Balancing hydration in Savs

[formica]

I've been thinking about this subject recently - esp in regards to humidity and dehydration in Savs; although I dont dispute the humidity requirements of Savs, I think there must be something more to dehydration than just air humidity

Some things I think we need to take into consideration:

Water content of foods - are we providing enough water rich foods with standard diets? I notice amphibians, slugs, snails etc, are part of wild Sav diets, these are higher in water than for eg crickets. If a Sav does not drink enough water too keep itself hydrated in a dry enviroment, then we also need to know why it doesnt/cannot do this

Salt content of foods - how much salt does a Sav require, and how much is it getting from the diet we provide? Is the balance right? The amount of salt in the body will determine the amount of water which moves in and out of the lungs of the monitor, too much or too little, in relation to the humidity levels, and this can cause problems in both directions, including both dehydration and respiratory infections

Sugars, protiens and fats - how does the Sav utilize these in its diet? Could the sugar content be a factor? Humans are notrious sugar monsters, and looking at all the artificial foods (and fruits) we feed to live food, could we be adding to much sugar to their bodies? this will add strain to a Savs ability to hydrate its body and utilize its biological systems to produce energy - if a Sav is not designed for the level of sugar it may be getting from its diet. same goes for Fats, all these aspects will affect how much water a Sav needs to remain healthy because they all require diffrent amounts of water to be used as energy. Sugars in particular are relativly rare in the wild, including Carbohydrates in most of the forms that we use them as humans, including in pet food; ie cooked starch, which burns very quickly and uses allot of water to be burnt

Metabolism - I think this is probably the defining factor in a Savs water usage in relation to the above, the metabolism in reptiles, as we all know, is controlled by enviormental tempretures - if the temps are high all the time, so is its metabolism, this means water is being used by its body to burn food for energy, combined with a high sugar, high fat, high salt diet, this could very well lead to dehydration, very easily - the balance, especially in desert creatures, is very delicate


I think we need some good answers to these questions, if we are going to avoid dehydrating monitors; any thoughts on the subject?