Calcium - Can you Overdose and Give Your Dragon Too Much?

[thatLizardGuy]

I was always told to always Dust Crickets and the More Calcium you give your Bearded Dragons the Better. (As in you can never use too much Calcium so use a Ton of it).

But today someone said that you can indeed give them too much Calcium and Overdose.

Is that True?

 

[Taterbug]

Yes. More is not always better.

Calcium is an essential nutrient/element, it isn't a food group. It needs to be controlled and provided in balance with other nutrients - especially phosphorus and D3. Too much calcium can damage organs, calcify soft tissues and lead to disorders similar to MDB. (Hypercalcimia)

It's more difficult to OD on calcium than under dose, but the symptoms and side effects are also harder to identify.

Crickets should be dusted lightly - not like ghosts or powdered doughnuts.

 

[thatLizardGuy]

Yes. More is not always better.

Calcium is an essential nutrient/element, it isn't a food group. It needs to be controlled and provided in balance with other nutrients - especially phosphorus and D3. Too much calcium can damage organs, calcify soft tissues and lead to disorders similar to MDB. (Hypercalcimia)

It's more difficult to OD on calcium than under dose, but the symptoms and side effects are also harder to identify.

Crickets should be dusted lightly - not like ghosts or powdered doughnuts.

Should you always Dust Crickets, Mealworm, and Superworms or only so Many Days a Week.

And if so How often should they be Dusted?

 

[lori2plus1]

General rule of thumb is dust feeders once per day for 5 days per week with calcium, and the other 2 days a week dust once with vitamins.

 

[Taterbug]

I'm still trying to sort that out. Personally I lightly dust calcium on most insects and currently do vitamins 2x weekly. I don't dust veggies unless I'm not able to offer greens. I think the advice Lori gives is also ok - it's the standard guideline here and dragons seem to do fine on it. Other sites and keepers suggest differently... In the end there is a lot of opinion and variation out there.

To me, dusting one meal per day and feeding multiple meals sounds like a recipe for potentially under supplementing. For example: Say a dragon eats 10 crickets in the am, and they are dusted. Then eats 10 for lunch and 10 in the evening that aren't dusted. The Ca ratio will be closer to 0.7:1 than the ideal 2:1... Probably not a huge deal (especially if the crickets are well gut loaded) but it's still a negative ratio.