Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone:

I have a question regarding something I recently read about vitamin deficiency and injecting rats with a vitamin supplement for a skin problem involved dryness and drying up. It was a thread a bit lower in which a owner was having a problem with skin falling off and other same conditions listed above. I found it rather interesting that a possible cure to the dry skin might be vitamin supplements.

1. I was wondering who has done this before for there boas?

2. What type of vitamins (list name brand or medical term)?

3. Are they simple pill form that can be put into a frozen thawed rat, or injection form (need a needle) type?

4. What dosage is required yet safe?

5. Any other precautions needed while using this type of treatment?

I appreciate all your help with this information, to better understand boas and medicational situation.

I was the one that mentioned it in the other thread so I guess I should respond here as well. LOL
The vitamin that we use is Nekton-Rep. (google it you will find it). It is made for reptiles and amphibians. It is a powder that is water soluble, so we mix it in water and inject some into the F/T rat right before feeding.
As far as dosage I do not use all that much. It comes with a little scoop and I mix that with 20 to 30 cc’s of water and how much I inject in the rat depends on who is getting it, how big they are, and what they are getting it for. The snake with the dry skin got 2 to 3 cc’s every other week for 2 months and now only gets it every couple months. He was a couple of pounds at the time.
I also give it to gravid females. I figured they made me take supplements when I was pregnant, it would only figure a gravid female snake could use a few extra vitamins as well. The gravid girls get it twice during their pregnancy. As far as the rest of the collection they get a pumped up rat twice a year.
One of the reasons I think it is a good idea is, we feed the same type of prey (rats), that has been fed the same type of feed, feeding after feeding, year after year. In the wild they would be eating a variety of different prey, and that prey would be feeding on a variety of different things. Soooo…. I think that there might be holes in their nutrition that we may be unaware of.
I think that if you choose to use supplements that it should be done sparingly, as boas do not have a fast metabolism like other reptiles (lizards or iguanas) or birds or mammals, and the chances of doing more harm than good are there, if you were to go overboard with it.

Kathy

I have seen it happen with people with essential fatty acids AKA Vitamin F.
Caden