Any unique pet keeper who has had their pet for greater than every week is aware of that deciding what to feed your animal can rapidly grow to be an amazing selection. From bugs and floor meat to complete prey and greens, there are many choices to select from. Taking a look at what varieties of prey an animal consumes within the wild is a superb begin, however the kind that meals is available in is perhaps equally vital.
Is it straightforward to purchase a pound of floor turkey on the retailer? Positive. However does it fulfill your animal’s wants? Not essentially. A well-rounded eating regimen for many exotics is fabricated from extra than simply protein, and that’s the place complete prey is available in. Feeding complete prey could make an enormous distinction—to your animal’s disposition, well being, and even lifespan. Right here’s why.
The Nutrient Stability of a Entire Prey Merchandise
The largest motive to feed carnivorous and omnivorous animals complete prey objects is because of their nutrient density. While you feed floor meat, you’re feeding primarily muscular tissue. Whereas that’s excessive in worthwhile protein, it’s lacking lots of the vitamins that consuming a complete carcass would supply.
Muscle meat is wealthy in protein, iron, and zinc. And that’s nice! Nonetheless, think about what your pet will likely be lacking with out entry to bones and organs, too:
- Bones – Drawn from the bones of their prey, calcium turns into extra simply accessible to unique animals when their meal is consumed complete (because of entry to complementary vitamins that help in absorption). Calcium is crucial for correct bone power, and with out sufficient calcium, some animals can start to undergo from metabolic bone illness (MBD).
- Kidneys – Riboflavin is present in abundance in animal kidneys. This B vitamin contributes vitality and might hold your animal’s pores and skin wholesome (which helps with shedding!).
- Liver – One of the crucial nutritionally dense areas of the physique, the liver supplies niacin, thiamin, folate, and extra. These nutritional vitamins regulate the metabolism and may also help to maintain your pet from holding extra weight.
Absorption
One other vital motive to feed your animal objects produced from complete prey, like Reptilinks, is as a result of it assists with nutrient absorption. When animals eat meals piecemeal, they is perhaps getting one meal that’s excessive in calcium, then a separate meal that has vitamin D. These vitamins are good to your pet’s well being for positive, however they’d work significantly better collectively.
Consider calcium as a package deal, and the intestines as a collection of doorways. When an animal consumes a calcium-rich meal, these “packages” of calcium journey into the intestines, the place they discover doorways which might be barely open. Some calcium can squeeze via, however a whole lot of it will probably’t match via that small hole within the door.
Nonetheless, in case your pet eats a meal with vitamin D, all of a sudden, vitamin D makes these doorways open vast. Many extra calcium packages can match via the door, the place they’re processed by the physique. Research repeatedly present that in vertebrates (and even some invertebrates), consuming vitamin D alongside calcium improves absorption for higher well being. While you feed complete prey objects, you’re ensuring your animal takes full benefit of all these symbiotic partnerships amongst vitamins—and the vitamin D/calcium cooperation is way from the one one.
Hydration
An animal’s meals isn’t simply meant to satiate their urge for food; it additionally performs an enormous position of their hydration. Within the common complete prey merchandise—together with rats, mice, frogs, and quail—as a lot as 60% of the animal’s weight is water. When meals is processed, akin to being floor down on the market in a grocery store, the animal has been lower aside and drained of blood in order that it doesn’t make a large number for shoppers. Which means that pets aren’t getting the water content material they usually would from their eating regimen within the wild.
Examine this to a complete prey merchandise like Reptilinks. Through the use of the whole animal, tissues which might be densely filled with water, such because the mind and liver, stay within the closing product. Equally, there isn’t any want to empty away extra blood for the sake of the patron’s consolation, so much more water stays ultimately product. This helps to maintain your pet hydrated, which advantages the kidneys and might stop the buildup of enormous, uncomfortable or onerous urates.
The Backside Line
Entire prey is a worthwhile addition to any pet’s eating regimen. Whether or not or not it must be the one inclusion relies on the species—and keep in mind, complete prey consists of something from complete floor mammals to gutloaded bugs. Whereas muscle protein within the type of floor meat from the shop could make for a fantastic deal with or small portion of an animal’s eating regimen, complete prey has a lot to contribute. Reptilinks are proud to supply a nutrient-rich combination produced from complete carcasses, together with organs, bones, and fur or feathers, to most intently mimic the eating regimen your pet would take pleasure in within the wild. The casing is fabricated from collagen, which is nice for an animal’s pores and skin and simply digestible, too. Thus, Reptilinks might be a part of a balanced eating regimen to your unique pet!
