Any exotic pet keeper who has had their pet for more than a week knows that deciding what to feed your animal can quickly become an overwhelming choice. From bugs and ground meat to whole prey and vegetables, there are plenty of options to choose from. Looking at what types of prey an animal consumes in the wild is a great start, but the form that food comes in might be equally important.
Is it easy to buy a pound of ground turkey at the store? Sure. But does it fulfill your animal’s needs? Not necessarily. A well-rounded diet for most exotics is made of more than just protein, and that’s where whole prey comes in. Feeding whole prey can make a big difference—to your animal’s disposition, health, and even lifespan. Here’s why.
The Nutrient Balance of a Whole Prey Item
The biggest reason to feed carnivorous and omnivorous animals whole prey items is due to their nutrient density. When you feed ground meat, you’re feeding primarily muscular tissue. While that’s high in valuable protein, it’s missing many of the nutrients that consuming an entire carcass would provide.
Muscle meat is rich in protein, iron, and zinc. And that’s great! However, consider what your pet will be missing without access to bones and organs, too:
- Bones – Drawn from the bones of their prey, calcium becomes more easily accessible to exotic animals when their meal is consumed whole (thanks to access to complementary nutrients that aid in absorption). Calcium is essential for proper bone strength, and without enough calcium, some animals can begin to suffer from metabolic bone disease (MBD).
- Kidneys – Riboflavin is found in abundance in animal kidneys. This B vitamin contributes energy and can keep your animal’s skin healthy (which helps with shedding!).
- Liver – One of the most nutritionally dense areas of the body, the liver provides niacin, thiamin, folate, and more. These vitamins regulate the metabolism and can help to keep your pet from holding excess weight.
Absorption
Another important reason to feed your animal items made from whole prey, like Reptilinks, is because it assists with nutrient absorption. When animals consume food piecemeal, they might be getting one meal that is high in calcium, then a separate meal that has vitamin D. These nutrients are good for your pet’s health for sure, but they would work much better together.
Think of calcium as a package, and the intestines as a series of doors. When an animal consumes a calcium-rich meal, those “packages” of calcium travel into the intestines, where they find doors that are slightly open. Some calcium can squeeze through, but a lot of it can’t fit through that small gap in the door.
However, if your pet eats a meal with vitamin D, suddenly, vitamin D makes those doors open wide. Many more calcium packages can fit through the door, where they are processed by the body. Studies repeatedly show that in vertebrates (and even some invertebrates), consuming vitamin D alongside calcium improves absorption for better health. When you feed whole prey items, you’re making sure your animal takes full advantage of all these symbiotic partnerships among nutrients—and the vitamin D/calcium cooperation is far from the only one.
Hydration
An animal’s food isn’t just meant to satiate their appetite; it also plays a big role in their hydration. In the average whole prey item—including rats, mice, frogs, and quail—as much as 60% of the animal’s weight is water. When food is processed, such as being ground down for sale in a supermarket, the animal has been cut apart and drained of blood so that it doesn’t make a mess for consumers. This means that pets aren’t getting the water content they normally would from their diet in the wild.
Compare this to a whole prey item like Reptilinks. By using the entire animal, tissues that are densely packed with water, such as the brain and liver, remain in the final product. Similarly, there is no need to drain away excess blood for the sake of the consumer’s comfort, so a lot more water remains in the end product. This helps to keep your pet hydrated, which benefits the kidneys and can prevent the accumulation of large, uncomfortable or hard urates.
The Bottom Line
Whole prey is a valuable addition to any pet’s diet. Whether or not it should be the only inclusion depends on the species—and remember, whole prey includes anything from whole ground mammals to gutloaded insects. While muscle protein in the form of ground meat from the store can make for a great treat or small portion of an animal’s diet, whole prey has plenty to contribute. Reptilinks are proud to offer a nutrient-rich mixture made from whole carcasses, including organs, bones, and fur or feathers, to most closely mimic the diet your pet would enjoy in the wild. The casing is made of collagen, which is great for an animal’s skin and easily digestible, too. Thus, Reptilinks can be part of a balanced diet for your exotic pet!