The price of dried weeds!
 

Shopping for some nutrobal I notice the reptile centre was selling dried weeds. For a bag smaller than a bag of sugar £2.99!

I am thinking of setting up in business.

I agree, they know how to charge!:)
Having dried my own this year i am definitely going to do even more next year so that i use the times when there is a glut. My two really prefer the homemade stuff although even then they can be fussy, they like laveretera, viola and mallow, dandelion and clover but not so keen on plantain and dead nettle. As i have overwintered this year i think i will run out before the spring and if we hadn't had such mild weather i would have used alot more so next year will start drying earlier to get more done whilst it is available:):):):)

I suppose by the time the supplier has grown the plants then must have the means of drying in bulk the cost must be less than the selling price. If they don't plant and grow they'd never find enough so you have to add on the seed price and the length of time to harvest I don't know how its commercially dried but it must involve power and they have to make a profit plus cover costs so its not to bad if you look at lit like that. I've seen small bags of shavings sold at about half the price of a bale and think how many bags of loose you'll get from a bale now that is a big profit along with a small bag of limestone flour that only costs a few pounds for a big container/tub from a horse feed shop. Readi grass is the same being under a tenner for a bale which will keep well and for ages in dry place yet people pay a few pounds for a small bag wheres the sense in that.

Ah yes I can see why they cost so much. I had not thought they would be growing them. I have so many it took me minutes before Christmas to pick them for drying. ~Unfortunately now my 2 are out of hibernation they are not at all interested in dried weeds, even dandelion flowers, their favourite fresh flower. I feel like a mum whose children determine what they will eat or not! It is not easy when you want to see them eat after weeks of nothing. Thank goodness for the mild winter.

It's all a huge cost, some plants, nettle and dandelion are mass produced and as such more affordable but others are, like hibiscus and other flowers and petals are very expensive indeed.

In our case we use as many UK or EU grown species as possible and all human consumption grade, many certified organic. We use 20+ species of plant plus broad spectrum and naturally mined mineral clay! Ca, VERY expensive organically grown Carotenoids, organic Bee Pollen, Pre and Pro-biotics.

It all has to be sourced, bought, unpacked, mixed in a clean lab, graded, re-packed, labelled, sent across the country, unpacked, stored, re-packed, sent to a shop and sold.....

Please also include the prohibitive costs of packaging and labels which make up at least 20% of the product cost and you start to see why.

Having said that, we do not make single or double ingredient mixes, we have as I have shown a vast array of helpful ingredients that are hard to find instore which raises cost. If we had a single or twin plant and no additional compound mix it would be VERY much cheaper indeed.

Our mix being either HerbiMix or DragonFuel is a large foil pouch of 125grams. For a single animal this is enough as a supplementary addition to the usual food or treat which will last 10-14 days feeding.

Hope this helps to explain these things

John

Hi John,
Thanks for clarifying that - however I would class your product entirely differently to some of the dried weeds you can buy. Yours is able to replace other supplements and gives a huge variety of ingredients and benefits and i will certainly be buying some and feel it is very good value for money. On the hand we have the bags of single dried weeds such as dandelion/plantain etc which can generally be found in abundance and easily dried at home but is still sold at quite a price online, I guess it is choice and when i first got my tortoise i did buy a selection of dried mixes all of which were outright refused but my homemade ones are wolfed down so i now know better than to buy them:):):)

No problem,

I feel it is important that we can all see the differences between as you say single or double plant mixes and those including mine that has many hard to find items and years of R&D

I hope yours eats HerbiMix well, it would be the first that didn't :-) thank goodness :-)

John,

Thank you for the discussion on this. I started off by being shocked at the price and have now learnt so much. Not least the different standards.

John, it is good you are on the forum, there is so much being sold out there that is not of the high standard.

Lucky me - have loads of weeds. Just need to get my 2 to start enjoying them.

vikki do you set a time limit on when they are eaten by. I think im useless cause they get to the limp stage and im waiting forever to get crispy and losing interest after a day or two of limp ! aaargh.

With Arcadia you get what you pay for too. wouldn't trust another make as too many sharp practices out there. CB

Perhaps put them in a very low oven? I put them in the bottom of my Rayburn but did find different weeds dried out at different times, so made sure I put in groups. Dandelion flowers seemed to take ages.
Jan