The Importance of Minerals and Vitamins

Just like us, exotic pets need the right balance of minerals and vitamins to stay healthy and unfortunately many species seem prone to developing deficiencies in captivity, which can have serious consequences for their welfare.

Understanding the role of some of the key vitamins and minerals – and which ones particular species are likely to lack – can be a big help in ensuring that your pets stay fit and well.

Calcium, Phosphorus And Vitamin D3

Calcium is an essential mineral, required for healthy bone growth. Many of the fast growing kinds of vertebrate pets can be prone to brittle or overly soft bones if calcium is deficient in their diets but probably the most common calcium related problem is “soft shell” in tortoises and terrapins.

However, the whole thing is slightly more complicated than it might at first appear, since it’s not simply the amount of calcium in the diet that matters, so much as the ratio of calcium to phosphorus. The diet of many tortoises in the wild, for instance, often has a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 4:1 – small wonder specimens fed largely on lettuce (with a 0.8:1 ratio) often have problems!

To make things even worse, the balance between these two essential minerals in the body requires Vitamin D3 – and animals lacking this vitamin, even if supplied with perfectly adequate levels of the required minerals, can still develop soft shells, brittle bones and weak limbs.

Vitamins A And B

Vitamin A deficiency is another serious problem often encountered – the first signs often being swollen or tightly shut eyes. If it’s not treated, it can cause serious kidney damage, but fortunately prompt veterinary intervention with a course of injections can often allow an affected animal to make a full recovery.

Vitamin B deficiency can be a problem for some kinds of reptiles in particular, especially chameleons and iguanas. There is evidence to suggest that it can cause poor tongue co-ordination in chameleons – which is a serious problem seeing that these animals rely on their tongues to catch prey – while some kinds of iguanas can develop problems with their connective tissue, blood cells and nerve sheaths when they lack B12.

Avoiding Problems

The most obvious way to avoid problems with minerals and vitamins is to get your pet’s diet right. With the exception of a few specialist feeders such as Egg Eating Snakes ( Dasypeltis sp.) or the Thorny Devil (Moloch horridus) – which eats almost nothing but ants – most animals eat a remarkably varied range of foods in the wild. This is, of course, the key to obtaining the balance of vitamins and minerals they need – and something the exotic pet keeper needs to replicate in captivity.

Some foods are naturally low in particular minerals or vitamins, for instance and as a result, should only be used as part of the diet. Mealworms, for example, are naturally low in calcium; lettuce is mineral-poor, of little nutritional value and can prove addictive to some vegetarian pets. On the other hand, different types of food offer much better mineral content; dandelion leaves have a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 3:1 – much nearer to the natural dietary requirements of tortoises in the wild.

Although some minerals and vitamins are required by all animals, others are particularly important for some species, while some animals can only use them in particular forms – an important thing to know if you’re buying supplements. Reptiles, for example, require vitamin A, vitamins B1, B2, B5, B6 and B12, vitamin D – as D3, since vitamin D2 is not suitable for them – vitamin E, vitamin K, folic acid, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, iron, copper, cobalt, iodine, manganese and selenium.

The more you can find out about your own pet’s needs, the better able you will be to avoid problems with deficiencies, so although it is a complicated issue, it’s certainly worth the effort trying to get to grips with it all.