REPTILE | PET GAZETTE | 21
It also became clear under magnification,
that the green colouration was caused by
the presence of undigested plant matter, it
was certainly visible. Leopard Geckos do not
typically eat large amounts of plants of their
own, therefore this plant matter had been
ingested within the gut contents of the variety
of pre-gutloaded livefoods that were being
offered.
Pre-feeding livefoods is essential - as
always, you are what you eat. The gut
contents is passed on up through the food
web and remains a primary supplier at every
stage. However, this matter should have
been more thoroughly broken down and
made use of through normal digestion and
assimilation. It is my opinion that the coco
fibre strands were indeed passing through
the gut quite well in this case as the animal
was well hydrated, well energised and had
heavy positive gut cultures. I did feel that
the fibres were impeding or interfering with
the usual processes of digestion and food
assimilation.
This is why I think that we could clearly
see plant particles in the stool. It is also
a possible reason why the animal was
using such a high level of geophagy. Poor
assimilation leads to a lack of nutrition
over time. The animal was, in its own quite
magical way, trying to heal itself. Minerals
are also wonderfully therapeutic in terms of
gut health, calming and protecting the gut
whilst also helping to lower parasite issues.
Now, here is another interesting part of this
discovery, what does a range of wild Leopard
Gecko faeces actually look like? It may
actually be normal for some plant matter
to be visible in a stool? Is a level of visibility
under magnification, being so absent for so
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many of us keeping reptiles in captivity just a
sign that we are under gutloading? Or it is a
sign that the live feeders, even being so well
‘gut loaded’ were unable to digest the plant
matter properly also.
There is evidence of course that many of
the insects that we use as feeders require
heat to be able to digest food properly and
quickly. This then leads on to the question,
should we be providing heat and in cases,
full-spectrum+UV-B lighting for our live
feeders for a time before they are fed
forward? A recent paper by Dennis Oonincx
et al from Wageningen University shows
a clear link between some commonly
used insect species and the production of
preformed vitamin D3 after exposure to UV
lamps. This is all good food for thought as
if this is the case, as the paper suggests,
insects could indeed be a useful source of
dietary D3 for wild animals thus helping
maintain D3 in the body alongside the prime
supplier, that being exposure to the sun's
energy.
If so, we could very easily improve the
quality of our livefood and see further
improvements to effective and ethical captive
reptile care. As is common to most thesis,
research papers and reviews the statement
“this topic requires more research” is very
true.
I feel that in this case that the condition
was caused by a number of factors, I am
sure that the coir strands were impacting
digestion. I am almost sure that the livefoods
could have digested the plant more readily
if they had been heated for 24-48 hours
before being fed forward. I believe that the
Gecko was indeed drawing in extra mineral
nutrition by normal geophagy and by that
which occurs incidentally as it fed due to it
being gravid. Luckily, in this case we have a
Gecko that is well provided for and healthy,
It also has a very intuitive and caring owner
that spotted an unusual event very quickly
and acted upon their observation properly. In
this case, the remaining historic coir strands
left over from a previous substrate were
removed. The supplement regime altered
and the livefood heated.
This is still a very new case, we will
continue to monitor the animal’s health and
productions in order to bring it back into what
we assume is ‘normality’. It is clear within all
of this that the reproductive cycles place a
heavy load upon female animals especially,
but that these highly developed animals will
intuitively seek to provide for themselves in
order to carry on with the everlasting cycles
of life.
How exciting! We are learning so much
with each passing day on our journey to
effective and ethical captive reptile care.
JOHN COURTENEY-SMITH
John Courteney-Smith’s new
fact-packed book was published
in Spring 2018 and is available in
all good book shops, online and
through the reptile wholesale
network at a trade price. This will be
a series of four new titles based
on the ‘Elements’.
To listen to John’s free podcasts
visit www.chameleonbreeder.com/
podcast/ep-55-mbd-uvb-with-john-
courteney- smith/
June 2019