Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm just curious of what the symptoms are and exactly how you can prevent it. I'd rather be safe than sorry I guess.
Thanks! Marcie

The best preventative measure I've read about, is to make sure that sufficient calcium is supplied and that the UVA and UVB levels are maintained. There may be other's but these are the ones I know about.
Jim

>>I'm just curious of what the symptoms are and exactly how you can prevent it. I'd rather be safe than sorry I guess.
>>Thanks! Marcie

Symptoms are twitching, and dragging their back legs loss of activity. I don't know too many, when I get my uro he had MBD. He's doing fine now. Just dust his/her foot with a little cuttlefish bone of Vita-cal and he/she should be okay.. and lots of UVB and UVA.

Maybe I'm just dumb, but what the heck is cuttlefish bone and where would anyone ever find that?
Marcie

Hi Marcie....Cuttlefish bone is what they put in bird
cages for birds to trim their breaks on..You can get it
in most pet stores..It is whiteish and oval in shape..If
you use it you should crush it up in a power & sprinkle
on the food..Hope this helped..My torts have it on their
food....LOL

Joan
NYC

Some symptoms would be swelling of joints, lack of muscle tone or having the look of being muscle bound, Broken bones, uncoordinated movement, deformed bone growth, lack of muscle control, partial or full paralysis. The best way to prevent MBD is through proper diet, exersize and proper lighting/heating. You want to make sure your uro's diet is low in phosphorous and high in calcium. UVB will help his body produce vit d3 which is essential for calcium absorbtion. The best source of uvb is direct natural sunlight. Meeting your uros heating requirements keeps their circulation healthy, aides with digestion and elimination and disease prevention.
Be careful with vit d3 supplements as it is very easy to overdose with it and the symptoms look the same as MBD.