Hello All!

[LilyPad]

Dog food does still have a small amount of taurine, but not as much as cats. I had an iguana growing up too, she ended up dying of kidney issues when she was only about 6 years old (I was 12 at the time.) That sparked my interest in researching reptile diet despite very very little information being on the internet yet then. She was fed monkey biscuits, canned fruit, and regularly stole cat food as she was pretty much a free range reptile. After she got sick, I learned how everything we were taught by both the vet and the pet store owner was WRONG and she really suffered because of it, it was too late to save her by that point.

[AlexanderSalamander]

Thanks for alerting me to that. You could become a herp dietician if there was such a thing. This has all been very helpful!

[MsBlueRose]

I know how you feel Lilly. My iguana died while I was still young too. My brother ended up giving it the flue, which my brother had and knew beter than to handle him but did not listen. Aparently repitles can pick up a lot of things from us that we would never suspect they could... And you are right about there not being enough nfo on the web about proper care and diet and even the vets don't know everything they should about the animals they treat and are giving out bad advice. It has inspired me to study to be an exotic vet. I have been researching many illnesses and causes of injuries for frogs and reptiles and have learned a signifigant amout in a shourt time. But I had to dig deep to find it. The information needed by keepers is hard to obtain. There is a lack of knowledge on the subject and not enough people are posting their findings one the web. I hope to change that one day. I love my little guys to much to sit here in the dark after losing some to unknow causes. I now know what I lost each of them to, but I hate that it took me so long to find good sources of info that I lost them before I could do anything about it. I don't want to sit around and wait for that to happen again. I start school this fall for exotic vet training. Not sure where they are gonna start me in classes though. I guess I will find out soon! Lol. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I love this site!

SIncerely;
MsBlueRose