The Natural Iguana
Inadequate diet can also play a factor in the crippling disease called metabolic bone disease, or secondary hyperthyroidism.
How to calculate ca:p ratios (calcium:phosphorus fat:protein carbohydrates:fiber)
Nutrition nutrition, oh the complex and diverse topic of nutrition.
There is no doubt at all about this, feeding a proper diet is one of the greatest responsibilites you have of caring for your iguana.
Most disease, illness in iguanas has often 2 things in common, reported by vets.
1. Nutritional related issues.
2. Dehydration.
Either an over or under provision of diet, or enviromental parameters utilisable by the iguana, if only one thing slacks, and is not addressed, owners will sooner or later hit problems, and possibly death.
One thing that has amazed me when doing a quick google search into diet, there are all these fancy food charts with calcium to phosphorus ratios, yet these same websites are not correctly showing owners how to reach the 2:1 ratio correctly, many owners I speak too insist they have done everything right by following these charts, only to find out unfortunately at the animals expense it has not really been true. Talking to owners they know the importance of calcium, many think that we need to be adding more calcium onto our food, this idea has came from the many cases surrounding chronic metabolic bone disease and surrounding health issues, many also beleive that we should be adding up the ca:p ratios specifically just from foods individually, and aiming for the highest we can provide, unfortunately, to properly calculate out your ratios there is a little more to it than that, while a varied enough diet will rarely cause problems (see diet and nutrition facts) it is important owners learn how to do this though more nutrition is not automaticly healthier, and certain vitamins and minerals can become seriously toxic if injested in enough quantity. I hope for now that this small peice can help owners understand it a little better, and if they wish to be a little more accurate they will know how to do it.
The first step in avoiding Ca:P imbalance is to be aware of what the feedstuffs in your animals diet are providing.
The minerals calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P) play a major role in proper growth and development of the skeletal system in all reptiles. Calcium and phosphorus must be provided by an iguanas or other reptiles diet diet in the correct levels and ratio. If more phosphorous than calcium is consumed by an iguana then calcium absorption can be impaired and skeletal malformations, poor growth, and muscle disorders can occur, (MBD) Even if a diet contains adequate calcium, excessive phosphorus intake may cause abnormalities, but you can’t completely avoid it, phosphorus is still an important part of an iguanas diet, it is needed to filter out waste, and phosphorus is a mineral that is needed to be worked along side calcium for the bone development growth, and density, Nutritionists recommend that a Ca:P ratio between 1:1 to 2:1 should be provided by the total diet.
For this example, which is just a specific example, I will use a large male, weighing in at between 4-8kg, who might consume on average a minimal amount of food at 200- 300 grams daily. You add up all the calcium, then you add up all the phosphorus, (take note of the ratio you get from adding up) then divide those numbers, by the toal number of foods.
Since I know many of you are using the green iguana society as a nutritional reference for your foods I will use there own nutritional data sheet to calculate out some greens for my own iguana (if say, I was offering different food types daily. http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm
50 grams of turnip greens, 50 grams of dandelion greens, 100 grams of mustard greens 50 grams of rocket, 50grams of watercress
Lets add up the calcium from that food chart. Turnip greens 4.5 phosphorus 1 Dnadilion 2.8 and phosphorus 1 Mustard 2.4 phosphorus 1 Swiss chard 1.8 phosphorus 1 Watercress 2 phosphorus 1
4.5 + 2.8 + 2.4 + 1.8 + 2 + Add up all the phosphorus 1 + 1 etc = 5 Then divide by the toal number of foods your ratio is 2.7: 1
Your always going to get a higher calcium count, regardless, but the ratio recommendation is there as a guideline to fit in as much to it as possible, so you could feed in a little bit of fruit or a supplement to offset that balance as much as possible.
Other things to keep in mind.Your main aims as discussed are there to be fitted in with the 2:1 ca:p ratio.You want to minimise foods with high oxalate content where possible (spinach or chard) or offset the volume with a good multivitamin calcium dust. You want to be aware of goitrogens and offset them with high oxalate foods because they are usually a good source of iodeine so that is why I said where possible. You want to be aware of phytochemicals like saponins and tannins which can affect the formation of blood cells if fed in enough quantity. For more information on goitrogens, oxalic acid, and phytochemicals please see Diet.
Ratio of dietary components is (Protein: Fat: Carbohydrates: Fibre) 2:1:3:2 (from this ratio, and the daily consumption you can calculate a value for each component
Please let me know, if anyone does not understand this, or you have difficulty understanding it, I will do my best to help, but again, please do a little homework.
copyright@shaundixon1@hotmail.co.uk
References http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Ratios
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26610559
http://www.sugar-gliders.com/glidervet-60.htm
http://www.pettortoise.co.uk/tortoise_diet.php
http://www.tortoise.org/general/tntdiet.html
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1939-165X.2009.00204.x/pdf
http://actavet.vfu.cz/media/pdf/avb_2002071030333.pdf
