Reptile & Amphibian Forums

"You may want to consider not using dry dog food or dry cat food, unless you use a very very high quality food there's all sorts of nasty stuff in it. Such as BHA/BHT preservatives, these are banned in some countries and not really consider human safe here. I have no idea what the long term use in reptiles would be but studies have shown liver and kidney problems in test animals.
Also some homemade insect food recipes call for dry pet food, considering that it would be eaten by worms or crickets over time, building up in it's body, the amount later ingested by the reptile might be rather high.

"Try a quick search for BHA and BHT yourself.

"(Sidenote to dog and cat owners, those two preservatives are also considered "cheap"preservatives, yet brands like Science Diet use them.)"

Are you suggesting these preservatives are worse for turtles than dogs?

I just checked the ingredients listed in the food I use (bought for my parents' dog), ProPack, and neither BHA nor BHT are there.

If you consider the fact that feeding it to worms and crickets over several weeks could cause it to build up in the insects bodies, it's definitely not good.
And no, I'm not suggesting at all that it's ok for dogs and cats. The studies for side effects were in mice, rats, and probably cats and dogs. So there's no telling if long term use can cause problems in turtles too, but is it worth the risk knowing that it does cause problems in the animals tested?

Ah yes, the preservative wars! I'm intimately familiar with this business on the human side.

Check your packs of chewing gum. Many brands contain BHT.

Wings is right. Over time, chemicals that can't be processed by the body or that mimic natural elements in the body "bio-accumulate" up the food chain. Read up on DDT or pelagic Mercury for in depth studies of bioaccumulation.

This is one reason why it's a great idea to breed your own feeders and raise them on veggies and fruits instead of the commercial stuff. It can be difficult to provide protein, but most insects don't require huge amounts of protein.

>>Ah yes, the preservative wars! I'm intimately familiar with this business on the human side.

hee hee yeah I've been in this war before myself so decided to stay out of it.
All I can say is I do know that with no preservative at all we run the risk of foods becoming rancid. A rancid dog food is dangerous too.
However I do buy organics as much as I can for the critters.
I sometimes make homemade turtle food & I do pick weeds growing in my yard to use in them rather than buying produce at the store. My sulcata's lawn is organic.
And I buy organic foods for the humans here as much as I can too because organics taste better.
Reading labels is always a good thing to do.
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PHRatz

Another fun preservative! It is used in turtle and pets foods, again can cause liver and kidney damage.

http://www.altpetdoc.com/food.htm

thats one I am familiar with, use to be in most bird pellets until people started realizing it was killing their birds, literally.

>>thats one I am familiar with, use to be in most bird pellets until people started realizing it was killing their birds, literally.

Part of my reason for getting the bird we caught onto Harrison's. She gets only organic veggies in her cup of fresh foods.
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PHRatz