REPTILE | PET GAZETTE | 29
it. Life is an ongoing process of many layers,
with each individual layer interacting in some
way with every other - a constant series of
cycles where energy is passed from one item
or entity to the next. We could oversimplify
this statement and focus on the basic upper
level interactions, such as the cycles of micro
fauna turning animal waste into bioavailable
nutrition that then allows the plants to grow,
that in turn feed animals etc, but, if we did we
would miss out on the actual bigger picture
of overall supply and natural balance. There
is a complexity within nature that is hidden
in the usual signs of life. The key as ethical
keepers is to constantly drill down into each
level of provision and to understand how
each interacts with the next. Only then can
we endeavour to supply these parameters of
supply in an effective, safe and measured way
within herpetoculture.
Reptiles have developed as a group of apex
species, able to take everything that they need
to thrive from every parameter and interaction
that surrounds them in the area that they have
developed in. This can even be seen in slight
adaptations of use within a single species
when found within differing localities. The
species may be identical at a gene tic level but
adaption has dictated that cut-off or sedentary
groups, locked within an area have differing
ways of using the energy from the sun or the
items that they ingest and/or are available for
them to consume. We may see differences in
colouration, size, clutch size and even daily
activity within remote groups.
We all know that reptiles are ectothermic
(cold-blooded), but this does not mean that
they are so basic or underdeveloped that they
cannot even provide themselves with energy
from heat via ingestion, rather it means that
they take the free energy that surrounds
them as fuel in order to function. Therefore,
a lowering of heat over a short period of
time at least, poses very little risk of harm to
the animal as its function slows in relation
to the available energy that surrounds it.
This is the opposite of life for warm-blooded
(endothermic) animals including our own
species where we must feed regularly in order
to obtain the energy needed to ‘power’ our
organs and therefore carry on breathing. We
are unable to easily slow down our processes
and as such a period of lack will harm us
quickly, this is the reverse for ectotherms.
Being ectothermic should be seen as a level
of high advancement, an ability to survive
over extended periods when others may not.
We see this of course within the yearly cycles
of brumation. The animal perceives a risk or
a season of undersupply and will slow down
accordingly, dig in and wait it out until the
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seasons of plenty return. In-body stores of
fat and mineral reserves are used in a slow,
moderated way in these times of reduced
solar energy and the animal survives until the
stable weather returns when subsequently
the storages can be replenished and a form
of equilibrium can be maintained. In very real
terms MBD in all of its forms is the direct result
of keeping an animal in such a way where it
is either A; under-energised by light and/or B;
provided with an incorrect full-spectrum diet.
More commonly, of course, it is a lack of both
A and B that is encountered within
MBD animals.
It is true to say that, by the time that MBD
has manifested with visible symptoms, that
its negative impact will already have had
an even larger detrimental effect upon the
internal biology of an animal. In human terms,
we may refer to the visible signs of MBD as
being ‘stage four’. As an animal experiences
a period of under supply, nutritional stores
found within the body are requested in a
formal fashion by the brain. These reserves
are then used as requested, in order to keep
the animal alive, it is far better to call upon
the reserves of calcium (the full-spectrum of
minerals are used within this process actually)
stored within the bones for a short time than it
is for an animal to experience such a shortage
of available calcium within the blood that it
loses muscle, nerve and brain function. This
natural appropriation of the skeletal stores
can carry on within the short ‘brumation’ or
season of under supply, but long term issues
will start to arise if the skeletal stores are used
over time but not adequately replenished.
Within a system that does not have the correct
balance of replicated terrestrial daylight and/
or the correct supply of bioavailable minerals
via ingestible nutrition, in simplified terms, the
brain will ask the blood to ask the bones to
release calcium back into the blood in order
to sustain life. This will then carry on until the
skeletal reserves are depleted to an extent
where disease takes hold via malnutrition,
namely from the reduction of available mineral
stores.
Over time, this depletion leads to
an increasing level of malfunction and
malformation of the bones, starting at the
extremities and then pulling mineral stores
from the thicker bones over time. This is
where the visible symptoms of calcium
deprivation originate from and can become
irreversible if not rectified quickly. In addition
to the demineralising and malfunction of the
bones, the vital organs and nervous system
will have already been negatively affected
thus increasing even further the speed of
degeneration. MBD with regard to calcium has
a far-reaching negative effect on the animal.
A lack of calcium in of itself will cause whole
body imbalance, nothing will function as it
should, this then leads to a plethora of onward
symptoms and diseases within the animal. For
example and to name just a few, movement,
organ function, digestion, reproduction, cell
production, dermal disease, brain chemistry
imbalance, blood chemistry imbalance, claw
and bone softening and a further far-reaching
negative effect on the microbiota of the gut
leading to further nutritional imbalance.
There are some clearly developed wild
mineral ingestion techniques available to
reptiles. Wild water supplies are mineral
rich, plants and insects can be mineral rich
within themselves but they are also covered
externally by particulates of soil, this is a
ready source of full spectrum minerals.
Many species will also display geophagy,
consuming the soil itself purposefully. This is a
wild adaptation and one that poses very little
risk if it is a wild soil that is being consumed
by an adequately energised animal. This
can be a warning sign in captivity however,
reptiles that willingly choose to eat a substrate
are doing so for a reason, you can be sure
that this behaviour is because the animal
is in some way mineral deficient. As a side
note, we do see this in animals that are only
provided plain calcium powders - in reality we
know that is it the whole spectrum of minerals
within their natural balance that are needed if
the animal is to be able to use and store these
minerals correctly.
Read part two of this feature in next
month’s issue
May 2018