Fatty Liver Disease

[apocalypse910]

I was wondering if someone had decent information on the prevalence of fatty liver disease in tegus. I've googled it but it seems like there is a ton of conflicting information. Apparently it either doesn't happen in tegus - or is one of the leading causes of death in captivity. Can anyone here weigh in on this?

I was also wondering what a reasonable percentage of dietary fat is. I try to give my tegu a pretty good variety of foods - but my staples are frozen ground meats (with bone & organ). I just want to make sure that the diet I'm giving him is going to be good for his health long term. I'm trying to balance variety against the health benefits of the leaner meats. Any suggestions on what to get / avoid.

 

[laurarfl]

Hepalipidosis can most definitely occur in tegus. I doubt there have been enough studies on captive tegus to find the rat of occurrence, however. It is likely rare in the wild. Liver and kidney failure is a significant cause of death in captive lizards who make it past the precarious years of susceptibility to MBD.

http://www.anapsid.org/heplipidosis.html

http://www.netvet.co.uk/lizards/fatty-liver-disease.htm

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

Just to add to this ^ ^ ^ it's not just about diet, but exercise as well. Since they don't get half as much in captivity as wild tegus.

 

[apocalypse910]

Thank you for the info!

If I can ask is there any good info on the causes of kidney disease in tegus?

When I was a kid I had a green iguana that died of kidney disease and I was beyond devastated. This was pre-internet and I believe there was a lot less good info on proper care of reptiles around at the time. It seems that it was a combo of too much meat in his diet, and low grade dehydration from not having access to enough water to soak in.

These things don't seem to apply to tegus exactly so I was wondering what preventive things I can do. I am concerned about the high proportion of mammal/bird meats in his diet - although that does seem to be the norm in captive tegu diets. Unfortunately getting him snails, amphibians, spiders, and a lot of his natural diet is impractical. It seems that so few reptiles reach their full lifespan in captivity - want to make sure I'm doing everything in my power to keep him as healthy as possible as he gets older.

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

The links Laurarfl posted

 

[apocalypse910]

The links Laurarfl posted

The links were great and did a good job answering my initial question - They didn't seem to mention much about kidney disease. They were also pretty general on diet - I know that the wrong types of protein can cause issues but that means very different things for different lizards. Again the links really answered my initial question - was wondering on kidney disease as it seems to be an issue but haven't seen a ton on it in tegus.

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

You will find very little if any specific info about kidney disease in tegus, like previously mentioned not enough studies have been done. A lot of captive health issues and causes are the same (similar) from one animal to the next including humans (not captive ).
So what info you find will more than likely come from other species since tegus are not as popular in captivity as some other reptiles.

 

[laurarfl]

The other issue is that tegus have not been popular captive pets for very long. They started becoming popular around 2005 I guess and then REALLY popular in the last 3-4 yrs or so it seems. Since kidney disease is typically a disease of older animals (tegus over the age of 10-12yrs), not much has been documented.

However, chronic kidney disease is typically caused by improper protein which strains the kidney and/or dehydration. Also certain medications and chemicals can be nephrotoxic.