Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was just curious if a reptile can recover from MBD and still grow to its full (potential) size????
any info on MBD would be appreciated.

If caught in time MBD can usually be reversed, therefore the reptile can still grow to it's full potential.

It's been a long time since I've read up on MBD but I believe that even though the reptile may have some obvious damage from MBD it still might be able to reach full potential size but may have some physical impairments, such as limited mobility in it's hind legs.

Sometimes functions are affected, sometimes functions & growth are affected. But I believe that if there aren't any lingering, visible, signs after treatment the animal can live a long, healthy, normal, life.

I don't have any links to where I got my info from years ago but if you'll do a search on Google for - "MBD in reptiles" OR "metabolic bone disease in reptiles" you should find plenty of good info.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

I sort of disagree with you on this.

First off, MBD is caused by very poor husbandry. And poor husbandry without question will not allow a monitor to reach its potential(whatever your talking about here, reproductice, size, etc)

So you cure the MDB, but that does not mean, you all of a sudden have good or superior husbandry. In fact, to cure MBD, you only have to meet the bare minimum of husbandry standards. Which is clearly a long long way from allowing full potential.

With that aside, I would like to hear from anyone whos had a monitor suffer MBD and then continue to a productive life.

I have only had a few causes in the thousands of monitors I have had. But I did manage to raise one up and have her produce a few good clutches. But sadly, she was never right.

Again, I would love to hear of others successes and failures.

I get the feeling that vets call it a cure if the animal lives. Not if the animals fills its potential(in any way). Such as growing to full size, or achieving normal reproduction.

To muck it up even more. I think its very very very rare for any monitor to REACH ITS FULL POTENTIAL in captivity, even with the best of keepers. Our husbandry is simply not very good. Cheers

> > > I sort of disagree with you on this.

I sort of agree with your sort of disagreement. Haha!

I think you're dead right about the various factors, and believe it or not, I thought of them while writing my first reply. I think it's good that you pointed those things out as many people need to realize those things.

Most cases we see here are more than a simple, single, cause and effect. Probably at least 9 out of 10 times it's a domino effect of causes & effects.

I'm a lot like you in the way you, we, reply to posts. I think we both have a tendency to try to cover all aspects & possibilities, which is good. While on my recent self-imposed "time out" I thought about how most of my replies end up being the equivalent of chapters in books so I've been trying to stick to the main question and not get too involved with so many details. It ain't easy holdin' this ol' mule back, though.

Not to take anything away from what you said I'll try to explain my reply compared to what you said.

The original question was "if a reptile can recover from MBD and still grow to its full (potential) size????"

That's why I used the words "reptile" and "animal" instead of "monitor" in my reply. I realize this is the monitor forum but before I made my first reply I wondered about the use of the word "reptile" in the question. So my reply falls under the huge umbrella of any one of the many reptiles.

In essence, I suspected a lil' bit of word play, so I played along those lines. But to be able to give an accurate answer the question does need to be more specific.

My first thought was that maybe this person was referring to a bearded dragon but knew that some of us here have some commonsense and various reptile experience and figured they'd ask their question here rather than some other place to get a sensible answer. I think you know what I mean.

As far as reaching full (potential) size in captivity I think I understand where you're coming from as most monitors probably don't due to poor husbandry, conditions.

As far as a good keeper NOT being able to raise them to full size in captivity versus in the wild, I don't know. It's an interesting thought. I would imagine that a good keeper would be able to raise them to larger size than they can reach in the wild due to the abundance of food and protected from the elements, hunters (human or animal), etc... But I could be wrong. Like I said, I don't know. I'm not aware of record lengths, whether they're of animals in the wild or captivity.

To sum it all up, you made a nice addition (or correction) to my post. One that should be heard & well considered.

Take a look at the length of this post. Ha! That's why I chose to stick to the guts of the question. I can easily get going, and keep goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', and goin', etc... Ha! Ha! You asked fer it!

Catch ya later!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Hi Frank,
When my first male flavie died he showed signs of having MBD according to the vets interpretations of the necropsy. He had some malformities on the vetebrae and such. But at the point of his death his bones were very strong and I believe he reached full size.
However, did the MBD have some factor in his death? Probably. He was breeding up until his death also, but you have said they do that. I don't know what if at all that means, only some real data to incorporate. He was old, but I only had him for a few months, and I know he got decent care for at least a year before I got him. Before that who knows what his husbandry was like. Here's a pic.
Cheers,

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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

Hi Dobry, hows it going? I don't know whether to post about BBall or monitors, hahahahahaha. I hope the cougs have a great year, except for two games. hahahahahahahahaha. Then I hope they play very poorly(yea right)

Anyway, There should be a distinstion between MBD that goes unnoticed, and MBD that becomes highly noticeable, soft bones, enlarged limbs, twisted and bent limbs, etc.

Its the latter that I think is being mentioned. But I could be wrong.

I think most old captive monitors end up with some sort of bone problems. After all, they got to die of something. Cheers

I've got season tickets....our schedule has not been that rough yet, but we are lookin good. Good luck with your cats, they screwed up the pac in football. HAHAHAHAHAHA Well, Oregon needed to be exposed for their one man team.

But, I've been good. I recently left my job at the University for a small biotech company, so those changes have kept me out of the loop lately. However, I believe this will be a very good change for me. The longer I worked for the University the more and more I realized how unacedemic I really am and I need to work somewhere I am in more control of my future. Too much politics and such.

I see where you're coming from with the MDB, and to keep on topic, I have a monitor question.
Have you seen baby monitors born with extra appendages ie. toes or feet?
Cheers,
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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

Don't get me started with the extra appendages, heck no, all i see is normal monitors, day in and day out, WHATS THE DEAL. I want to have fun toooooooooo.

Oh well, I will keep an eye out, hahahahahahahaha not my eye out, maybe one of theirs. Cheers

I can't find the pic, but the monitor is in the freezer. Someone sent me a monitor with six feet. I'll try and find the pic.
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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

This lady said she bred it. I was keeping it for novelty reasons and my wife wanted to radiograph it, but it died after a few weeks.

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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

I don't know any monitor that suffered metabolic bone disease, recover, and then grow to it's potential size, but I do know of a little green iguana named Rugwort. Rugwort was owned by a boy for over a year before he came to live with Melissa Kaplan. While he was with the boy he had no proper food, heating, lighting and was only fed cat food and lettuce. Well, he suffered from severe metabolic bone disease and had a hump on the spine and was severely stunted (he was the size of a small juvenile when he should have been much bigger and longer). But he recovered after he came to live with Melissa Kaplan and grew quite a bit. He's still alive today and is over 14 years old...that's old for a green iguana believe me. So, yeah, they can live a long life if are treated and if they survive the MBD.