multi-vitamin supplement

[jharris08]

just wanted some thoughts/ concerns about multi-vitamin dusting...

if a dragon gets a variety of fruits/veggies/greens and even some pellets worked into the mix on occasion...is dusting with mult-vitamin a necessity or just a plus? we as humans can get our vitamins if we would just eat the right things, but take multi-vitamins b/c we dont eat right.

I've never used muti-vitamin and have just made sure to feed a balance of different veggies, and have had no evident problems...but maybe when a dragon reaches its latter years of life that would become evident?
open 2 some thoughts...

 

[Gail]

My thoughts it there is no way to give a complete and balanced diet in captivity. Even with lots of variety there is no way to know if there is a lack of a certain vitamin, play it safe and use supplements.

 

[jharris08]

yea I completely agree with you that its beneficial.... its just that I know that reptiles in the wild dont have the luxury of having a supplement given to them, and coming from a biologist I would wish I knew the actual differences it would or would not make in captivity vs. non- captivity. (just thinking out loud really)

 

[Gail]

Keep in mind though that in the wild they can seek out and eat what their bodies crave, in captivity they are totally at our mercy. I never have like comparing wild to captive anyways, look at the average life span of a wild beardie, it no where near what we can achieve in captivity.