Growth Deformities in Horny Toads

This is a great society. I joined the Texas chapter several years ago and started the Utah Chapter after that. We need your support. Meanwhile, as an avid student of lovable "horny toads" (more correctly, Horned Lizards) I noticed that a couple of my hatchlings, particularly the non-native species Phrynosoma modestum at first, and in later years two individuals this Spring belonging to the species Phrynosoma solare, started walking on one or both wrists or even forelimbs instead of the "hands" as they should.

Left: Adult Phrynosoma solare

I read that sometimes this type of structural deformity starts to manifest itself because of key elements lacking in their diet, especially calcium. I tried the normal so-called mineral supplements offered at the pet stores, but the little lizards persisted in this habit, and I became concerned that if the condition could not become corrected before reaching juvenile age, they would be permanently impaired.

Essential Trace Elements

Then I read an article commenting on a discovery made by Dr. Benjamin Ershoff. Essentially it said that administering mere calcium--even if that is the apparent element missing--does not always take care of the problem. Other elements, sometimes the essential trace elements make the difference in conjunction with calcium. Nutritionists often refer to metallic elements as minerals, but in the disciplines of chemistry, geology, and mineralogy, a true mineral is the combination of a metal and a non-metal such as sodium and chlorine that make a "mineral salt" when chemistry is involved. In this case, ordinary table salt (sodium chloride) results which is a true mineral, but the simple name, "salt" stuck when referring to this particular mineral. Actually, "salt" refers to all kinds of combinations that result from chemical reactions, not just sea salt, rock salt (Halite) or table salt.

For the calcium to really do any good it needs to be absorbed in conjuntion with phosphorous and Vitamin D that the body manufactures when it is exposed to sunlight. In fact my little P. modestum were brought right indoors shortly after hatching because the weather turned cool and there was little for them to eat in the outdoor enclosure where they were discovered. Could it have been the lack of sunlight alone that precipitated this malady? Possibly the so-called minerals I dusted their tiny ants and termites with from the pet store was just a mixture of elements, and not a pulverized mineral that had been formed with Mother Nature's chemistry. Mixtures don't work the same when simply stirred together as to ingredients when chemistry is involved. Take a cake mix. If you add flour, salt, baking powder, water, eggs, baking soda, vanilla, butter and sugar and even stir it all together only some chemistry takes places. In fact if you don't add the liquid (water and eggs and vanilla) you really just have a mixture of all the ingredients. Heat plus the liquids and stirring causes the chemical reations resulting in a proper birthday cake.

Getting Back to Dr. Ershoff

In the case of getting the calcium, phosphorous and Vitamin D to work synergistically and strengthen the bones and tissues of astronauts Dr. Ershoff found that a couple more elements with catalytic properties were necessary. In other words they created the chemistry to make the calcium and phosphorous bio-available http://www.montmorillonite.org/TR3.htm#Dr._Ershoff . The particular elements under study were prevalent in a special clay found in the Mohave Desert, namely silicon and sodium. This really got my attention. Could it be that the mineral supplements I had purchased were just a mixture of common macro elements without the benefit of having undergone any real chemistry?

I found that using a particular edible clay, called montmorillonite that I could not only introduce dozens of trace elements (safe, low dosages) in a proper balance to my reptiles, but I also learned that this clay is considered a mineral and had to undergo actual chemistry to assimilate the colloidal material and trace elements it contained. This was done in a remote setting in the desert in recent geological time by the action of diatomes, probiotic life, percolating warm springs and other organic and geologic processes. The sediment formed, although predominantly montmorillonite clay, clearly involved chemistry that allowed the heavy metals and trace elements it contained to become chelated, that is bound to amino acids in the residual humic matter sandwiched between the layers of montmorillonite, or suspended between the peptides in the sediment. Both the organic matter and the clay essentially grabbed over 70 trace elements between them. Interestingly enough, montmorillonite's second biggest component is silicon, a common element that is usually overlooked when formulating supplements. Dr Ershoff had made a very valuable discovery not only for astronauts that often suffer a form of osteroporisis from weightlessness just as middle-aged mothers of one or more children, but also for my tiny lizards.

To make a long story short, I began putting a tiny pinch of this magic dust (each typical ought-sized capsule from a bottle of montmorillonite for human supplementation contains 650mg) will last several feedings. I noticed this year within a just couple of weeks the two affected P. solare youngsters snapped out of their clumsy walking, and so now I give the clay complex to the whole herd as a preventative measure. There have been no reoccurences. I have over 20 sub-adults and adults who are the progeny of some older members of the family and they eat a lot of harvestor ants--maybe 6000 to 8000 ants daily. I have a personal blog that tells a little more about my work with horned lizards generally, and specifically you may read more of what I have written about ants at http://www.chelatedtraceminerals.com/ants/index.html and horned lizards at http://www.chelatedtraceminerals.com/hornedlizards/index.html.

Feeding Tips

Besides the harvestor ants that are the horned lizards' staple, they will eat just about any kind of arthropod. Make sure what you give them is bite-sized, meaning they can swallow it whole. Large insects and arachnids are for large insectivores. Horned lizards are tiny predators so an ant is the food they have evolved to catch and eat easily. Do not feed them just crickets and mealworms. They need variety and especially harvester ants!

Dosage Requirements

I don't give the lizards the minerals but about once a week just to be safe. I normally break open one montmorillonite capsule for 4000 + ants at a time and shake them up and down gently, and swish them around in a clean, one-gallon ice cream pail with a lid on it once I dumped in the contents of the capsule. The ants get dusted with the material and just an occasional dusting is all the horned lizards seem to require to be healthy in terms of minerals. I can tell you a lot more about how to properly take care of them besides feeding, but if you don't give your reptiles montmorillonite you are cheating them out of something as valuable as vitamins and antioxidants are for humans--and minerals! If you aren't sure where to find 30-60 mesh, ultra-fine montmorillonite, do a search on Window Peak Trace Minerals. It is very inexpensive for as long as it lasts--it won't go bad if you keep in dry and out of the hot sun. No need to refrigerate, just keep the lid on in between usages. Just a dusting periodically will do it.

For purposes of comparison a normal adult human will swallow two of these capsules a day in between meals. I take one between breakfast and lunch and another an hour or two after supper in the event I forgot to swallow the second one between lunch and the evening meal. That's 1300mg for maintenance of a person weighing between 150 - 200 pounds. So you can see a little horny toad that weight less than 1/2 pound would hardly need any more than a few dozen dusted ants every so often to get the same dosage. If you have any questions about your horned lizards please feel free to contact me at info@chelatedtraceminerals.com

Dr. R. Joseph Collet