Nutrition

Insects as Food for Insectivores

“…In reality, the fiber in whole insects likely represents a variety of different compounds, including chitin, sclerotized proteins, and other substances that are bound to chitin (Finke, 2007). Chitinase activity has been reported in certain species of frogs, lizards, tortoises, fish, and bats, suggesting that certain insectivores might be able to digest chitin (Donoghue, 2006;Fujimoto et al, 2002;German et al, 2010;Whitaker et al, 2004).…”

Intake, apparent digestibility, and digesta passage in leopard tortoises (Geochelone pardalis) fed a complete, extruded feed

“…Accelerated growth has also been associated with high mortality, renal disease, deformities of the shell and skeletal system such as those caused by nutrition-related metabolic bone disease, and pyramiding [Donoghue, 2006;McArthur and Barrows, 2004]. One source claims that pyramiding and abnormal growth are more likely to occur in animals given high quality foods, and in animals exposed to long winter photoperiods, with no seasonal changes such as brumation (i.e., hibernation) or a seasonally restricted diet resembling conditions of food scarcity [McArthur and Barrows, 2004].…”

“…Managed brumation may be useful in controlling accelerated growth in captivity in a group of animals fed in excess or fed a highly digestible diet, as it may prevent continuous annual growth [Donoghue, 2006;McArthur and Barrows, 2004]. Mimicking seasonal food availability may also offer a solution to continuous accelerated growth, as a group of animals can be managed to undergo periods of growth followed by periods during which growth is slowed or stopped by reducing the amount of a diet offered [McArthur and Barrows, 2004].…”

“…One author suggested that a "high fiber (hence, low-calorie) diet, all-day access to food (instead of meal feeding), much opportunity to exercise through behavioral enrichment, exposure to unfiltered sunlight, a temperature gradient that includes highest preferred temperatures for that species with proper humidity, and continual access to water with weekly soaking" produces a low risk for pyramiding, presumably encouraging healthy growth [Donoghue, 2006] …”

Osseous and Other Hard Tissue Pathologies in Turtles and Abnormalities of Mineral Deposition

“…Shell deformity Chou (1979) (continued) Grant (1936) Geochelone carbonaria South American redfooted tortoise Asymmetrical shells Frye (1973) Wedge-shaped vertebral plates Frye (1991a) Soft, deformed carapace and plastron, caused by hyperparathyroidism Frye and Carney (1975); Rivera and Lock (2008) Carapace or plastron anomalies Vieira de Dandrade and Shinya (1993) Geochelone nigra Galapagos giant tortoise Shell anomaly Hayes and Beaman (1985) Congenital carapace anomaly Dollinger et al (1997) Geochelone sulcata African spurred tortoise Deformed carapace Donoghue (2006) Carapace asymmetries Cloudsley- Thompson (1970) Gopherus agassizii Desert tortoise Carapacial and plastral plate abnormalities, Supernumerary vertebral and marginal or reduced carapacial plates Frye (1989Frye ( , 1991a Plastral axial deviation Frye (1991a, c) Wavy carapace Rosskopf et al (1982) Shell hump Mader (1990a) Brogard (1987) Necrotic changes in carapace Ippen (1965) Tortoise Carapace defects Frank (1976) b; Scott 1992) or calcium deficiency (Rosskopf 1986;White 1989). Cagle (1950) proposed that the deformed shell in a Cumberland slider, Trachemys scripta troostii, formed because an abnormally large yolk mass causing distension of the carapace.…”