Prickly Cactus Pear fruit

Warren

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Have a guestion on how many and how often can I feed my 23 pound Sucata prickly pear fruit. I was reading another post on this forum that showed s Sucata eating a prickly pear fruit, so I gave him one. He loved it, but him eating the seeds scares me. He likes the pads and how can I preserve some fruit for the winter. My neighbors Cactus has a lot of fruit on them, she told me to take them all for my Tortoise. I collected 87 pics. Of fruit, clean all the thorns
 

Warren

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Sorry, hit post by accident. Her are some pictures. 20201206_135430.jpg20201206_135430.jpg20201206_135130.jpg
 

Len B

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The seeds wont bother him, he will just pass them. I usually just pick a couple days worth of feeding until we start getting hard freezing temperatures. Then I pick more at one time and store them where they wont freeze and have good air circulation. They last quite a while in a refrigerator too. As for how much to feed I've never had a sulcata over eat them. at first they will eat a large amount and then will slow down on the number eaten. Where we live ripe fruit is usually a seasonal treat unless the winter is as mild as last years. I still had ripe fruit on some plants into springtime.
 

Warren

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The seeds wont bother him, he will just pass them. I usually just pick a couple days worth of feeding until we start getting hard freezing temperatures. Then I pick more at one time and store them where they wont freeze and have good air circulation. They last quite a while in a refrigerator too. As for how much to feed I've never had a sulcata over eat them. at first they will eat a large amount and then will slow down on the number eaten. Where we live ripe fruit is usually a seasonal treat unless the winter is as mild as last years. I still had ripe fruit on some plants into springtime.
Thank you for that information, the reason I picked them all is that is was going down below freezing. I have them in the refrigerator.
 

Tom

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I have two five gallon buckets of them right now. No need to remove the spines or do anything to them.

I dump some on their feeding trays a couple of times a week, but they are seasonal. I use them up and then don't have any for months.
 

Warren

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I have two five gallon buckets of them right now. No need to remove the spines or do anything to them.

I dump some on their feeding trays a couple of times a week, but they are seasonal. I use them up and then don't have any for months.
Thank you, but I clean them up yesterday and put them in the refrigerator, this morning I'm still picking thorns out of my hands and arms.
 

Maro2Bear

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Thank you, but I clean them up yesterday and put them in the refrigerator, this morning I'm still picking thorns out of my hands and arms.

Yeah, you definitely don’t need to do any cleaning of the fruit. I give our Sully two or three a week. She’s at the 100lb marker. Loves them.

Pretty nice that your neighbor has them (and now you do)!

Use them for urself too - https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/254409/prickly-pear-jelly/
 

Warren

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Yeah, you definitely don’t need to do any cleaning of the fruit. I give our Sully two or three a week. She’s at the 100lb marker. Loves them.

Pretty nice that your neighbor has them (and now you do)!

Use them for urself too - https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/254409/prickly-pear-jelly/
My neighbor gave me a few pads that I planted a couple of years ago and this past summer I had 1 flower on my cactus. Hopefully next year I will have more.
 

Tom

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Thank you, but I clean them up yesterday and put them in the refrigerator, this morning I'm still picking thorns out of my hands and arms.
Oh yeah. Don't touch them! I hack the off with a long bladed machete and then use little rakes and things to pick them up. I still get glochids in my socks! I have thick rubber gloves for them too, but then I get glochids on my forearms above the gloves. I don't know how the tortoises eat them without problems, but they sure do.
 

Len B

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Thank you, but I clean them up yesterday and put them in the refrigerator, this morning I'm still picking thorns out of my hands and arms.
I use hot dog tongs to pick the fruit and then put them in a nursery pot and shake them around and poof the spines are gone and the fruit is still in good shape. I use the same tongs to remove pads and then holding the pad with the tongs I scrape the spines off the cut end (using my trusty snapon pocket knife) enough to handle the pad safely and avoid the spines while handling it. I have way more fruit and pads than I can feed off. Took these today.Picture 001 copy.jpgPicture 007.jpg
 
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