I have been on a treat hunt for my sugar gliders. For the most part, I’ve used raisins/fresh fruit as occasional treats. But raisins aren’t the best for them, so I have been looking for healthier alternatives. I’ve also been doing research about HLP (you can see my post here) and how to prevent that. My search for high calcium, low phosphorus foods led me straight to the papaya.
Papaya has a 1:0.2 ratio, so it is super good when it comes to low phosphorus foods. They are medium-ish when it comes to sugar content (11 grams per cup) and since I’m trying to avoid super high sugar fruits, papaya isn’t too bad.
When it comes to health benefits for humans, papaya is awesome. They are GREAT sources of vitamin C and will help boost your immune system (especially important during this day and age). They also a good source of folate, vitamin A, magnesium, copper, pantothenic acid and fiber. Papaya seeds can be eaten and they taste like pepper actually (for one of the diets we went on, we couldn’t have pepper, so we substituted it by using papaya seeds XD). Papayas aid digestion, are great for skin and eyes, and has a unique flavor.
So there, I’m done with my glorying over this amazing fruit. XD Moving on….😂
We bought a big papaya at Costco and waited a few days for it to ripen nicely. Then I was faced with a question: what am I supposed to do with this giant fruit? My gliders are tiny and it will take them forever to eat this entire thing since I’m using it as occasional treats and not their main source of food. I was going to cut most of it up and freeze it. (You seriously have to see our freezer. It has so much glider-related stuff in there – four batches of TPG, a huge thing of pumpkin purée, extra eucalyptus leaves, calcium fortified orange juice, etc. XD)
I ended up deciding to freeze half of it and then attempt to dehydrate the other half. We have a Ninja Foodi that has a dehydrate setting. I looked up a bunch of different ways to dehydrate fruit in the oven ’cause I like using things that I’m comfortable with (aka the oven). I ended up using the Foodi, though. AND IT WORKED AMAZINGLY WELL. It was so easy! XD
This is journey of dehydrating papaya. *nods* Enjoy!👍😁
First I washed the papaya, peeled it and removed any bad spots.
Next I cut it open and removed the seeds.
Then sliced it up nice and thin. I should have cut it length wise so that it didn’t fall through the cracks of the dehydrator.😕
And in de dehydrator!
We kept it in the Foodi for a little over eight hours, I believe. Then it came out nice and crispy! There were a few pieces that were still pretty moist, but on the whole it was all dehydrated and nice!
And that’s all! Have an awesome day, my friends!
~Hattush
Have you ever dehydrated fruit before? What are your favorite types of fruit?
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