Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...with their regular diet (I don't know what it is) to "bulk them up" as the employee said. I have recently been complaining about the size of the rodents, they are consistantly getting smaller and smaller. I think the calcium is a recent addition to their diet but I wanted to know what effect this might have on the snakes. All but one eat f/t now so I'll likely buy on-line from now on, but I was curious if this is an acceptable and or standard practice.

Linda,
...Calcium diet supplementation can cause problems. It depends on how much calcium the feeder rodents are getting though. I think mammals can excrete most vitamins (at least the water soluble ones) and minerals if they ingest them in surplus in their urine. Reptiles on the other hand have relatively less effective renal systems and so will have problems if given too much calcium. The calcium builds up in the blood to produce hypercalcemia. Symptoms of hypercalcemia in reptiles include muscle weakness and constipation. Muscle tissue functions by way of calcium ion exchange across cell boundaries within the muscle. Too much calcium and this ion exchange cannot occur and muscle weakness is the result. Snakes have digestive systems which require the smooth muscle tissue in their intestines to move large boluses of roughage through peristalsis and when they have hypercalcemic muscle weakness they become constipated.
Jeff

>>...with their regular diet (I don't know what it is) to "bulk them up" as the employee said. I have recently been complaining about the size of the rodents, they are consistantly getting smaller and smaller. I think the calcium is a recent addition to their diet but I wanted to know what effect this might have on the snakes. All but one eat f/t now so I'll likely buy on-line from now on, but I was curious if this is an acceptable and or standard practice.

.