Food for thought, it's not for convenience

By Bonnie Keller (February, 2000 currently being updated)

When it comes to feeding your pets, most people have it easy. Most folks with cats and dogs simply find a good quality dry or canned commercial food, and feed the recommended amounts. But what about your herps? You've seen those pellets that look like children's cereals at the pet store, and they are awfully tempting…. And it would be nice to be able to leave a can or jar of food for the pet sitter, rather than having to interview a dozen before you find one willing to count out crickets to your hungry bearded dragon. So why not go for the convenience, after all, they must be OK nutritionally, right?? Before you go racing to 7-11 and asking the manager to start carrying "Beardie Food", read on…

 

The reptile industry has seen a huge boom over the last 25 years. I can remember a time when the thought of having a reptile-oriented pet show was a nice dream, rather than the reality today in some areas of having a monthly event.. To have ONE reptile magazine to read every couple of months was great, but then came the others…. Now I was in heaven! The pet industry has taken notice of us now, and we are no longer just a fringe element of "those weirdos and their lizards". We are becoming mainstream. But this may well be a double-edged sword, as you may guess. Along with the popularity of such pets comes the barrage of products aimed at them that may or may not be worth their price tag. And when it comes to the issue of what to feed your favorite scaly pal, most folks do want the best. But they also want a life. (And many of us would like to be able to dig through our freezer again without things staring back at us.)

 

As a result, several companies are now marketing commercial reptile foods. Lizards such as Bearded Dragons, Tegus, Monitors, and geckoes (non-specific) all have foods geared towards them available at many pet shops. Turtles have long had the dry sticks available, now that has expanded to not just water turtles but also box turtles and tortoises. Even carnivores such as snakes have various sausage-shaped meat rolls available, allowing squeamish folks who cringe at the thought of having to watch their snake eat a mouse to actually own their own legless friend. Most of us who own herps bellowed a huge, "Hurrah!" when we first saw these products, as they signaled an acceptance into the "real" pet world. Most of us, though, upon trying them, have become somewhat more skeptical.

 

The real problem lies in the research behind the production of these foods. Most of us would like to think that our pets foods are the result of years of research into the nutritional needs of our companions of choice. We think of laboratories who purée mice and analyze their contents, and then set about finding a way to re-create that composition in some non-oppressive way. (OK, at least some of us have felt at least a tiny pang of compassion for the little prey items that our pets consume, right?) Or, for our omnivorous lizards, we imagine a team of Steve Irwin-esque researchers happily stalking bearded dragons all over Australia, tracking them with radio receivers and making copious notes on everything that the little beasties consume…. Ah, then there's reality. The truth is that few companies have the money, time, or interest to do such mega-studies into reptilian nutrition. Even academic research into the dietary needs of our ectothermic critters is dismal in their scope of animals. Face it: most academic herpetologists are not worried about the diets of certain pet animals, they are looking into those animals which are not well known. So, who decides what goes into these foods, then??

 

Well, that is a good question.

 

I had the opportunity to visit one of the best-known herp-product companies in the summer of 1999. I was lead on a tour of their "research" facilities in the beautiful mountains of Virginia. I was wide-eyed and honored to be "allowed" to view what I expected to be a vast area of white-coated lab assistants and spacious, well-kept reptile cages. I had been arranging this visit all summer long, and had expected to be discussing my concerns with the head of their reptile division. Right up until a week or so before my arrival, I was e-mailed with more information about who I would be meeting with, etc. So when I arrived and found that the whole meeting had been forgotten, I was more than disappointed. Still, they found someone who used to work in the reptile area to show me around, and he assured me he would pass on my concerns to the manager. When they got one. (Seems they had just lost their reptile manager, and were looking for a replacement.) Annoyed, but vowing to make the best of it, I relayed my questions to my tourguide. After all, I was there to offer a truce, let's say. Rather than having the hobbyist industry attack and criticize their products, I was offering to give them an inside edge into what we hobbyists were thinking. A consultant, more or less. My background with reptiles and with the hobby groups had made me well aware of the gaping chasm between companies and keepers, and I felt I was more than qualified to be a go-between. So, there I was. My questions were mainly focused on diet.

 

"What kinds of research does your company do before you offer these foods to the public?" I queried. " Why are you offering products that apparently have no relation to what these animals would eat in the wild? Why does your website on iguanas have such dismally poor information, when there are tomes of information available both online and off?" My questions were pointed, but courteous. Obviously caught somewhat offguard, he stumbled to find the right responses, but finally found his feet. It seems that he had been the chief author of those web pages, and took great offense that I didn't feel his pages were up to par. After all, he'd kept an iguana once. Insofar as the research went, he bragged about the veterinarians at the local vet college who had researched them for "months" on their own animals. And, he pointed out, the animals there at their facility were doing fine, having been raised on nothing but these processed foods. But, he cautioned, they were, after all, a company that was in business to make money, and their stock holders came first. They were proud to be able to market foods that had been tested on their own animals, but they would never be able to do the extensive testing that I was inquiring about. After all, the reptile division didn't make enough money to warrant putting that kind of effort into it, anyway. And, he said, the other companies that were their major competition didn't see the need to research their products, so why should they???

 

At that point he began leading me on the tour of the animal area itself. It was not vast, there were no white coats. In fact, what I saw would have normally made me demand to speak to the pet store owner as I calmly but firmly offered my assistance in cleaning the cages and getting proper nutrition to the animals. A tegu (one featured prominently in their ads) was in a 55 gallon cage with newspaper, a hot rock, and a water bowl. The leopard tortoise who had been raised solely on the tortoise food that he promoted was so pyramided that I'd have sworn he was being kept by a high school beginner. The iguana was in a cage that was only able to accommodate his tail by having him climb on the diagonally placed limb. At least he had a heat lamp and a fluorescent lamp. (No, I didn't check to see if it was UVB or not, that would only have infuriated me more.)

 

I left my tour of the facility with a knot in my stomach that felt like *I* was the one who had just swallowed a whole rat. My summer of anticipating all the great things for reptiles that I would be able to do as a resource for this company was for nothing. What I realized was that this company was like many others in the pet industry. They are companies, first and foremost, and do need to make a profit. That is what companies do. The research and care that most of us expect a company to put into the products that it advertises for us to use on our loved ones is apparently NOT the reality. Unfortunately, these companies are doing a very good job leading us to believe otherwise.

 

Well, obviously, I wasn't able to interview every company that offers reptile foods. But in reading the ingredients and comparing them with what I know about reptiles, I haven't found a commercial food yet that I would try. Even the free samples that were sent to me as a good-will gesture after my visit were promptly disposed of. I care far too much about my pets to place their health in the hands of a group that had such obvious disregard for the health of their own animals.

 

So, what is the bottom line when it comes to commercial pet food? Well, my advice is this: contact the companies yourself and ask for a copy of any research they used in formulating their foods. If they send you anything, read it. If you need help deciphering the science jargon, feel free to write me, or ask your local chemistry or biology teachers. Ask your doctor. Put as much effort into finding the truth as YOU feel comfortable with. Then make your decision. What was mine? Well, I'm a science teacher by trade…. I tend to think that Mother Nature provides the best research there is into pet foods. I'll place my bet on her any day. Oops, gotta run…. I have an order of crickets arriving…….