Red Tegus and Fruit

Diegar · Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 5:49 pm Post subject: Red Tegus and Fruit

Okay, so as it has been explained to me, Red Tegus need fruit in their diets, more than other Tegus, because without it, they can/will develope skin problems. Okay.. When someone says fruit to someone else, each person comes away with their own interpretation. Some will feed grapes, watermelon and papaya, while others will feed oranges, mango and strawberries.

My question is: what is the vitamin in the fruit, that they need to avoid skin problems. Without knowing this, a Red Tegu owner could be feeding lots of the wrong fruit and still having a Tegu with skin issues. Does someone know who came up with the theory to begin with, and if the answer of a vitamin is not known, then at the very least, i want to know what variety of fruit that person was feeding to their reds, so we can narrow this down.

:O)
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The Jay

tupinambis · Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 8:14 pm Post subject:

I can tell you this with absolute certainty: there has been absolutely no scientific research in this, there is no paper out there indicating a particular vitamin that these tegus need, there has been no definite link between diet and skin in Tupinambis rufescens published in any peer reviewed journal.

That being said, it doesn't mean there is no link. It seems to be common experience with T.rufescens that higher fruit content in the diet promotes healthier skin. There are also other health benefits. The one vitamin most people claim the tegus need is vitamin C. Again, I will stress there is no proof or evidence for this, but there is a whole hell of a lot of common sense behind this. Vitamin C has many benefits for the skin, as well as blood vessels, muscles, staving off scurvy (pay particular attention to this one all those who have tegus with stomatitis!!!) etc, etc. Regular sources of fruit will also promote hydration, increase fibre in the diet which will promote motility of gut contents, provide sources of nutrients that are more likely absorbable than supplements, and more closely mimic the animals natural diet (in nature, it seems tegus consume something close to 40-60% plant matter, something most owners overlook).

Looking at a lot of the natural fruits available in their environment, high Vit.C content seems to be common, so this would be supportive of that arguement. Other benefits could be biotin enrichment, fibre, iron, Vit.E, as well as many others. Fruits in their natural environment are more closely resemblent of berries, palm fruits and other oddities (papayas, mangos, mangosteens, carambola, acerola, etc.) than it is of what we typically think of fruit (apples, oranges, pears, etc.).