Reptile & Amphibian Forums

np
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

The big one is renal failure, which is more of an end stage type disease. With renal failure you an see a myriad of symptoms like: increased drinking, increased urination, not eating, weight loss, vomiting, general malaise (not feeling well), etc. Other than that I have heard that they can get calification in the joints and act almost arthritic. Xrays will show soft tissue and joint calcification of it is present. Bloodwork will show increased uric acid levels, high blood calcium levels, often, but not always, increased phosphorous.

Do you have someone you suspect of hypercalcemia?
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Stacey

no, it was more a question of curiosity. even though I have been raising BDs for over 10 years, it was never the volume I see now. with a handful of animals it is easier to handle them all every day and notice subtle changes. with hundreds of animals, there are some days I don't even get to see all of them. In looking for easier and more certain ways of getting them all the proper nutrition and care I have been trying all of the various food recomendations. I am going to be starting a new regiment soon. Pellets in the morning and t-rex dusted salad in the afternoon. until I use up my big paint can of rep-cal, I will dust feeders once a week in place of the t-rex dust and I will be cutting down a lot on the animal protien. I just want to be extra cautious as I will hopefully be getting everyone outside again more often as temps warm up. More sun with all the supliments in the food already, just want to know what to look for, if there are tell tale signs.
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

Bennett,
When you have a colletion your size, it is good to plan to try and make things efficient while not sacrificing nutrition. Although I know what you meant by saying you were going to cut back on animal protein, I just want to add something to this thread. The t-rex products contain animal protein in the form of isolated whey(replaced calcium casienate as the main source of protein in the diets). Isolated whey is quite possibly the most bioavailable protein known. Egg white has long been considered the "gold standard", but many sports nutrition studies are showing this to no longer be the case. What I'm trying to say is that animal proteins are a good thing, and now, so is cutting back on bugs if it makes your life easier.
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Bill DiFabio
Garden State Herpetoculture...website to follow...
Email Me
"The poetry that comes from the squaring off between,
And the circling is worth it.
Finding beauty in the dissonance." - Maynard James Keenan

Thanks for that info, good stuff to put in the data bank.

I am cutting back crix for several reasons.
1) I was going through 24,000 crix a week 1000 superworms hundreds of roaches. That’s a lot of time and money
2) It is my understanding that the longer lived BDs are mostly if not completely bug free
3) I am hoping to cut the amount of parasitic infestation. Bugs that carry bad bugs

On the other hand
1) My BDs still get some exercise chasing bugs around.
2) Variety in their diet is good
3) Healthy isn't always better, sometimes you need feel good food (no I wont give them chocolate covered crix). They really enjoy the bugs so I will keep it a part of their diet.

My one exception to reducing the amount of live feeders will be roaches. Since I cannot find any info on the nutritional value of roaches, next season I will try to raise a batch of babies with roaches as a major part of their diet to see what happens.
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

This may be a silly question but what about Freeze Dried Crickets and or Worms(if they make that?)

I don't know if Freeze Dried is good or bad yet but I would think any bad "bug" in the food might be neutralized by the process...but I don't know.

Perphaps someone could comment?
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0.0.2 Bearded Dragons(Ziggy and Stardust)

one of the good things about bugs is the amount of moisture they contain so freeze dried kinda works against that. For the most part, all of the nutritional value can be gotten thru pellets and other sups.
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

>>one of the good things about bugs is the amount of moisture they contain so freeze dried kinda works against that. For the most part, all of the nutritional value can be gotten thru pellets and other sups.
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>>Bennett
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>>www.beardiedragon.com

Yeah that makes sense.
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0.0.2 Bearded Dragons(Ziggy and Stardust)