Reptile Tips & Hints

Tips for promoting a hardy appetite

Herps require the proper set up and regular maintenance in order to stimulate appetite and thrive in captivity. Different reptiles have different needs, please be familiar with your animals needs. Check with a pet care professional for advice.

A healthy herp should have

  • Bright clear eyes
  • Hardy appetite
  • Good activity
  • Good weight
  • Solid stool

Signs of an unhealthy herp

  • Closed eyes
  • Fails to eat
  • Lethargic
  • Looks thin
  • Runny stool
The benefits of feeding Healthy Herp
  • All natural
  • No preservatives
  • A healthy meal
  • Convenient easy to use packaging
  • Natural scent & color attracts reptiles
  • Our high Quality Control exceeds industry standards
How to feed Healthy Herp frozen cubes

Frozen Cubes-Aquatic Turtles

Drop cube(s) in aquarium while still frozen. The cube(s) will float for 6-8 seconds and then begin to sink allowing turtles to feed at their natural levels. Feed aquatic turtles 1-2 times daily what they will consume in 5 minutes. aquatic turtles will begin tasting the food and within a few days start accepting aquatic turtle diet as their daily diet. Remove any uneaten food. Keep unused cubes in your freezer.

What to do if frozen reptile food thaws

Use of frozen reptile food that has thawed
You may safely refreeze some foods that still contain ice crystals and are cold to the touch or if they have been kept below 45 degrees F for no more than 2 hours. If the temperature is above 45 degrees F, THROW IT OUT!

Treat completely thawed foods as follows
These foods are perishable. Do not refreeze thawed reptile food. Spoilage may begin before bad odors develop and may be toxic. Refreeze reptile food only if ice crystals remain throughout the package. If you question the condition, THROW IT OUT!

Don’t use if odor is offensive or if the freezer temperature has exceeded 45 degrees F for 2 hours or longer, THROW IT OUT!

Use common sense: If any foods have an offensive or questionable odor, DO NOT feed them to your reptile.

How to feed Healthy Herp Instant Meals

Cups
Remove lid, fill cup 1/2 way with warm water, wait 5-8 minutes, place in Stepping Stone Feeding Dish™ or empty into food dish. This product has been lightly dusted with calcium, because different reptiles have different needs, please be familiar with your animal’s requirements and supplement accordingly. This product can be used as a daily diet, addition to daily diet or treat.

Bulk
Fill cup with food, then 1/2 way with warm water, wait 5-8 minutes. Drain excess water and place in Stepping Stone Feeding Dish™ or empty into food dish. Remove uneaten food after 24 hours and discard. This product has been lightly dusted with calcium, because different reptiles have different needs, please be familiar with your animal’s requirements and supplement accordingly. This product can be used as a daily diet, addition to daily diet or treat.

The Powder At the bottom of the bulk Healthy Herp® Instant Meals™ can be mixed with other foods for extra nutritional value, dusted on crickets or used as a high quality gut load.

How to feed Healthy Herp All Natural Treats

Dragon Treat
Put some grasshoppers in a feeding dish and place in terrarium. Watch your herp enjoy. Remove and dispose of any uneaten food after 24 hours. Always have drinking water available for your herps. No vitamins or calcium have been added to this product.

Insectivore Treat
Put some mealworms in a feeding dish and place in terrarium. Watch your herp enjoy. Remove and dispose of any uneaten food after 24 hours. Always have drinking water available for your herps. No vitamins or calcium have been added to this product.

Tortoise Treat
Presoak in warm water for 3 minutes then place on food dish or mix with food. Watch your herp enjoy. Remove and dispose of any uneaten food after 24 hours. No vitamins or calcium have been added to this product.

Vitamins & supplementation

Healthy Herp® Instant Meals™ and All Natural Treats can be used to soak up liquid vitamins, supplements or medications for easy administration.

Feeding fruit to tortoises
Use caution when feeding fruit to tortoises. Some Species include fruit as a regular part of their diet and others eat none at all. Be familiar with your Tortoises dietary requirements. Species such as Leopards and African Spurred Tortoises rely on beneficial bacteria in their intestines to help them digest and extract nourishment from the grasses that they eat. If you give your tortoise large amounts of fruit, the acids and sugars in the fruit can actually change the pH of the tortoise’s digestive tract, and this pH change can cause the beneficial bacteria in the tortoise’s gut to die off. When large quantities of gut bacteria die, they release toxins that can cross the gut wall and enter the tortoise’s bloodstream, causing the tortoise to experience a form of toxic shock syndrome that can be fatal.
Pyramiding of tortoise shells

For many years it was believed that improper diet & foods too high in protein were the main contributors to pyramiding. Some experts say lack of or inadequate levels of calcium & UVB cause pyramiding. Even when fed the correct diet with proper supplementation some pyramiding will still occur. It is now believed that high protein and improper supplementation are not the primary contributors, but secondary contributors that can impact how much a shell pyramids or deforms. In recent years it has been discovered that humidity is the key factor to promoting smooth shell growth.

 

WHAT IS PYRAMIDING?
Pyramiding is when the shells scutes grow vertically, in the shape of a pyramid, instead of horizontally forming a smooth shell.

 

PROMOTING SMOOTH SHELL GROWTH!
Exposure to humidity alone doesn’t guarantee a smooth shell and a healthy tortoise. Below are some guidelines for raising a happy healthy tortoise with a smooth shell. Always research your species of interest before acquiring a pet tortoise.

  1. Know your tortoise’s diet, different species have different diets, feed and supplement accordingly.
  2. Know your tortoise’s housing requirements, different tortoises come from different environments, house accordingly.
  3. Provide your tortoise with access to humidity of 80%-100% using a humidified shelter.
  4. UV lighting should be no further than 12” from the top of your tortoise’s shell.
  5. Keep tortoises hydrated by providing a water dish or soaking every other day for five minutes.

View the PDF article discussing the results of our studdies http://sfbb.com/images/uploaded/promoting-smooth-shell-growth-web.pdf