Apples for reptiles?

[silkie]

Can I feed my beardies, red foot tortoise and uromastyx apples?? Just wondering, because head that apples are good for eliviating parasites...

How the heck do you spell apples? The way you say it it sounds like appels.... but why do I want to spell it like apples?? whats going on here.... I am sick by the way, so maybe that is having an effect of my spelling capabilities... eek!!

[Zoe]

lol the correct spelling is "apple", It's just like "ripple" or "maple". Or "centre" for that matter.

as for feeding apples, I believe you can. I've seen pictures of a beardie eating an apple so i dont see why not.

Zoe

[Lisa]

I would core the apple. Appleseeds contain trace amount of cyanide. It's not enough to kill some one but it's never bad to be safe.

[Ed_r]

Well Apples are actually the least nutricious fruit there is. I give them on occasion to my Box turtles, thas about it

[eyespy]

Apples are a good treat but like Ed r said there's no real benefit to feeding them regularly. The sugar and acids in fruit can kill off beneficial bacteria that reptiles use to break down cellulose so you only want to offer fruit sparingly as is. Fruits with more nutritional oomph like berries, melon, mango, papaya, kiwi or prickly pear are better staple treats but apples in small doses make many a happy reptile.

The pectin in apple or grape skin is actually a very healthy soluble fiber that can help beardies pass the chitin from feeder insects so a once in awhile treat may have some benefit. As far as anti-parasitic properties go I think that most beardies can't eat enough apple to get a big enough dose of whatever phytochemical kills off the parasites without getting too much sugar and losing their probiotics which make parasite infestations worse. That's just my gut feeling though, I don't know how much apple is recommended to kill off parasites, but I do know that fruit sugar being more than 5% of a reptile's diet will kill off beneficial bacteria.