Ok so I really need your guys' help wih this one.

[RoachGirlRen]

Your boyfriend apparently knows nothing about animal nutrition if he thinks that insectivores or primarily insectivorious species can survive and thrive on a 100% mammalian protien diet (esp. one with such poor variety as "just rats." Has he never heard of the negative effects of too much fat, protien, and calcium in an animal's diet? It is just as harmful as a deficiency. If he insists upon doing this, his animals will die, period. Unpleasantly at that, from fatty liver, renal disease, hypercalcemia, and other painful, lingering conditions.
If he needs qualifications, how is this. I am a certified animal nutrition counselor. I have worked in zoos specifically in diet prep for years. I have experience with all of the species he has mentioned except for the mountain dragon, and can say this:
-Chamelons are insectivores. Ask a herpetologist. Their wild diet consists almost entirely of insects.
- Bearded dragons are omnivores. Like all omnivores, the KEY to their health is a wide variety of foods. Their diet should consist of large quantities of plant matter, insects, and the very occasional vertebrate such as a rodent or small lizard.
-Water Dragons are omnivores. See previous.

Notice how none of these are CARNIVORES, which would be the only kind of animal that would do remotely well on a primarily mammal protien diet.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Your boyfriend is a tremendous idiot. Everyone else has covered the reasons why this is going to kill/starve to death (you can't feed an insectivore nothing but rats, wtf) your animals, so I'm just going to say this:

"the pet store know best."

He thinks pet stores know ANYTHING about the proper care of exotics? Holy mother. Pet stores are infamously awful, providing outdated or just plain wrong care information and staffed by people who don't actually know anything about the animals they're selling. Oh sure, they're very frequently good at SOUNDING like they know what they're talking about, but then you find yourself with a lizard that's burned itself to death on a hot rock, or a tarantula dying of dehydration because they convinced you to give it "water gel" instead of actual water that it can drink.

Fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, rodents...good lord, don't listen to the pet stores. 95% of them can't even keep the animals on their own shelves healthy and alive, much less tell you how to properly care for your own.

To say nothing of the fact that caring for all those rats is going to be a messy, smelly, and expensive waste of time. If he wants to ruin the health and well-being of a bunch of exotics, there are cheaper ways to go about it.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Your boyfriend is a tremendous idiot. Everyone else has covered the reasons why this is going to kill/starve to death (you can't feed an insectivore nothing but rats, wtf) your animals, so I'm just going to say this:

"the pet store know best."

He thinks pet stores know ANYTHING about the proper care of exotics? Holy mother. Pet stores are infamously awful, providing outdated or just plain wrong care information and staffed by people who don't actually know anything about the animals they're selling. Oh sure, they're very frequently good at SOUNDING like they know what they're talking about, but then you find yourself with a lizard that's burned itself to death on a hot rock, or a tarantula dying of dehydration because they convinced you to give it "water gel" instead of actual water that it can drink.

Fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, rodents...good lord, don't listen to the pet stores. 95% of them can't even keep the animals on their own shelves healthy and alive, much less tell you how to properly care for your own.

To say nothing of the fact that caring for all those rats is going to be a messy, smelly, and expensive waste of time. If he wants to ruin the health and well-being of a bunch of exotics, there are cheaper ways to go about it.

 

[Jer]

Your bf needs to be slapped.

 

[RoachGirlRen]

I don't know if my previous post showed up or not (it isn't showing on my computer), so here's one last try:

Your boyfriend apparently knows nothing about animal nutrition if he thinks that insectivores or primarily insectivorious species can survive and thrive on a 100% mammalian protien diet (esp. one with such poor variety as "just rats.") Has he never heard of the negative effects of too much fat, protien, and calcium in an animal's diet? It is just as harmful as a deficiency. If he insists upon doing this, his animals will die, period. Unpleasantly at that, from fatty liver, renal disease, hypercalcemia, and other painful, lingering conditions.
If he needs qualifications, how is this. I am a certified animal nutrition counselor. I have worked in zoos specifically in diet prep for years. I have experience with all of the species he has mentioned except for the mountain dragon, and can say this:
-Chamelons are insectivores. Ask a herpetologist. Their wild diet consists almost entirely of insects.
- Bearded dragons are omnivores. Like all omnivores, the KEY to their health is a wide variety of foods. Their diet should consist of large quantities of plant matter, insects, and the very occasional vertebrate such as a rodent or small lizard.
-Water Dragons are omnivores. See previous.

Notice how none of these are CARNIVORES, which would be the only kind of animal that would do remotely well on a primarily mammal protien diet.

 

[Rain_Flower]

Thank you all again for your posts, hopefully he will change his mind after he reads this...

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Thank you all again for your posts, hopefully he will change his mind after he reads this...

Hopefully the massive forum glitches going around at the moment, resulting in all sorts of double/tripleposting and incoherency, won't damage the argument.

 

[Gr8Reptile]

Lol this is how my white's got overweight. Pinkies may be high in calcium and protein but they are way WAY too fattening the only reason you should feed one to a beardie is if it is a female and ready to breed. Or you pln on going away on vacation. My white's treefrog may be adorable as an eleven year old fatty but it just ain't healthy.