vitamins and minerals

[jeff martin]

I know somewhere here its been beat to death, But please help me out and give a recommended program if you have experience with these products, They where recommended by a very good breeder. My Cham is a Panther 5 plus months old and i am feeding him crickets and trying to get him into dubia roaches. Thanks !!

 

[Zen Reptiles]

Use the MinerAll 0 (the one without d3) once a week for the first two weeks
of the month, and minerall 1 (with the d3) once on the third week of the month,
and on the fourth week of the month, use the vitamin one.
If you do this way you should dust just about every feeder with the powder.

I think Minerall 0 is okay to use more frequently than I just recommended though,
it is one of the more balanced supplements out there.

You can, alternatively, dust every feeding just 1-3 feeders, instead of dusting
all of them.

I VERY lightly coat my feeders every day, but very very very very very lightly.

Most people use quite a bit of supplement when they dust, so that's why I
recommend the once a week.

 

[jannb]

Here's where I buy my supplements: http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/reptile-supplies/vitamins-medicines-and-cage-cleaners/

I use the first one, the third one and the fifth one.

Plain calcium at just about every feeding

Calcium with d3 twice a month

Multi vit. once a month

 

[jeff martin]

Ok thanks for your advice.

 

[dodolah]

For the MinerALL I, twice a week will be fine if needed.
MinerAll 0 i usually use twice a week
I used Herptivite (not to be confused with Reptivite -the one on your pics) twice a week
and One day of the week no dusting

I have not tried Reptivite yet. But, soon I will make the change to that exact product you have there.
Since they used preformed vit A instead of B. Carotene, I would imagine you should use it less frequently.


Many people here used RepCal D3 with that once a month scheduling.

MinerAll I consist significantly less D3 than RepCal.. thus, a bit more frequent is okay.
Just remember, when the cricket change color after you dust, you knew you have put too much supplement.
When I dust, I dust very sparingly in quantity.

Also as you can see, there is quite difference in the regiment between mine, Jann's, and Brock's. This is truly based on the chameleon individual need (how good are your gutloading quality, how often your chameleon got a chance to be in the real sun, etc etc). at the end of the day, you should adjust the regiment according to your cham's need.

 

[jeff martin]

Thank You for taking the time to explain, Helps me out a bunch. Question ? I have a 16' x 12' bedroom in my house that i am going to convert into a small jungle if you will, And allow my cham to free roam. With a fairly dense canopy and plenty of lighting and basking areas, Do you think 4 mellers could live and not have problems. Thank You !!

 

[Eric Adrignola]

The exact regement is easy to figure out once you have a better understanding of why it is you are varying things up.

The four products I use are, in two categories:
[Minerals]
Rep cal with D3 (minerall WITH D3 works as well, but has less D3 content)
Minerall 0 without D3 (repcal without D3 works just as well, but lacks additional minerals)

[vitamins]
Herptivite with beta carotene as a source for vitamin A
Fluker'smultivitamin or Reptivite, both with preformed vitamin A

Vitamin D3 is required for calcium to be used by the body. Without it, the body will pull calcium from bones in order for other calcium-dependant metabolic processess to function.

D3 is normally synthesized by the animal itself. UVB radiation reacts with the animals' skins producing D3.

When denied natural sunlight, artificial methods of supplying D3 are necessary.

UVB bulbs help, but do not provide enough radiation in most cases. So, supplemental D3 is used as a, well, supplement. You want to be sure you don't overdose them, but you want to be sure they're getting enough. The "safe range" for artificial D23 supplementation varies between species, but it is generally high enough that a light dusting every week or two will not hurt.

When NATURAL sunlight is used, you do not want to give them D3. That's one reason the calcium without D3 comes in handy.

UVB bulbs will give them some D3 as well - so for the most part, I use the minerals without D3. I like minerall in addition to repcal because minerall has additional trace minerals, not just calcium. But I really trust repcal, so I use both.

I tend to dust at every other feeding, sometimes more often, it varies. I lightly dust with minerall 0 twice aweek. Once a week, I lightly dust with repcal with D3. Often, I will "cut" the repcal with minerall, so the D3 content is not so high. It's better, in my opinion, to give lower amounts of vitamins more frequently, than it is to give infrequent large doses.

Once every 10 days or so (again, I vary the heck out of this depending on diet ans other factors!), I give them herptivite. Every 2 weeks to a month (depending on diet, species, my mood at the time, etc) I give them a multivitamin WITH preformed vitamin A. I usually give one dusted cricket to each chameleon by hand. Just to make sure they have some vitamin A in their systems.

An alternative is to break open a liquid vitamin A capsule. I feel better with a powder, personally, as I've been using the stuff for 15 years and never had any overdose problems or edema* - so I know it works.

*One female veield got edema a year or so back. I had not given her any Reptivite with vitamin A for months, as my daughter dumped it all out. They didn't have reptivite, so I got the flukers stuff. It seems to work just as well. within a week or so, it was all gone and has not come back. She's laid two clutches since then with no edema.

I had a WC melleri develop slight edema. I had not given him any vitamin A for fear of edema. I gave him some, and it went away. So, now, as a preventative, I go with the 1x or 2x a month preformed vitamin A supplementation.