Calcium w/ D3 vs w/o

[amfire125]

Which vitamins would you recommend? And are they different depending on species; I've heard jacksons are more susceptible to vitamin A poisoning or something...

I am a beginner myself and I'm learning, so I would definitely listen to others' advice. I'm also preparing for my first veiled chameleon, not a jackson's chameleon.

 

[Bush baby]

During the summer when I take my 4 year old Jacksons outside at least once a week, I never use Calcium with D3. The only time I used calcum with D3 is during the winter months here in Maryland (from November to March) and I only use it ONCE a month. Like someone else pointed out, Jacksons don't need it as much as other species do.

My supplementation schedule is:
Calcium WITHOUT D3 - two -three times a week.
MultiVitamins - Once a month

Focus more on gutloading, and rely less on supplementation.

 

[Kiraral]

Interesting to me to see that you had that expierence....I am getting set up for my first cham right now (she’s picked out and purchased but not home with me quite yet) and I discovered my LPS only carries calcium with D3...4 brands of it, no less. But none without. I ordered some offline, no big, but it seems like a big oversight on the part of the LPS (not surprising....). Someone once told me that tortoises need the calcium without D3, but I don’t know how accurate that is.

 

[amfire125]

Interesting to me to see that you had that expierence....I am getting set up for my first cham right now (she’s picked out and purchased but not home with me quite yet) and I discovered my LPS only carries calcium with D3...4 brands of it, no less. But none without. I ordered some offline, no big, but it seems like a big oversight on the part of the LPS (not surprising....). Someone once told me that tortoises need the calcium without D3, but I don’t know how accurate that is.

As you keep reading on here, many people agree that the LPS's don't offer as much help and support as we'd like. They're not as informed and trained for reptiles as they are for dogs and cats, because it's a market and profit game, so you have to be your own advocate for your pet and do your own homework and research, and yes, order a lot of things online.

 

[Carlton]

Also remember that 99.9% of the time the local store does NOT breed, incubate, hatch, or raise their chams, so they have no idea what incorrect supplementation does to them. They don't hold their stock very long either. If they actually had these animals long term they would soon find out just how bad the husbandry information they spout is. They MIGHT be getting this information out of outdated "care" books, or repeating very old outdated knowledge someone else told them. They are in the business of selling, not keeping.

Once in a while I'd find a local shop (or a particular employee who took an interest) that seemed to really be concerned about the proper care of their chams, so I'd help them get the proper husbandry info if I'd noticed something was off. Once you get this sort of rapport established with a shop it can benefit everyone.

I remember working with a herp shop in CO that was interested in doing a demonstration setup for chams. I ordered a panther from a breeder, set up a screen cage in a different area of the store (most of it was too hot due to all the other "tanks" and big snake enclosures), got proper lighting, live plants, correct supplementation/insect gutloading, and simple fogging system. Printed out a husbandry guide that re-created that setup. Really fun, customers loved it, the cham did very well, and a customer ended up buying the entire setup and the cham. Did a similar thing for their leaf-tailed geckos. Then the shop was sold and got a new manager. Everything went back to the garbage situation it had been in before. Nothing I could suggest made a dent in what this fool believed. It was heartbreaking.

 

[amfire125]

Also remember that 99.9% of the time the local store does NOT breed, incubate, hatch, or raise their chams, so they have no idea what incorrect supplementation does to them. They don't hold their stock very long either. If they actually had these animals long term they would soon find out just how bad the husbandry information they spout is. They MIGHT be getting this information out of outdated "care" books, or repeating very old outdated knowledge someone else told them. They are in the business of selling, not keeping.

Great point. I even got handed a care guide on chameleons at a pet store that said to keep them in glass enclosures.... Still thinking about writing to the pet store's website since this is a major chain pet store... I'm sure many people pick these things up and believe the pamphlets because it's a chain store and they think it's trustworthy!

 

[Carlton]

"Major chain" petshops are often the worst, because they have a corporate office that dictates a lot if not all of their procedures. It's hard enough to convince one independent shop owner that they MIGHT not know everything, but to convince a corporation??? People tend to be lazy...they want the simplest, no-brainer, least expensive way to have an out of the ordinary pet. The pet suffers for their cavalier attitudes and selfishness as a result.