Dusting Schedule

[mhfan305]

I figured for a grown male Kinyongia Tavetana, I would dust the crickets with calcium without D3 6 days a week. 1 day without any supplements. Or should I do 7 days of calcium with no D3? And I would dust the feeders WITH D3 once a month. Also, would I need herptivite/multivitamin? If so, I would dust the feeders with that once a month. Does this all sound correct?

EDIT: I was told that because it is of a montane species that I should supplement at lower dosages. Once a week with regular calcium no D3 is sufficient. Does this sound right?

 

[Mike Fisher]

Depends on who you ask.

If I only had access to commercially available products, I would use plain calcium every feeding, calcium with D3 once or twice a month depending on how much UVB you are providing, but no vitamin powders, just gut loaded feeders that have been fed a high vitamin A diet. If you could find a vitamin powder that has very low to no vitamin A, that would be good but I've yet to see one.

They are sensitive to excess vitamin A supplementation as well as D3 overdose.

I believe there is still a flaw in this way of doing it, so I ball mill my own powders to address it.

 

[kinyonga]

To me, since the insects we use as feeders always have a poor ratio of calcium to phos its makes sense that we should dust them almost every time that we feed them to the lizard...no??

 

[mhfan305]

So now I should dust every feeding with regular calcium, and calcium with D3 once a month? I dont know but this has to be figured out by thursday this week...

 

[Mike Fisher]

So now I should dust every feeding with regular calcium, and calcium with D3 once a month? I dont know but this has to be figured out by thursday this week...

That's pretty much what most everybody does, but pay attention to your labels...the IU/kg of your D3 is important. Some of these supplements list "with D3" but some have a lot and some have a little. Rep-cal with D3 has a lot, and Miner-all indoor formula barely has any at all.

When I used commercial supplements I used rep-cal with D3 twice a month and plain old calcium every day. There are way more to choose from now, and I do not have experience with any of them, so I defer to others to chime in on that.

 

[mhfan305]

We'll as much as it bothers me not to dust almost every feeding, since mine is a montane species, I will dust once a week with regular calcium, and once a month with rep cal d3 since it has more a d3 ratio in it. I will wait for an montane expert also.

 

[Mike Fisher]

We'll as much as it bothers me not to dust almost every feeding, since mine is a montane species, I will dust once a week with regular calcium, and once a month with rep cal d3 since it has more a d3 ratio in it. I will wait for an montane expert also.

That's a prescription for MBD, IMO. Good luck in your search for a montane expert.