Deep Dive
The science behind ReptiBites
At ReptiBites, we take pet nutrition seriously. The outdated way of doing things can cause a number of nutritional disorders, and a whole lot of unnecessary suffering for pets and their owners. Let’s talk about what we do differently.
Why we're the best way to feed your pet
We can think of a few reasons
Unmatched variety
Carefully selected insects
The right amount
Properly raised insects
Simple and Successful
Diet Variety
Why it's important, and how we solve for that
Why is it so important?
Where do we start? Diet variety is key to an overall healthy diet and animal.
Before we touch on the scientific research that focuses on reptiles, consider your own diet. How many humans can be perfectly healthy eating one food their entire lives? Zero! How many will be happy to eat one food? Zero! The same is true for our reptile pets.
The first body of research that supports the need for diet diversity in captive reptile diet looks at the wild behaviors and diets of the animals we keep in captivity. Every available paper firmly agrees: the animals we keep as pets all eat a shockingly varied diet in their wild habitats. Bearded dragons have been found to consume over 8 insect types in a single day. Leopard geckos eat whatever they can catch, including insects, other geckos, and small mammals. By feeding our pets a single insect type, we don’t meet our animal’s needs that they developed in their wild habitats.
Then we look at the opinions of vet’s and experts. Anyone who has any idea what they’re talking about all agree with the necessity of diet diversity. Two past presidents of the association of Reptilian & Amphibian Veterinarians (put simply, the best reptile vets in the country), both plainly state diversity is the only way to feed your pet the right diet. Mark A Mitchel, went so far as to write an entire breakdown of this point, titled “Diversity is the key to success with reptile diets”. Their opinion is matched by those on the other side of the coin, researchers and long time keepers. Cameron Young, who runs one the nations leading reptile education non-profits, stresses the need for diversity as well. It’s the core principle with which they feed the hundreds of reptiles under their care at their educational facility.
Finally, we can look to the hard science of feeder insect nutritional content. What becomes immediately clear when analyzing the nutrient contents of various feeder insects, is that they are all different on some level. Some contain virtually no calcium, others have plenty. Some are high in protein, others in water content. No two feeder insects are equal.
This brings us to the final reason diet diversity is key. Your pet’s nutritional needs are complex. By feeding many insect types you offer a wide variety of nutrients in various levels. This gives your pet a much better chance at getting what they need, so they can thrive.
The scientific backing of the need for diet diversity is essentially unarguable. Anyone who tries is clearly uneducated on the topic and has no business voicing their opinion. Diversity is the heart of our diet package here at ReptiBites. By providing a diverse diet, we can immediately solve many of the nutritional disorders found in captive reptiles. This is just the start. We’ve refined this diversity into a whole new level.
Let's compare
The right insects, for the right nutrients
Some of the sources we'll touch on:
As stated above, insects can have vastly different nutritional profiles. When building our feeding package, we carefully reviewed the scientific literature to determine the strongest candidates. No insect is “bad” and one “good”, but in combination they can cover each other’s weaknesses to provide a complete nutritional profile. Click around below to see what we picked and why.
Solider Fly Larvae
Solider Fly Larvae
Promotes bone health and development
Promotes bone, muscular and neurological health
Enables proper calcium absorption
Dubia Roach
Dubia Roach
For muscle
growth and maintenance
For everyday activity and movement
Promotes bone, muscular and neurological health
Superworm
Superworm
Promotes bone health and development
Easy to feed and enjoyed by most
Protects nerve and muscle tissue
Hornworm
Hornworm
Keeps your pet hydrated
Promotes bone health and development
Easy to eat and digest
No more overfeeding, or underfeeding
Some of the sources we'll touch on:
It’s a common problem that can have disastrous results. Obese or underfed pets are guaranteed to be less healthy than their correctly fed counterparts. Unfortunately, the standard recommendations in the industry are either oversimplified, or flat out wrong. Letting your pet eat as much as it can in X minutes is frankly absurd from our point of view. And many other recommendations way overestimate how much an animal needs to eat, likely at the encouragement of pet food suppliers.
We’re a bit different. Our customers pay us to help keep their pets healthy and happy. So we dug deeper and found there is a much more scientific way to estimate what your pet needs to eat: Metabolic Rate.
This body of research is very similar to the stuff we use for humans. When we say the average human needs 2000 calories a day, this is what we are talking about. We can use a very similar approach for reptiles.
For a full breakdown of this research, you can check below. Fair warning, it gets pretty technical.
The Math
Our work in this area makes use of Field Metabolic Rate (FMR). This refers to the energy requirements of animals in their wild habitat. Put simply, how much energy does an animal need to do the daily activities required for survival: moving around, hunting, growing, digesting food, etc. Thus, how much food do they need to eat to meet this energy requirement.
To our knowledge, not all of the species commonly kept as pets have not been studied directly in regard to their energetic requirements. We are however VERY confident in the use of the available research when applied to these animals. This is for a couple reasons:
- There are strong trends among energetic requirements among species of the same families. Ie, reptiles show much less variation in energetic needs when compared to each other (when mass is accounted for), then when compared to other animal families like mammals.
- Habit environment appears to be a strong indicator in the difference of energetic needs in intra-family analysis. For example, desert reptiles are consistent in their energetic needs when accounted for weight.
- Close relatives of common pet species HAVE been studied in regard to their energetic needs. Based on the above two points, this data should predict their energetic needs with a very high degree of accuracy.
The basis of our estimation technique relies on a prediction equation outlined in a summary of a wide range of known FMR data and their applications.
kJ/day = a(g body mass)^b
To explain, ‘a’ and ‘b’ are constants, basically just a set number that has been calculated to provide us with an accurate estimation when used together. Using the work of a wide range of researchers, we have access to and can input the appropriate constants to accurately estimate an animals FMR.
Now, we must note that this type of estimation is for a wild animal. One of the most prolific authors in the field of metabolic rate research estimates captive animals would need 60-70% of the energy their wild counterparts need if they are very active and as low as 20% if they are not active at all and are not maintaining a proper internal temperature. We can simply discount the equation to end up with a result that applies to captive animals.
From here, we lean on the large body of research on the nutritional content of feeder insects. We can determine:
- How much energy our animals need
- How much energy is in various feeder insects
- And finally, how many of those feeder insects our pet’s need to eat to meet their energy requirements
For the sake of understanding for a wide audience, we have not broken down the process into highly detailed steps. This provides an overview of how our process works. If you’re curious to see the real math (don’t say we didn’t warn you about the complexities!), email us or check out the research cited above.
What you need to know is that we’ve used this research to create feeding schedules that accompany our feeding plans. It’s based on the animals age and weight, as well as species. We recognize that every animal is a bit different, and owners may need flexibility to feed a bit more or a bit less. For this reason, our schedules are just a starting point. We include extra bugs in each package so owners can adjust as needed to keep their animal in a healthy weight range. We help owners to make these adjustments via various guides on our schedules and site.
We think this is a massive improvement. A science based guide is provided for every pet with further instructions to dial things in further if needed.
Can you imagine feeding a dog or cat by just guessing as many people do now for their pet reptiles? We can’t. Our schedules are the equivalent of directions provided by food companies for other pets. And our customers love it.
Insects raised right, and shipped right
Some of the sources we'll touch on:
Insect rearing and production can take many forms. Some breeders for other applications rightfully focus on speed and cost efficiency. The insects we rear, and purchase wholesale are raised to be nutritious. They are fed whole fruits and vegetables, and kept at ideal temperatures and densities. The insects entire life leading up to the moment it is fed to your pet impacts the nutrients it provides. We take this responsibility very seriously.
To further improve things, we ship all insects with a vitamin gut load diet. The research is very clear, gut loading is a highly effective approach to maximizing the nutrient value of insects. We’ve designed our gut load formula to improve calcium content, as well as other various vitamins and minerals your pet is likely to be low on.
The reason it works: It’s simple.
We aren’t saying pet owners can’t feed their pets the right diet without us. They definitely can. What makes our plans so effective is they do the hard work for you. It gives pet owners a much better chance of success compared to a DIY approach. We know we aren’t the cheapest way to feed your pet, but we are the best. What you save now in cheap food, will cost you down the road in vet bills and heartache if you aren’t careful.