Why Use Naturerep Supplements & Feeds?
It can be very difficult for hertoculturists to decide whether one manufacturer's supplements are better than another's. In Europe in particular there is a huge selection of products marketed for use in reptiles and amphibians though many are re-labelled products designed for other animals.
At Naturerep we specialise in reptilia. We spend a huge amount of time talking to herp hobbyists, breeders and specialist vets to understand the key problems they face. And, of course, we have our own 25 plus years of keeping and breeding to draw from. Then we try to design products to solve these problems. We believe our great skill is in finding innovative new ingredients from many different industries to incorporate into our products to benefit our customers and their birds. This page is intended to highlight many of the cutting edge technologies (mostly purely natural!) we use that make us the supplier of choice, whose products really stand out from the crowd. We are proud of what we do and we hope you will reap the rewards.
The Rapisorb Minerals System (RMS)
The vast majority of minerals used in herp supplements are inorganic ingredients like, magnesium sulphate, potassium chloride, salt etc.. These ingredients are cheap but they tend to aggregate together in the gut and so are difficult for the body to absorb. To prevent this aggregation occurring it is now possible to buy minerals chelated (pronounced ke-lated) to organic molecules. The organic molecule prevents the aggregation and, because the gut is designed to actively absorb organic molecules, it improves the uptake of the attached minerals.
The most common organic molecule used for chelation is the amino acid methionine. Unfortunately methionine smells quite unpleasant when added to most tap water so is not suitable for use in water borne supplements. So we use a totally different organic molecule for Rapisorb which does not cause this problem. In fact we were the only company in the world to use this technology in herpetiles.
A potential extra benefit of our system is that the organic molecule used is also very good at removing toxic heavy metals from the body. Whilst not present in therapeutic quantities, may help in the prevention of iron storage problems as well as zinc and lead toxicity.
What we really like about this technology is that it mimics nature very closely. Naturally our reptiles get most of their minerals from chelated sources in their food. Examples are the iron molecules in the blood protein haemoglobin and the magnesium in the chlorophyll of green plants, eaten by herbivorous species or indirectly via insects eating the plant matter .
Calcium Absorption
Metabolic bone disease (MBD) is possibly the biggest heath problem facing herp keepers. Although commonly associated with diurnal lizards and hatchling frogs, this problem is common in Chelonian species and to a lesser extent snakes. This is another example of our passion for maximising mineral absorption. Calcimax works exceeding well because of two factors. Firstly it is already dissolved (the hard bit to do with most calcium compounds, like calcium carbonate used in virtually all calcium supplements) Secondly because, like the Rapisorb, system, it is chelated its absorption rate is dramatically enhanced. This time the calcium is attached to a sugar molecule.
Making a product this strong is quite difficult and needs special equipment so we have ours made, to our formulation, in a veterinary medicines factory using only food grade or pharmaceutical materials.
Calcimax contains quite a large number of special ingredients that make it very effective for emergency situations as well as its more regular role in preventative health. Attempts by our competitors to copy this technology have resulted in far weaker products with very poor "value for money" characteristics.
Essential vitamin blends
Vitamins is another area where the ingredients we use are quite conventional but the blend we use is far different from the norm. We do not compromise on quality and put far more B group vitamins in our mix than most other products on the market. B group vitamins are mostly responsible for energy management. This, combined with our high vitamin K levels (responsible for energy storage), is a key reason why many herp keepers find their animals looking much more energetic and vital on our supplements.
Our vitamins are incorporated into Vitarep, Bio Pro, Day Gecko Formula and Emergency Food.
Amino acids
There is nothing unique about our amino acid technology except that we use plenty of lysine and methionine. Unfortunately many supplements have impressive long lists of amino acids on the labels. Most are totally unnecessary and many are present in insignificant quantities. Such tokenism only does harm to the reputation of our industry.
Properly supplemented essential amino acids have a dramatic effect on breeding performance and as a safe preventative for obesity.
Disease prevention
Traditionally our agricultural industries have used low dose antibiotics in the production of pigs and poultry as growth promotants. Quite rightly this abuse of drugs is now almost a thing of the past and the farming industry has been looking around for alternatives. The Germans, who have long had a great respect for herbal remedies, have developed a number of plant blends that give similar results to antibiotics but without the potentially disastrous side effects.
We use a number of different blends but they all have three key characteristics. Firstly they create an attractive environment in the gut for beneficial bacteria. As a result the bad bacteria are less likely to get a hold and cause disease. We call this a prebiotic effect.
Secondly these plant extracts actually attack many disease causing organisms particularly protozoans like coccidia which is the number one problem of many species, in particular; Bearded Dragons. This is particularly true of those engaged in stressful activity through breeding programs. Some customers have reported excellent results using our products.
Finally our products stimulate the immune system. This is crucial for hatchlings whose immune system can be put under great stress well before it is fully functional.
There is no doubt in our minds that our technologies stimulate rapid early growth in hatchlings as well as giving them natural protection against disease so it is not surprising we first put it into our breeder and health product Bio Pro, and have no started including it in many of our other products.
Maxima
Maxima is another natural ingredient (in fact it is extracted from trees) which has some very unusual characteristics. Basically it is a very highly bio-available source of sulphur. The scientist who introduced us to Maxima had come across it working for the Ministry of Defence trying to identify compounds that would help the treatment of patients suffering from radiation sickness. But the broad range of characteristics of this compound made it stand out.
Maxima is claimed to have anti-microbial characteristics so helps fight many diseases.
(EMS) Energy management system
Traditionally supplements are manufactured using a diluting medium (carrier) like glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar that has excellent palatability and solubility. Unfortunately simple sugars are as bad for reptilia as they are for humans.
Although we use small amounts of sugar in some formulations (mostly for solubility characteristics) we make extensive use of more complex carbohydrates. These "glucose polymers" do not have any of the drawbacks of glucose and indeed they have many advantages.
Simple sugars can cause nutritional dependency. Withdraw them and your herps could get quite stressed. Our energy management system does have this effect so it is safer.
Simple sugars can cause osmotic diarrhoea. Our energy management system does not.
Simple sugars only give a short term energy boost whilst our energy management system provides a twelve hour benefits.
These are the main reason we use these "glucose polymers" as a carrier in our Vitarep and BioPro. It is a key active ingredient in Emergency Feed, Isotonic Plus and Day Gecko Formula.
Human Grade Ingredients
Although we are not licensed to sell for human consumption and so do not endorse it, all our ingredients in this range are human grade quality.
Setting Naturerep far beyond it's competitors
We hope this short insight into some of the technologies that differentiate us from "the rest" has been useful. We have invested heavily and travelled extensively around the UK, Europe and even the USA to conferences and industry fairs to identify many of the ingredients we use routinely in our products. We strongly believe that using Naturerep Supplements and Feeds are an investment into your herps health.
©Naturerep Ltd 2006
