BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Exotic Pets Goji Berry for Exotic pets - Your Thoughts?

I was looking through my seed catalog ordering for spring. There is a new 2012 item called a Goji Berry. You can eat the fruit and the leaves. The leaves can also be made into a tea. It is one of the highest fruits for antioxidant value, and loaded with vitamins and amino acids. I am thinking about ordering a couple of these vines. Has anyone heard anything about the Goji? I am always on the lookout for healthy foods I can grow for my omnivorous or herbivore pets.
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The Goji has 19 amino acids and is one of the most nutritionally dense fruits on the planet. The berry has more v-c than an orange. The vine can grow to be around nine feet. One good point, they are self fertile. Anybody know what they taste like?

According to the Four Season's Nursery catalog they are suppose to taste like a blend of raspberries, cranberries and strawberries. Sounds good to me

I am curious though, George brought up the amino acids. I wonder if they are the right one's to make a complete protein? Very high in Vitamin A. Something else I found, they can interact with people who take blood thinners.

I did find this 18 in total including the 8 essential amino acids, making it one of the amino acid richest foods in the world. One is Leucine which helps with muscle repair and lower blood sugar. There is up to 500 times the Vitamin C than in an orange. Where did you find the seeds?

I have looked at several websites that sell the goji as supplements or dried berries. I prefer to grow them fresh. Extremely healthy. Plus the eating the leaves part is pretty intriguing too. I did run into one concern. If you are on a blood thinner like Warfarin or Coumadin the Goji berry can thin your blood even more. Just the opposite of eating foods with Vitamin K which causes your blood to thicken. Either way, talk to your doc before deciding to use these berries in any form. Just a little information I thought I'd pass on.

I differently intend on using them in moderation with some of my fruit/veggie eating pets (either herbivores or omnivores). Very healthy for them. Here is one animal or exotic pet that many benefit from the goji berry. How to care for the domestic pet skunk

As long as the leaves are edible and you can also make tea out of them I wonder how you could preserve the leaves before winter sets in without losing a bunch of nutritional value? Any ideas?

Thanks for telling me about these berries. They sound tasty and healthy. I haven't seen them in my seed catalog. Which one did you find it in?

Four Seasons is where I found the plants. It is on the page new for 2012 section.

Goji Berries

I found them.

That is the correct link. The shipping is a bit expensive. I just ordered two plants and the shipping was $9.49. Do they have gold carrier pigeons? Hmm a topic!