okay I am reading a lot of studies on preformed vitamin A in the Cham world. And everything I read is making me uneasy. I was always told to stay away from preformed vitamin A because of the extreme health consequences. But now I hear that keepers give their Chams preformed A occasionally. I only use one Multivite and it just has beta carotene in it and I am being told the beta-cartene does not propeprly convert to Vit A in Chams. I am really interested in trying preformed Vitamin A with caution, but how much? How often? and what brand / supplement do others use on here?
Preformed Vitamin A? I need some schooling
- Thread starter lojack13
- Start date
Kaianuanu
New Member
I have never heard of "multivite," do you mean Herptivite? Either way, I use Reptivite once a month and then the Heprtivite once a month to give him a source of A. The Reptivite contains a bit of A, I use the one w/o D3. Some members give their chams a drop of fish liver oil on a feeder or in the mouth about once a month as their source of Vitamin A. Some also feed pinkies occasionally for A.
Yeah, sorry about that, I guess I used multivite as a relative term. I use the Herptivite with beta-carotene once a twice a month. Okay so Reptivite has preformed Vitamin A in it? Hmmm, the fish liver oil thing might be a good idea as well. The main reason I am trying to get more educated on this is my male Panther seems to be getting puffiness around one eye and I heard that can stem from Vitamin A deficiency.
Kaianuanu
New Member
If you think he might already have a deficiency, then dosing the fish liver oil for a few days straight might be a good idea. I forgot to mention Repashy Vitamin A Plus is almost pure vit. A, and could be used in place of the fish liver oil. The Reptivite however, would be good once his possible deficiency is cleared up.
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
Hi
You are correct, too much preformed vitamin A (or D3 or any fat soluable vitamin) can build up in the system and cause problems. However,
There are many who feel that chameleons (and many of the common feeder prey choices we provide) do not convert Pro-formed vitamin A (catorene) into Vitamin A. Or at least maybe not efficiently. So they add vitamin A to the diet.
That said, I used Herptivite (no preformed vitamin A) for over a decade and had long lived healthy breeding panthers.
Nevertheless, it is safe and perhaps beneficial to add a little preformed vitamin A (ie retinol) to your chameleons diet, either via supplement or via gutloaded insects. I myself an now using Repashy Calcium Plus about 4 times a month as my multivitamin (including for D3 and Vitamin A) and I use Sticky Tongue Farms Mineral-O for my vitamin free calcium supplement.
If you offer a wide range of feeder prey and gutload well, your reliance on supplements need not be as great.
You will find information about Vitamin A (with links to some good threads on the topic) within this blog entry:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html
Awesome, I will definitely look into the blog and those supplements.
I used beta carotene with my cham and he does well with it and it's safer than pure vit A. Beta C is fat soluble so you need to add fat to their diet to use it. I got some pill from cvs and mixed them with olive oil it breaks it down put in a container then put it on some veggies, use 3-6 drops and make a salad. Louie doesn't always eat vegs but I put them in a bird feeder just on the off chance he wants it.
