Ep 65: Gutloading Chameleon Feeders with John Courteney-Smith
Today we are going to be talking about gutloading the feeders for your chameleon. This conversation is loosely based on the end chapters of his book “The Arcadia Guide to Reptile & Amphibian Nutrition”.
John Courteney-Smith, MRSB is the Head of Science and Innovation at Arcadia-Reptile. It is his job to push captive husbandry as close to optimal health for our reptiles and amphibians as possible – and make that products that allow this to be carried out. He is also the author of a set of books which address the many aspects of keeping healthy reptiles in captivity. In episode 55, we discussed his first book, The Arcadia Guide to MBD and its elimination in captivity. And if you haven’t heard it, I suggest going back and catching that one! In episode 59 we started on his second book, The Arcadia Guide to Reptile and Amphibian Nutrition. In that episode we concentrated on vitamins. Of course, all vitamins and minerals work together and must be in balance so it is impossible to discuss one without the other. Naturally, our next episode, episode 60, was about minerals! Today we finish up the nutrition discussion with a talk on gutloading feeders.
I highly recommend picking up the book as it is full of information. With everything we cover in over three hours of discussion in this podcast it is still just an introduction!
The links below take you to retailers that carry this book.
This is, of course, the middle book in a multi-part series. There are two other books that present John’s research and direction for Arcadia-Reptile. His first book is The Arcadia Guide to MBD and its Elimination in Captivity which goes over the very important need to understand the UVB/D3/Calcium cycle.
In the US, you may purchase a physical book from Light Your Reptiles or get a kindle edition from Amazon.com. In the UK you can head on over to the Northampton Reptile Centre. Click below for purchase.
John’s next book after the nutrition book we discussed today is The Arcadia Guide to Bio-activity and the Theory of Wild Re-creation. When we review this book we will go into how we as chameleon keepers can enjoy setting up a more naturalistic environment for our chameleons.
Arcadia Reptile has earned their place in the reptile community by producing quality products. Their website arcadia-reptile.com is an excellent resource on reptile lighting.
Thank you John for coming on a sharing with us!
