Snake Discovery Video on Treating Lizards with Eye Infections

[Animallover3541]

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.

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.