08/08/2024
We all know (or should by now,) that what we feed our captive exotics directly effects their well-being.
We as a hobby focus a lot of energy on husbandry, which is the foundation of ethical keeping and breeding. Nutrition is a key component in this, and often times lacking even within the collection of an advanced keeper. "Chonky" culture and anthropomorphism has not helped this at all, and the false equivalency of "well my animal eats so it must be healthy" is a mindset we have to leave behind.
Over the last 5 years, I've seen an uptick in intergenerational nutrient deficiencies within the hobby due to excessive but poor diets, obesity and artificially accelerated (by "power feeding") growth rates. I'm not sure if I'm just noticing it more, there is an actual increase in instances, or both due to how "easy" getting bearded dragons to breed is. In a lot of cases, the breeder just didn't know any better. I know that people "know" that what they feed their females throughout every life stage directly impacts their offspring (or they should know) and I honestly think that supplements on market today are lacking. In the future, I hope to develop a line of supplements for use on my own animals (selfish I know) with the option for distribution within the hobby. Maybe with some extra free time (hahaha!) I will be able to sit and develop an action plan to realize this goal I have, but for now, mixing several seperate supplements (some even human grade) the Frankenstein gutload we have tweaked over the years and additional supplementation for females that are ovulating will have to do.
Thanks for reading, and I hope this opens up some thoughtful discussion.
Let's do better :)
