REPTILE | PET GAZETTE | 29
THE IMPORTANCE OF OVERALL
NUTRITION AND COUNTERING
ADVANCED MDB
Photos by Arcadia Reptile.
Shaded ones are ‘befores’ green one is ‘after’
How to use the processes overall nutrition for healthier reptiles
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eptilian biology is complex,
and we still have much
to learn’. I could leave
my feature here with this
statement and let you ponder
over that until next month when we would all
have another month’s practical experience
and, for many of us, a few more pages of
complex reading under our belts. Whichever
way we look at this and no matter how many
features I write for your ongoing training
and interest, the statement will always be
true. Reptilian biology is indeed complex,
it is mesmerising, and it is infuriatingly
captivating.
As with all aspects of biology we have to
think not only of the macro processes of each
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cell and element of life, its build, replication
and function, but we must also bring into this
thought the cycles and processes in which
all of these cells and elements sustain and
regulate as a whole. We tend to refer to the
biologically sustaining cycles of life in quite
narrow terms as humans and likewise we
tend to only accept or understand that these
cycles of natural function are limited only to
the process described within their titles. Here
are just three examples:
• The D3 cycle; the natural process of
assimilating energy from sunlight and using
this to create and self-regulate usable stores
of vitamin D3.
• The alimentary cycle; The assimilation,
storage and use of food via ingestion,
digestion, assimilation and the of course
egestion.
• The respiratory cycle; The act of inhaling
the gases that make up our layer of the
atmosphere and then using those gases to
sustain life with a terminal action of exhaling.
Each of these cycles or processes are vital
to life but each one is also tied into every
other process and cycle within the body. Life
is indeed a complex machine of many ever-
moving parts, with each one being as vital as
the next, while being reliant and interacting
in some way with every single other cycle
and process. If one cog falls out of place or
time, eventually the whole system will either
misfunction or indeed stop.
In order for us to be able to create systems
September 2018