Trout mixture

[anji1971]

I used a trout filet that weighed in at 0.384kg (a bit under a pound) and I added 100mg of B1 and 2tsp. of RepCal.
I don't know how much fish Alan started with, as I've not seen the original recipe, but it makes sense that you'd have to adjust according to the quantity.
*my jar of RepCal gives specific amounts to use per pound of food*

[drache]

*my jar of RepCal gives specific amounts to use per pound of food*

that's good to know
Alan Francis uses 4 trout at approximately 8oz each for his recipe - just went to look
heck - here it is
Alan's Garter Snakes - Maintenance of Garter Snakes
real easy to cut that recipe in half

[Lori P]

Anji, this is toooo cool! Your snakes took to it so well. Wow, I'm going to have to get motivated one day and try this too!!!

[anji1971]

Well, half of them have taken to it so far. The others I'm still waiting on, and hoping for the same results.
The ones who like it don't seem to be able to get enough. They keep eating, and eating, and eating, and..........

[Spankenstyne]

Well I made a batch and what a mess I made with the cake gun haha. The rest was easy but making it into worm shapes will take some time & prectice. I'll use a bigger bag next time.

I thought I had liquified it well but the odd small vertebra hiding in the mix would clog the gun up and I'd get liquid trout gushing back out the top of the bag while I squeezed. Combine that with a bit of panic worrying about it all turning to jelly before I could finish and it was a sight.

I also put it straight into the freezer to gel, I think next time I may try and put it in the fridge first to jell-o up rather than just freezing and then bagging. Takes a lot of space if you go the round shape way, I had it spread out on wax papered cookie sheets.

Any tips would be great. I see that salmon & tilapia work as well, any other common store bought fish I can use?

[anji1971]

I found squeezing it out of the bag to be the hardest part as well!
My hands were killing me when I was done, but I think I may have overfilled the bag. Next time I'll break it down into smaller portions before squeezing.

[Spankenstyne]

Well the small albino checkered ate a ton of it, the slightly larger checkered didn't seem interested at all the first go around.

[anji1971]

Well, that's a good start!
Only half of my six ate at first, but they've slowly come around. Even Chili, in the middle of a shed, ditched the worms-only diet and ate some last night.
Just little Sweetpea left to go............

[crzy_kevo]

thats good news i think i spoke too soon though when i said i needed more geletin i think it did just need more time to set because it seem to hold together very well now but as for cutting when frozen i find that very hard to do its like trying to cut a block of ice so im letting it thaw a little so i can cut it up into pieces then thaw as needed im going to try and leave a few larger pieces for the big girls in case they come around and want to eat it and maybe leave a piece sitting in the mouse tank for a little bit to let it pick up some scent in case that will intice them a little more

[anji1971]

Mine doesn't freeze extremely hard, I can cut mine up right out of the freezer.
(Maybe I added too much gelatin?)
But I'm sure if you thaw it for just a few minutes, you'll be able to cut it easily enough. Good kitchen scissors work very well.
I found they didn't all take to it immediately, but slowly they're coming 'round and I've got only one left to try it.