Ten tips to prevent reptile obesity | with Dillon Perron from Animals at Home

Reptile obesity is becoming an increasingly common issue. Dillon Perron from Animals at Home Podcast gives us his top ten tips to prevent obesity and offers advice on how to address the problem if your reptile is becoming overweight.

For more information and advice about reptile obesity, check out our full-length podcast with Dr Tariq Abou-Zahr.

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0:00 Introduction

2:01 Tip Number One - Ask an expert

2:24 Tip Number Two - Weigh your animals

2:47 Tip Number Three - Feed less frequently

3:30 Tip Number Four - Feed smaller meals

3:49 Tip Number Five - Go easy on the treats

4:36 Tip Number Six - Make your animal work for it

5:13 Tip Number Seven - Give your reptile a workout

5:57 Tip Number Eight - Consider hibernating your animals

6:34 Tip Number Nine - Take responsibility

6:55 Tip Number Ten - When in doubt get it checked out

7:30 Join us

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Script:

We all love our pets but maybe sometimes we love them just a little bit too much.

While most reptiles are fit and healthy, you may be starting to notice more and more often that some reptiles are looking chubby and overweight.

Now, overweight dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, and even parrots are a common sight, so it's really no surprise that we're starting to see chubby snakes, lizards, and tortoises as well. However, this is not good.

When a reptile is overweight, it is linked to several other serious health concerns, like heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, arthritis, poor fertility, and of course, reduced lifespan. As responsible reptile keepers, we must get in front of this problem before it becomes out of control.

But why are reptiles getting fat in captivity? Well, there are many different reasons.

One of the main reasons is probably the fact that one of the only ways to interact with your reptile is through that feeding experience. And sometimes keepers wanting to interact with the reptile that they love so much end up overfeeding because they want to feed and interact and feed and interact, and then you end up with an animal that has too many calories at the end of the day, of course, creating an overweight animal.

Another reason might be that the animal you keep might have a natural downtime, like a brumation period or a hibernation period in the wild. And if we're not giving that in captivity, over the course of the year, that animal may ingest too many calories, which of course ends up leading to an obese animal.

Or maybe the foods we're providing in captivity are far more nutritionally dense than we realise, which again is going to lead to too much feeding. Or maybe we just love to pamper our pets. There are many different reasons why an animal or a reptile might get fat in captivity but luckily there are ways that we can put a stop to this.

Here are the top ten tips for keeping your reptile in tip-top shape.

Tip number one

Ask an expert.

Take your reptile to a reptile-specific vet or a reptile-specific store for a regular checkup. Ideally, this should be done once every 6 to 12 months. This individual will be able to look at the body condition and let you know if that animal is overweight and give you advice that is specifically tailored to the species you keep.

Tip number two

Weigh your animals.

We should all be weighing our animals on a relatively consistent basis, I would say at least once a month. You should also be tracking this for your records so you can track the progress of your animal. If your animal does seem like it's starting to creep into the overweight category, again, ask your expert and they will let you know what to do if your animal is starting to get on the heavier side.

Tip number three

Feed less frequently.

Now, if your animal is starting to creep into that overweight category, it is perfectly okay to skip a meal here and there. For example, if you're working with snakes and you feed once a week or once every two weeks, don't be afraid to skip a meal, go an extra week between meals. If you are working with lizards and tortoises, give them a few days off from eating. These animals have very, very slow metabolisms and they're perfectly adapted to going longer periods of time without food. That is not an issue at all. Of course, you don't want to completely stop feeding suddenly and go very, very long periods that is something that you might want to talk to a vet or an expert about, but skipping a meal here and there, perfectly fine and of course, that will help curb some of those overweight issues.

Tip number four

Feed smaller meals.

If your animal is overweight, feeding smaller meals can really go a long way to helping reduce the amount of calories the animal is ingesting. If you're feeding snakes, you can reduce the prey size. If you're feeding lizards, you can feed less insects.

Tip number five

Go easy on the treats.

Remember, wax worms, mealworms and really any other bug larvae are a very high-calorie treat and if you do overuse those for your animal, you'll end up creating an animal that is overweight. If you keep an omnivore animal like a bearded dragon, for example, they can really benefit from more plant materials than overusing livefoods. Tortoises do require a high-fibre diet, so grasses and weeds are great for them. Really, you want to stay away from the foods that we like, like all the lettuce and those rich things that we put in our salads from the supermarket. That is not ideal for a tortoise. In the wild they are going to be eating a lot more dry grasses and weeds, so that's what you want to provide them, again, if you have any questions, make sure you go to your reptile store and they should have some good advice for you.

Tip number six

Make your animal work for it.

Of course, in the wild, food is not easy to come by the animals are constantly burning calories in order to find meals, and we can actually replicate that in captivity. So maybe you bury your food in the enclosure, or use a puzzle feeder, or use feeding tongs and have the animal chase the food around. There are many ways you can have that animal moving in order to get the food and any more energy burnt is a good thing, and that will reduce the chance of obesity. Of course, if you are leaving livefood in an enclosure, it must be pulled out after a couple of hours. You don't want to leave livefood in an enclosure.

Tip number seven

Give your reptile a workout.

Now this is one of my favourite tips. This tip has to do with how you've designed your enclosure. You want your animal to be able to exercise within the enclosure. So whether that's ledges or climbing branches, or ability to swim or dig, use the animal's natural behaviours from the wild and put those items into your enclosure. If you have an animal that's arboreal, give them space to climb. If they're more fossorial, give them space to dig. If they're swimmers, give them lots of space to swim. Any of those things, those animals will automatically know how to use, which will automatically give them a workout, which burns calories, which again, is going to reduce the chance of obesity.

Tip number eight

Consider hibernating your animals.

As I already mentioned, there are quite a few reptile species in the wild that go through a slow-down period. Whether that's aestivating during the hot months or brumating during the cool months, there are a lot of times a one to three-ish month period where the animal is doing very little but also consuming almost no calories at all. And that can be replicated safely in captivity, which will help aid the animal in not overeating throughout the year. If this is something that you're interested in trying, make sure you talk to your local reptile-specialist shop, they should be able to provide some advice on how to do it safely.

Tip number nine

Take responsibility.

Remember, all the food that your animal eats in captivity, comes from you. It is your responsibility to make sure you're feeding an appropriate amount. If your animal does start to become overweight, a responsible keeper could use this video in order to learn how to curb that.

And finally, tip number ten

When in doubt, get it checked out.

If you're looking at your pet reptile and you're really not sure if they are overweight or not, take them to a reptile-specialised vet. If you're not sure of one in your area, head to your local reptile store they should be able to tell you which vets in your area are used to working with reptiles.

For more information about reptile obesity and how to prevent it, check out our podcast with specialist reptile vet Dr Tariq Abou-Zahr.

I'm Dillon from Animals at Home and this is Responsible Reptile Keeping.