So I live in a town with an extremely high asian population (my town has multiple universities and is almost entirely focused on engineering, computer science, and mathematics). I also do not drive. As a result I have a really hard time finding the recommended staple greens. I currently feed my 6 month beardie mixed greens salads (which i can only find on occasion - once every 2 sometimes 3 weeks), carrots (which she absolutely loves), and am introducing bok choy. I've tried bean sprouts but that was a no no, not only would the beardie refuse to eat it but even crickets refused to eat it (which I thought was pretty much impossible). The main issue I find is that most of the veggies available aren't found in normal grocery stores (basically every grocery store where I live would be a specialty Asian supermarket elsewhere).
Does anyone have any suggestions for some Asian veggies that I can introduce or even make a staple in my little girl's diet?
What about squash - any types of squash ? There is got to be something over there that she can eat as a staple - do you have the nutrition website link ? Its on this board at the top --
Karrie
Oh great --- well someone else will haft to help on this one -- maybe Ellen shes an entomologist- I would PM her ellentomologist is her user name ---
Karrie
There are plenty of Asian veggies (& greens); I think the question is, which ones are/are not calcium binders. As I understand it (Anyone please correct me if I'm misinformed!) the calcium-binding culprits are oxalates. Quite a bit turns up Googling: asian vegetables oxalates but one may have to work backward from the tables/statistics to find those leafy greens with the lowest levels (%) of oxalates. I might start by comparing levels to things we know are safe/good for BDs.
I would focus on variety based on what you have available. Offer as much as you can and see what she likes. If you can land on a few favorites then I'd use those as staples, then rotate in/out some others based on availability so you're always offering (at least) 2-3 items in each salad and rotating what is offered. That will help provide a balanced diet with needed nutrients. Just do the best you can with whats available to you.
I'm glad you brought this up. I have a large Korean and Chinese community in my area and there are a bunch of exotic (to me) greens that I'd love to have them try except that I can't tell whether they'd be good, so-so, or bad for my beardies.