MBD question

[Nick D.]

I was just wondering about metabolic bone diesease, which upon a little research seems to be a big concern with reptiles. Apparently because of imbalanced ratios of calcium to things like phosphorus; so we dust insects. So my question is, what do wild reptiles do about this issue. ive heard some will try to lap up minerals from the ground, but what else; is it just the enourmous variety they eat in the wild?

 

[Hannibal]

The insects in the wild are naturally gut loaded with different types of minerals, vitamins, ect from their environment; not to mention the water is not processed like our drinking water so it has minerals in it also. I would think that a wild gecko's risk of developing MBD is way lower than a captive bred gecko who is just fed baby food or non-gut loaded insects.

 

[Nick D.]

Makes sense. Thankyou