Mike Fisher
Established Member
Just sharing some thoughts here about supplements, hopefully there is info in here that can help someone. If anyone wants to share links to relevant information regarding the material, go for it!
There are a lot of questions here regarding the brand and frequency of supplementation, rightfully so. You almost need to be a rocket scientist to figure it all out.
We're learning more every day regarding a chameleons nutritional needs, mostly by trial and error. What works for one keeper and species may fail miserably for another because they are using differing brands of supplements/different lighting etc.
Generally there is a consensus among experienced keepers to use a pure calcium powder at most feedings, a phosphorous free calcium D3 powder twice a month and a vitamin powder twice a month containing a pro-formed beta carotene source of vitamin A.
Generally excellent advice, but using what brand(s) of supplements? For instance, if a person was using Sticky Tongue Farms Minerall Indoor formula that comes with D3, they might be fine to use it every day because the amount of D3 in there is only 4,400IU/kg. But if they were using Rep-Cal with D3, that contains 400,000IU/kg.....Twice a month might be too much for some species and could even overdose a montane species that won't tolerate such a high dose all in one feeding.
Then as keepers, we come up with generalizations, such as, "Montane species won't tolerate dietary D3". That's after they get edema because we gave them one feeding that contained all the D3 they needed for two months because we didn't either look at the label, or failed to understand it.
Realize that I chose those two supplements because they are both at the extreme ranges.
Lately I've been experimenting with low dose/high frequency scheduling. I believe it does not stress the liver or kidneys as much as high dosing at a lower frequency. Yes, it is more frequent, but the dosing is very low so when I share my supplementation schedule, even the most experienced keeper says, "You are going to overdose your chameleon! I'm surprised they all haven't died from edema!" They'll say this without knowing how much D3 or vitamin A I am using per feeding, which is extremely low. I am able to do this because I formulate and mill my own supplements so I know what is in them.
There are a few keepers who advise against any supplements whatsoever relying solely on a varied diet of gutloaded insects, good lighting and natural sunshine.
That can work if you can do it right, however the one thing I'd like to point out is that the majority of feeders available have a horrible calcium/phosphorus ratio. If this is not corrected for in some way, there will be an imbalance which is the root cause of MBD. At the very least, I believe in supplementing with a pure calcium carbonate on those feeders that typically have a lopsided calcium/phosphorus ratio.
My bottom line here...Read and understand the label. Know the calcium/phosphorus ratio of your feeders so you'll know when it is appropriate to dust calcium on them. Your chameleon will thank you.
There are a lot of questions here regarding the brand and frequency of supplementation, rightfully so. You almost need to be a rocket scientist to figure it all out.
We're learning more every day regarding a chameleons nutritional needs, mostly by trial and error. What works for one keeper and species may fail miserably for another because they are using differing brands of supplements/different lighting etc.
Generally there is a consensus among experienced keepers to use a pure calcium powder at most feedings, a phosphorous free calcium D3 powder twice a month and a vitamin powder twice a month containing a pro-formed beta carotene source of vitamin A.
Generally excellent advice, but using what brand(s) of supplements? For instance, if a person was using Sticky Tongue Farms Minerall Indoor formula that comes with D3, they might be fine to use it every day because the amount of D3 in there is only 4,400IU/kg. But if they were using Rep-Cal with D3, that contains 400,000IU/kg.....Twice a month might be too much for some species and could even overdose a montane species that won't tolerate such a high dose all in one feeding.
Then as keepers, we come up with generalizations, such as, "Montane species won't tolerate dietary D3". That's after they get edema because we gave them one feeding that contained all the D3 they needed for two months because we didn't either look at the label, or failed to understand it.
Realize that I chose those two supplements because they are both at the extreme ranges.
Lately I've been experimenting with low dose/high frequency scheduling. I believe it does not stress the liver or kidneys as much as high dosing at a lower frequency. Yes, it is more frequent, but the dosing is very low so when I share my supplementation schedule, even the most experienced keeper says, "You are going to overdose your chameleon! I'm surprised they all haven't died from edema!" They'll say this without knowing how much D3 or vitamin A I am using per feeding, which is extremely low. I am able to do this because I formulate and mill my own supplements so I know what is in them.
There are a few keepers who advise against any supplements whatsoever relying solely on a varied diet of gutloaded insects, good lighting and natural sunshine.
That can work if you can do it right, however the one thing I'd like to point out is that the majority of feeders available have a horrible calcium/phosphorus ratio. If this is not corrected for in some way, there will be an imbalance which is the root cause of MBD. At the very least, I believe in supplementing with a pure calcium carbonate on those feeders that typically have a lopsided calcium/phosphorus ratio.
My bottom line here...Read and understand the label. Know the calcium/phosphorus ratio of your feeders so you'll know when it is appropriate to dust calcium on them. Your chameleon will thank you.
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