should i cook the ground turkey for my savanna or not?

[piercedsilence18]

i mean he eats it fine raw but im just worried about all th crap raw meat has. i know the eat rotting carcasses in the wild and that has to have a ton of crap in it. also what about dog food. a friend f mine that has a ton of savannas told me to feed it like this:
canned dog food or grond turkey
crickets
mice (every day or two)
and meal worms
all packed together in a crock dish or bowl or somehting

the every once and a while give them fish or grass hopers or hissers or whatever. what do you guys think?
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[Ed_r]

I stay well away from dog and cat food. Doesnt have the nutrients a Savannah needs and also has allot of fat in it. Savannahs get fat enough. I would be careful with crickets. i was giving my Savannah Crickets and it was all good till it started really chasing them and next thing I know it was bleeding from the outside of the mouth from bashing into the sides of the cage.
I alternate my Savannas food.
Super worms
Mice
fish on occasion ( not too offen) leads to very runny poop
Scrambled eggs(with the shell mixed in)
When the savannah gets to be adult size you can give them a whole boiled egg or 2.
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[Kohm]

it's true that raw meat can be quite unsafe, but usually, with all the health checks that meat has to pass to be sold commercially, if you store it properly, there shouldn't be anything wrong with it. That is of course, provided that you are getting it off the shelf, and not direct from some turkey breeder, in which case, how reliable your supplier is, I can't say.

What sort of "crap" do you mean?

If you're thinking about bacteria and stuff, if you keep the meat properly frozen like any other meat you eat, chances are, it will be quite safe. Besides, their digestive system certainly has a much better ability to stomach and handle the bacteria that may exist in meat from decomposition.

If it comes to viruses or growth-chemicals they inject into livestock, you won't be able to do anything more for your sav than yourself. Birds, especially, have a lot of growth hormones injected in them so they grow faster and bigger, for better sales. For that reason, I don't take chicken very well myself, but it's unlikely that your sav will have any problems.

Technically, there shouldn't be anything wrong with cooking the meat, except that some vital nutrients and stuff may be lost in the process. And you'll have to cook it simply, like just boil it. No oil, salt, or whatever. besides, there's no guarantee that your sav will like it. Chances are, it has lost it's flavour and smell, so it may not really like it very much. It doesn't matter, considering that they can take rotting meat, I think it isn't really worthwhile, for any reason, to cook meat.

Dog or cat food is fine as a very occassional treat, but certainly not as a staple like meat. Mammals, like us, need more energy because we metabolise it for heat, and fat has the most calories, so pet food is really loaded with it, way too much for any cold-blooded reptile.

Insects are good protein, but you'll probably have a problem like Ed, so you could rip off the legs and head of crickets to keep them from jumping around, or use larvae instead (mealwroms, etc.).

Hope this helps!
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[eddie]

Hmmm.... The majority of the care sheets for moniters recommend boiling meats and fowls before feeding them. Not completly cooked but enough to keep the meats etc from becoming rancid in the stomaches.
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