Natural Parasiticides?

[Poppy243]

Has anyone looked into the use of natural parasiticides with geckos or other reptiles? I'm curious about this, since as far as I know, the only place to get medicine when you have parasites in your reptiles is from a vet. It might be worth someone looking in to as an alternative to vet medicines. It could potentially be a cheaper, easier to obtain alternative. Some plants that supposedly have parasiticide properties in people could easily be given to feeders as a gut load of sorts. And while we are different organisms and would have different parasites, our bodies should function relatively similar at a chemical level. Any thoughts?

 

[Tongue Flicker]

Try giving probiotics on your leo's water. Then again, captive-bred animals rarely have internal parasites. Gut-loading feeders with those natural 'parasiticide' plants usually end up with your feeders being poisonous to your leos. As the chemicals are synthesized differently by insects. Hence the term, poison sequestering. Been there, done that got 3 skinks killed lol.

 

[Tongue Flicker]

Try giving probiotics on your leo's water. Then again, captive-bred animals rarely have internal parasites. So why bother with purging your pet? Gut-loading feeders with those natural 'parasiticide' plants usually end up with your feeders being poisonous to your leos. As the chemicals are synthesized differently by insects. Hence the term, poison sequestering. Been there, done that got 3 skinks killed lol.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

You can buy ReptiAide and they claim it is a holistic dewormer. I've never used it so can't speak to how safe it is or how well it works. Personally I'm very skeptical of anything that does not come from a vet and/or most holistic medications. They are not regulated in any sort of way and can contain anything. I like hard facts and someone with a bit of knowledge making the decision call on what chemicals I put into my animals.

 

[Poppy243]

Neil, your dead skinks is why I'm interested to know if any research has been done on this. I personally do not have a parasite problem with my geckos. I don't recommend people experimenting with these things on their own, if they don't know what they are doing. But there is evidence in other organisms that certain foods have a deworming effect. Pumpkin with deer, apparently. A local wildlife rehabber was recommending that everyone who lived near where deer would be cut open their whole pumpkins and leave them out for the deer to eat, as it would deworm them. It's a bit different with geckos and other animals, but why couldn't, theoretically, there be something that could do the same with reptiles, that would still be safe when fed to the feeders? I'm studying biochemistry currently and thoughts like these fascinate me. Not necessarily holistic medicines you buy but holistic treatments with specific plants or herbs, that have been proven to show results. Obviously not all holistic medicines are actually helpful lol.

 

[Tongue Flicker]

There is what you call poison sequestering. Much research has been done on the subject. Examples of these of these are caterpillars eating milkweeds safely while anything eating those caterpillars will get poisoned. Box turtles eating poisonous mushrooms without harm but anyone eating the box turtle will die. The same with fire ants and arrow poison frogs.

I did an experiment myself since i do have a lot of feeder skinks for my snakes. I fed the superworms with a select bunch of plants from the garden to know which is which and hence the result.