gut, so their gut can work properly. It is not a nutrient in the sense of a molecule that is absorbed and becomes tissue in the animal, it is a nutrient in that it make an environment in the gut where those molecules can be properly absorbed.

Simple questions and complex answers are my specialty.

Will

 

[wellington]

I like your answers. I have not found what, if any other ingredients are in the mulberry powder, still waiting for my email reply. To your question, "feeding the powder with what else"? For me , Mazuri, grocery greens, rose of Sharon flower and leaf, hibiscus, cactus, repashy, orchard hay pellets, carrots and natural grazing of grass and weeds and now a little pumpkin. I do have a few mulberry leaves from my tree I feed, just not often as it is just getting started this year. The carrots, repashy and pumpkin are not very often. In winter it is mostly grocery greens, hay pellets, cactus and repashy. So, a mulberry powder would be a welcoming addition. My leopard is very picky. So not much of one thing is eaten. He picks here and there among what is available for each day.

 

[wellington]

Okay, below is what coastal said about their Mulberry leaf silkworm food.
Any thoughts on if we should feed it to our torts or not?

Quote: Its base is mulberry powder be we have added other things to make it a stable food that will not mold right away. You can feed it to animals with no harm. We do not offer leaves because they do not stay fresh long and we simply do not have any to spare. You might find them growing around CA though you can use, just won't find the type of small trees we sell more of the full size 50'x50' trees. I do hope to have another round of trees come spring next year, they do sell out very fast.

 

[Holycow]

Hi,
Yeah, I'm not so interested in the powdered leaves. I do understand what Will is alluding to about the "long fiber" aspects of the diet and what's visible in the animals droppings. It's funny this was mentioned because it was exactly why I was looking to mulberry leaves. I notice these fibers when my aldabra eats a lot of hibiscus leaves and grape leaves. So I make them a part of every feeding. But I want to give a wider variety. I have a small amount of grape leaves, and unlimited hibiscus leaves. I cut up and soak orchard hay and it will eat large quantities, but I worry about possible dehydration issues even though it's soaked. Otherwise this animal won't touch the grasses, it prefers to browse on the weeds here and there. Most of my other torts load up on the st. augustine grass, but this one spits it out if any gets into it's mouth. Could be an age thing.. could also just be spoiled by the availability of weeds back there.
Jeff

 

[wellington]

With the other long fiber she already gets the powder mulberry might be a good thing just as another food item. Might work good for adding onto other good things she doesn't really care for like the grass.

 

[TommyZ]

Hey, just read this. Ya know, i have a huge mulberry tree outside. Fall is coming, the leaves will soon fall off. That being said, if youd like to pay for shipping, i can send ya down a whole bunch. Idk, but ive froze fresh herbs ive grown to use later. Perhaps you can freeze the mulberry leaves so they keep and feed them through the winter?... Either way, let me know. Glad to help.

Tom

Sent from my SCH-I535 using TortForum mobile app