To tell you the truth, I have not been able to get the WER diet for some time and use chicken laying feed. I believe some of the ingredients included are bone meal in limited amounts.

Bone meal does include the calcium, phospherous and the cholicalciferol (D3). The only concern about using bone meal as the primary source is the phos.

So yes it does have vit D3. Is this enough??? Don't know.... I suspect that you would need to supplement a little more.


As far as your gravid females, yes, their D3 requirements would be higher when the shells of the eggs are being formed. This does not mean in the wild that they are eatting more and absorbing more calcium in their diet.

It may just mean that they are leaching more calcium from their excess in bone during that time and their bodies make up the difference in the off season.
When they are pregnant in the wild, I would imagine they are more of a target, so hiding (away from direct sun) may be a natural advantage. (Getting eaten is more immediate than calcium deficiency.)

So just like juvies, I like to supplement the gravid females (and recovering females) more often to SLOWLY build back reserves. Not too much or we deal with oversupplementation and gout.

Talk to you later,
Matthew

__________________
Matthew Wheelock, DVM
Dilworth Animal Hospital, Charlotte NC (704) 808-7387

Netro,

What type of cham do you have?

Most likely you are oversupplementing.

Use a good gutload (dry) and plenty of different veggies.
Calcium carbonate every day is okay by itself, though is probably unnecessary.

I would use calcium with d3 only once every 1-2 weeks depending on the type of cham you are on.

I might only use the mineral or reptivite once every 1-3 weeks depending on the diet of this adult animal. This is all dependent on the feeders/gutload and lighting you use.

Matthew

__________________
Matthew Wheelock, DVM
Dilworth Animal Hospital, Charlotte NC (704) 808-7387

Thanks for your answer, I have a female pardalis and 20 juveniles...(and 20 more eggs in the incubator...)
I'm giving a good combination of veggies and frut, around 25% frut 75% veggies.
About lightning, 2.0 and 5.0 from exoterra and neodimyum spot also from exoterra, direct sun light almost never.

regards,