Metabolic Bone Disease

If you are a reptile owner, you may have heard of this disease before. However you may not be aware that your pet could be at high risk of coming down with this illness.

Metabolic bone disease, or MBD, is caused by the improper amount of calcium available to the bones from the diet. While most people feed a proper diet to their reptilian pets, they usually do not have the proper light sources to allow the body to adequately absorb the calcium needed. After a period of time, the bones become weak, even to the point of fracture without the adequate amount of calcium. This can become life threatening as your reptile will likely not be eating and will be unable to move to areas to keep warm.

Fortunately, this is usually reversible, but can be an expensive and long-term treatment. The best way to deal with MBD is to avoid it all together. Your best bet is to purchase a high quality UV light that has both UV-A and UV-B rays. This light should be changed every 6 months, even if it has not burnt out. It will not do any good to have your reptile sitting in the sun in a window, as the glass will filter out the required rays. Yes, you can take your pet into the natural sunshine, but at least 4 hours of sunlight would be needed, which is difficult to obtain in our cold northern Michigan winters.

While the proper light source will help prevent MBD it is not a replacement for a good diet. If your reptile is a bug eater, make sure that you “gut load” your prey with a good calcium source. Alternately, you can use a topical calcium supplement on both prey and vegetables for our vegetarian reptiles. Fur and Feather Pet Shop in Petoskey carries excellent light sources and Bob is very knowledgeable with reptiles and what your needs may be. If you think that your pet may have MBD, or for a general health check up, please us a call today for your appointment with Dr. Graves.

Dr. Pamela Graves