Nutritional diseases in lizards

Nutritional diseases are caused by an incorrect diet. They can occur if fed too much or too little of the necessary nutrients, vitamins and minerals needed to maintain good health. Nutritional disease is commonly seen in lizards, but it is preventable.

Malnutrition is the result of an incorrect diet; this may be too much or too little of any food.

It is vital your lizard is kept at the correct temperature to help the stomach and small intestine absorb all the nutrients from his food. Make sure you feed a varied diet to your lizard. Your lizard also needs a good source of UV light to help his body absorb calcium from the intestine, the light should be placed 30-45 cm away from the lizard most common bathing spot

Most cases of malnutrition need specialist veterinary care.

Vitamin A is needed to keep the inside of the mouth, the eyes and the kidneys working. Lack of this vitamin can cause thickening of the eyelids and can also lead to kidney failure. Lizards get there source of vitamin A from their food so a varied diet is important to help provide adequate amounts. Feeding gut loaded insects if your lizard is an insectivore can help reach this goal too.

Vitamin D3 and calcium are needed to keep your lizard’s bones strong and his muscles active. An insufficiency will lead to the bones becoming soft and bendy; they may even fracture. A common method of increasing the amount of calcium in the body is to dust your lizard’s food with calcium powder. Sometimes the dust can fall off before consumed. So gut loading the insects (if your lizard is an insectivore) with specific calcium high insect feeds can be beneficial.

Keeping your lizard at the correct temperature helps his stomach and small intestine to absorb all the nutrients from his food. Make sure you feed a varied diet to your lizard. The variety of shop brought and bred insect is limited in the UK but try to give him as much variety of these as possible. If your lizard eats vegetables and fruit ensure these are varied too. Your lizard also needs a good source of UV light to help his body absorb calcium from the intestine.

If your lizard has a nutritional disease he may have to visit the veterinary practica for possible hospitalization so he can receive assisted feeding and vitamin treatments to help him recover.