Nutritional information from Calum – all things scales and shells!
Happy new year from all at Apex vets! We are all looking to go on diets and change our eating habits, in keeping with that we will release a series of informative posts about nutrition for our exotic pets.
To start off with we will look at our scaled and shelled pets and what feeding options we have and what supplements they might require. Book an apppointment with one of our exotic vets if you have concerns about your exotic pets here.
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Herbivores
First up are the herbivores. These animals will eat only vegetables and fruit and graze on fibre such as grass or hay. Most herbivorous reptiles are tortoises so we will focus on them but some interesting Lizards that are herbivores are some Iguana species.
For tortoises there is some debate on how much to feed them. There is no hard fast rule for feeding in captivity, some tortoise keepers will feed an amount of food that is big enough to cover the tortoise's shell, others will feed enough that the tortoise will be able to eat in 20 minutes. The best way to measure how much to feed is to go off the growth rate of your tortoise. For mediterranean species, the average growth rate is around 1-3g a month, if your tortoise is not gaining this amount then consider adjusting the amount being fed. For some of the larger species of tortoise the growth rate can vary at different stages of their life so the 1-3g per month guideline may not be ideal.
So now we have an idea how much to feed, what should we feed our herbivore? For most tortoises being able to graze outside is perfect, unfortunately in Scotland that is not always possible. Instead picking weeds and certain flowering plants from outside to feed your tortoise can be beneficial. If you have a grazing species of tortoise, such as a Sulcata, Leopard, Indian star or Aldabra, then providing mainly mixed grasses and hay (about 70-80% of the diet) and the rest of the diet can be made up of flowering plants and weeds.
Fruit can be given on occasion, but many contain high amounts of sugar, this can cause a change in the gut flora causing loose stools and increase a parasite burden.
Salad is routinely fed to tortoises and while this is sometimes necessary when weeds and plants are not available over winter, they are not the best in terms of nutritional value so should ideally not be fed all that often.
Omnivores
Next, we have omnivores, these reptiles enjoy a mix of veg and either insect or other meat protein sources. Lizards such as Bearded Dragons and Chinese Water Dragons are omnivores. There are also two species of tortoises that enjoy animal protein, these are the red and yellow footed tortoises.
As your omnivorous reptile ages, you will need to change the proportion of veg to protein that is fed. Generally, in hatchlings you will want to feed protein sources 2x a day with daily veg. Then as they age you will want to decrease the amount of protein given and continue with daily vegetables.
For their protein source, most reptiles will eat insects. We will cover this in more detail below in the carnivore's section.
Female reptiles will require slightly more protein to help keep them strong and healthy for egg laying. Be careful with how much protein you give as this can lead to obesity and clinical diseases such as gout.
Carnivores
Carnivores are animals that eat other animals as a food source. In reptiles this can be snakes that eat rodents or lizards such as geckos that are insectivores meaning they eat insects exclusively.
For the insectivores there is a variety of food that can be given, and each has their own nutritional value and importantly, varying calcium to phosphorus ratios. Different types of feed would be locusts, crickets, wax worms, mealworms and dubia roaches. For reptiles that are fed insects it is also important to make sure you are giving high quality food as this will impact your pet's overall health. Gut loading is highly recommended for all insects. Gut loading means that the food you are offering is well fed and healthy, and you can fill it with the vitamins and minerals that your reptile needs. The purpose of gut loading is to get a positive calcium to phosphorus ratio. A very recent study published in the Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery by E. Barras et al found that dubia roaches that were gut loaded with a commercial gut-loading diet for 12, 24 and 48 hours had a positive calcium to phosphorus ratio compared to the control group which had a very poor inverse calcium to phosphorus ratio. As well as gut loading you can also dust your feeder insects with calcium and multivitamins to ensure your insectivore gets everything they need.
For carnivores, or reptiles that primarily eat mammals, they shouldn't require anything additional such as minerals or vitamins as their diet consists of rodents specifically reared for feeding snakes and as such, they are fed a good quality diet giving them all the nutrition they require. The food generally always comes frozen so needs to be defrosted before being fed to your snake, this can be done by allowing them to thaw overnight at room temperature. Because snakes use heat to detect their prey, gently warming the already thawed meal in warm water can help them to locate and strike at their prey. Deciding on the size and type of prey can be challenging, generally most snakes can take up to 1.5 times the size of the widest part of their body. Frequency of feeding will also change based on the age of the animal, as well as the size of prey given. If you are unsure on what type of prey to feed your snake, get in touch with one of our exotic vets at Apex and we can help you make the best decision for your pet. There is also an increased usage of minced prey that is provided in sausage or gel form, these can often be higher in calories so the time between feedings is often increased.
Thanks for taking the time to read this post and hopefully you have learned something on feeding of reptiles that can help your own pets at home. If you have any questions then please get in touch with one of our exotic vets to tailor a diet plan for your pet reptiles.
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