Calcium Glubionate/Watering Crickets with It

[chammysaurus]

Hello and merry meet everyone,
I have a male baby veiled chame, about 2-3 mos. old. (I'm new here, and new to Chameleons, but have kept anoles and leopard geckos in the past.)

Of course I have a lot of questions. I was researching using liquid calcium glubionate on this forum. My question is, "Can I put it in the cricket water to supplement them as feeder insects?" If so, in what dosage? I have one of those chick waterers with a foam sponge in it for a water source. It might hold 16 ounces of water. Or would it be better to make homemade "cricket quencher" from florist's water gel powder, and mix the calcium glu. in that? If so, how much?

I notice some people bought the calcium glubionate from the bearded dragon site, and others purchased it OTC in a generic liquid form. Which is preferable? My chame does get sunlight exposure from a zoomed powersun bulb, so I don't think I need the form with D3 in it. (I do have repcal powders with and w/o D3 in them.)
Thanks!
Chammysaurus

 

[sandrachameleon]

I suggest not. crickets that injest much of it will probably perish.

Use liquid calcium only as necessary and as directed. Use something like Miner-al (sticky tongue farms) or your Rep-Cal for your calcium dusting onto prey (those types that need it) just prior to feeding off.

 

[Olimpia]

It's not necessary to force that much calcium into a feeder artificially, the best way to to use gutloading foods that contain high calcium levels to start with, like dark leafy greens like collard or mustard greens. And then if you ever need to supplement with the liquid calcium (say, if you have a laying female) the easiest trick it just to inject a feeder with a drop or two of it.

It is possible to over-do the calcium supplementation so don't add the liquid calcium to everything. Like Sandra says, use only when necessary. There are other ways of making sure your chameleon has the proper levels of everything it needs.