Why Whole Prey?
By Kayla Goldberg Martin
Any kind of cut a human would eat, chicken breast, rib-eye steak, etc is just that, protein. Protein and fat, nothing less, nothing more (other than trace chemical elements and acids).
Organs, bones, marrow, hair, nails, intestines, etc is where the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other good chemical chains are.
All living things are complex chemical machines, water and the stuff listed above are the most important for any life forms development.
Protein is just a building block, carbs provide energy, water facilitates chemical reaction and fiber pushes things through the system.
Vitamins, minerals and nutrients is where the magic happens, especially in reptiles.
So, the idea is, your animal can only feasibly eat so much in a day.
That ground turkey or chicken breast is a big injection of protein and nothing else.
Which is totally fine, as long as its not fed enough to displace the ratio required by the animal to fill it's nutritional needs.
Like when a kid eats to much snack food before dinner and doesn't eat their vegetables.
When feeding whole prey, like rodents, chicks, quail, whole fish, rabbit kits, etc you have everything packed into one little package and equally balanced giving your tegu (or monitor!) the nutrition it needs to thrive. Remember with tegus being omnivores having a variety of healthy fruits in the diet is very important. Fruits help keep a healthy weight, good sheds and the fiber helps the digestive track follow.
For an extensive list on what your tegu can eat, check out the files section.
By Kayla Goldberg Martin
Any kind of cut a human would eat, chicken breast, rib-eye steak, etc is just that, protein. Protein and fat, nothing less, nothing more (other than trace chemical elements and acids).
Organs, bones, marrow, hair, nails, intestines, etc is where the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other good chemical chains are.
All living things are complex chemical machines, water and the stuff listed above are the most important for any life forms development.
Protein is just a building block, carbs provide energy, water facilitates chemical reaction and fiber pushes things through the system.
Vitamins, minerals and nutrients is where the magic happens, especially in reptiles.
So, the idea is, your animal can only feasibly eat so much in a day.
That ground turkey or chicken breast is a big injection of protein and nothing else.
Which is totally fine, as long as its not fed enough to displace the ratio required by the animal to fill it's nutritional needs.
Like when a kid eats to much snack food before dinner and doesn't eat their vegetables.
When feeding whole prey, like rodents, chicks, quail, whole fish, rabbit kits, etc you have everything packed into one little package and equally balanced giving your tegu (or monitor!) the nutrition it needs to thrive. Remember with tegus being omnivores having a variety of healthy fruits in the diet is very important. Fruits help keep a healthy weight, good sheds and the fiber helps the digestive track follow.
For an extensive list on what your tegu can eat, check out the files section.