supplement and gutloading myth or fact

[reptilover]

I was in my local petsmart for lack of a better local establishment buying routine feeders supplements water conditioners. I started talking with an employee that has proved very knowledgeable in herps of all forms. But was taken back when I was told by her not to dust my crickets for my juvi male veiled (frankie). Only gut load them. With a rare helping of d3 and rarer vit A. Which I've beem doing. I also have always gutloaded with a variety of proven fruits and veggies but I dust 2/3 of my crickets daily with OUT D3 calcium sup. Is she right? Or should I continue my normal schedual.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Gutloading is indeed important, but with many of the common feeder types youre still going to need to add calcium (your gutload is unlikley to be sufficiently high in calcium to balance off the amount of phosphorous in the prey naturally).
It does depend on the type of feeder and the type of chameleon etc as to how must you should dust. But with crickets and for your veiled, keep to what you are doing.

 

[reptilover]

Thank u very much I appreciate ur speedy response. I was waiting on it for frankies breakfast.

 

[reptilover]

What about vitamin A I have a herpvit that's very strong in vit A but not purely vit A. I've been.doing bi monthly. Should it be more or less. The instructions say every feeding. Obviously not for chams. Veiled anyway. I dip cricket In vit A powder and feed directly.to insure he gets what I'm giving him. I'm doing the very best because I'm disappointed with there life expectancy and need to maximize it.

 

[kinyonga]

Here's some information I hope will help you with supplementing, etc.....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it.

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.

A bit more explanation...
PrOformed vitamin A (beta carotene) can not build up in the system comes from veggies and greens.
PrEformed vitamin A (retinol, retinal, etc.) comes from animal sources (meat, liver, whole milk, cheese, egg, dog food, cat food, etc.) as well as "man-made" sources found in vitamin pills (acetate, palmitate, etc.) and all of these ones can build up in the system and cause problems (MBD, reproductive issues, etc.).

Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.

 

[GregNY]

Very useful kinyonga

 

[reptilover]

Thank u so much very informative. Im using the same powders as u and sounds like Im close. I'll do more reading of the labels and try to perfect my balance thanks again. And is it true rapashy is a one powder all the time fix all? Could it be soo!

 

[ZuggieTheCham]

Ye it is we use that all the time it great. So u dont have to worry about the rest and are guy if fine growin up so fast

 

[reptilover]

They do grow up so fast . I never thought Id own one. Till I went to petsmart and saw one withering away with ribs showing heavily and sunken eyes. Spent hours and hours researching and wearing out my debit card. It's been 2 months he's back to normal and I dont know how I lived without one