Snake Discovery Video on Treating Lizards with Eye Infections

In this video, Emily and Ed treat a rescue water dragon and leopard gecko with eye infections. It makes a compelling point about the importance of giving lizards the proper vitamins.

Thanks for sharing!

I actually have had so many issues with rescue leos with vitamin A deficiency too. Weirdly a majority of the ones I see are albinos, so maybe just a weird coincidence? The worst was almost as bad as the leo she had.
I've seen it a few times in red ear sliders too...

Even after explaining why I wanted people to pick up vitamins while working box store, I would have so many people complaining about leos only needing calcium 9_9;
I think a lot of people are of the assumption that bugs are enough vitaminwise? No clue...

Yes yes yes PLEASE supplement vitamin A for your reptiles! Especially albinos! You would not believe how many animals with eye infections or other eyes issues come into the clinic when their condition was preventable with proper diet and husbandry. Albinos seem to either be more sensitive to light, have some weird genetic thing going on with their eyes, or both.

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Originally Posted by Animallover3541

PLEASE supplement vitamin A for your reptiles! Especially albinos!

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Isn't this overbroad? I've never heard of vitamin A supplementation for snakes.

That is indeed way overbroad. Absolutely do not add Vitamin A to the diets of rodent eating reptiles without an identified (tested) deficiency. Rodents already contain too much Vitamin A. Actually, routine supplementation of any vitamin or mineral in rodent prey diets is inadvisable without a tested deficiency. More is patently not better.

Vitamin supplementation always needs to be tailored to the needs of the species at issue, and the diet of that species.

• Some herp species should receive D3 through UVB; others do well on dietary intake of D3
• Some diets contain enough A (and/or D, and/or calcium); adding more is contraindicated
• Some species can convert carotenoids to Vitamin A; some cannot; some do but not efficiently
• Some diets require calcium supplementation; of those, some are best supplemented with calcium carbonate (insects), some with calcium phosphate (herbivores)
• and so on

All claims to the effect that 'all captive reptiles should have X added to their diet' are incorrect, not based in fact, and dangerous.

Specific to the Vitamin A issue: back in the 80s, lots of turtles were incorrectly dosed with Vitamin A, leading to losses, which led to a bandwagon jumping movement (these still happen, with the same predictable effects) to use only beta carotene for Vitamin A in herps, which led to (and still leads to, with legacy supplement products) losses in species (amphibians are the ones I'm familiar with) that can't convert carotenoids.

Because rodents are such a handy package, it tends to be a non-issue in snakes.
(Though I remember something about skin slipping disease possibly being a genetic vitamin absorption issue?) And probably not as big an issue in other species eating rodents.

The downside is there are many animals that are not getting enough vitamin a or sometimes d and that can lead to the eye problems seen in the 2 lizards shown in the video link.

I personally I have dealt with 8 leopard geckos with vitamin A related eye issues... 6 of which were albinos. this is over the period of years where only 2 of the rescues I took in were MBD/calcium deficient. Everyone says to calcium dust crix. A fraction of that will use a multivitamin.

The turtles I would see were all through the box shop I worked. So they would head to the vet, get a few injections and terramycin tubes to give and right as rain in a few weeks. But again, vitamin supplement was needed.

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Originally Posted by Malum Argenteum

That is indeed way overbroad. Absolutely do not add Vitamin A to the diets of rodent eating reptiles without an identified (tested) deficiency. Rodents already contain too much Vitamin A. Actually, routine supplementation of any vitamin or mineral in rodent prey diets is inadvisable without a tested deficiency. More is patently not better.

Vitamin supplementation always needs to be tailored to the needs of the species at issue, and the diet of that species.

• Some herp species should receive D3 through UVB; others do well on dietary intake of D3
• Some diets contain enough A (and/or D, and/or calcium); adding more is contraindicated
• Some species can convert carotenoids to Vitamin A; some cannot; some do but not efficiently
• Some diets require calcium supplementation; of those, some are best supplemented with calcium carbonate (insects), some with calcium phosphate (herbivores)
• and so on

All claims to the effect that 'all captive reptiles should have X added to their diet' are incorrect, not based in fact, and dangerous.

Specific to the Vitamin A issue: back in the 80s, lots of turtles were incorrectly dosed with Vitamin A, leading to losses, which led to a bandwagon jumping movement (these still happen, with the same predictable effects) to use only beta carotene for Vitamin A in herps, which led to (and still leads to, with legacy supplement products) losses in species (amphibians are the ones I'm familiar with) that can't convert carotenoids.

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Thanks for the clarification and expounding on it!

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Originally Posted by Homebody

Isn't this overbroad? I've never heard of vitamin A supplementation for snakes.

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Thank you for the correction and clarification!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Malum Argenteum

That is indeed way overbroad. Absolutely do not add Vitamin A to the diets of rodent eating reptiles without an identified (tested) deficiency. Rodents already contain too much Vitamin A. Actually, routine supplementation of any vitamin or mineral in rodent prey diets is inadvisable without a tested deficiency. More is patently not better.

Vitamin supplementation always needs to be tailored to the needs of the species at issue, and the diet of that species.

• Some herp species should receive D3 through UVB; others do well on dietary intake of D3
• Some diets contain enough A (and/or D, and/or calcium); adding more is contraindicated
• Some species can convert carotenoids to Vitamin A; some cannot; some do but not efficiently
• Some diets require calcium supplementation; of those, some are best supplemented with calcium carbonate (insects), some with calcium phosphate (herbivores)
• and so on

All claims to the effect that 'all captive reptiles should have X added to their diet' are incorrect, not based in fact, and dangerous.

Specific to the Vitamin A issue: back in the 80s, lots of turtles were incorrectly dosed with Vitamin A, leading to losses, which led to a bandwagon jumping movement (these still happen, with the same predictable effects) to use only beta carotene for Vitamin A in herps, which led to (and still leads to, with legacy supplement products) losses in species (amphibians are the ones I'm familiar with) that can't convert carotenoids.

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I didn't mean supplement snakes, I meant Chelonians and lizards. Unfortunately, there are limited studies regarding reptile nutrition so the specifics of each species are not well know. Personally, I feel that a 3:1 ratio of calcium dusting to vitamin mix on gut loaded feeders is enough for the majority of reptiles, although as I said albinos can sometimes need more.

Always talk to your vet if you think you have a dietary issue. I've rarely seen hypervitaminosis, although I saw a beardie the other day that was having D3 added to their diet as well as having UVB which was obviously a problem. Again, I did not mean to suggest that snakes need added vitamins, I was referring to lizards and chelonians. Many people skip on gut loading or dusting which are the two main issues. If both steps are taken then the animals should be fine. Sometimes with aquatic turtles it can be harder because dusting on veggies and insects comes off in the water, so you have to be very careful about choosing the right pellet brand and vegetables to give them.