Calcium cravings?

[Axil]

Wasn't really sure if this belongs in feeding or health but Beebz has been acting a little odd with his roaches.

Since Sunday he absolutely will not eat them if they don't have calcium powder on them. He's been getting more picky in general the last couple weeks and I just took away his worms for a bit thinking that was the reason. That's when I discovered he gets super excited to eat roaches will calcium but won't touch them otherwise.

He must be able to smell it as taking an undusted bowl of roaches out and applying powder results in him running to the bowl and chowing down.

He still eats greens, though as an experiment I put a little bit of calcium on some salad and he tore that up too.

So my question is, should I assume he knows what he needs and let him have calcium every time he gets roaches or should I go back to only offering calcium 5 times a week?

Right now I'm letting him have the calcium with d3 on the regular schedule and giving him calcium without d3 the rest of the time.

His temps haven't changed and his reptisun UVB was new in February.

 

[KarrieRee]

Wasn't really sure if this belongs in feeding or health but Beebz has been acting a little odd with his roaches.

Since Sunday he absolutely will not eat them if they don't have calcium powder on them. He's been getting more picky in general the last couple weeks and I just took away his worms for a bit thinking that was the reason. That's when I discovered he gets super excited to eat roaches will calcium but won't touch them otherwise.

He must be able to smell it as taking an undusted bowl of roaches out and applying powder results in him running to the bowl and chowing down.

He still eats greens, though as an experiment I put a little bit of calcium on some salad and he tore that up too.

So my question is, should I assume he knows what he needs and let him have calcium every time he gets roaches or should I go back to only offering calcium 5 times a week?

Right now I'm letting him have the calcium with d3 on the regular schedule and giving him calcium without d3 the rest of the time.

His temps haven't changed and his reptisun UVB was new in February.

If the dragon is less than a year old he should be getting only D3 ONCE per feeding lightly coated 5 x per week --

 

[Axil]

If the dragon is less than a year old he should be getting only D3 ONCE per feeding lightly coated 5 x per week --

That's what I was doing before.

I'm trying to figure out if his desire for calcium to the point he doesn't want to eat roaches that aren't dusted should lead me to just give him the extra calcium he wants.

Or should I just continue to only let him have dusted insects once a day and just make him wait until the next day if he won't eat again?

 

[KarrieRee]

That's what I was doing before.

I'm trying to figure out if his desire for calcium to the point he doesn't want to eat roaches that aren't dusted should lead me to just give him the extra calcium he wants.

Or should I just continue to only let him have dusted insects once a day and just make him wait until the next day if he won't eat again?

Boy I don't know- let's get some more input on this -
@AHBD
@Drache613

 

[xp29]

@Claudiusx might know also.

 

[Axil]

Thanks guys. Reading some older posts

won't eat unless dusted crickets | Feeding | Bearded Dragon .org

Thread 'Only eats calcium dusted dubia'

The advice given seems to be let him have the extra calcium, and don't give any extra d3. Not sure if the opinions have changed in the 6-7 years since these were posted though.

 

[Claudiusx]

Calcium dusting is hardly a science. The amount of variance is huge. Even if you're dusting 5x a week, how much calcium powder is your dragon consuming? What if you dusted every feeding just with lighter amounts of dust then you normally do. Now you're dusting 14 times a week but the dragon is getting the same amount of calcium.

If your dragon is only wanting to eat the roaches that are dusted, then let him. You can always adjust by using a lighter coat.

Easier to tell your dragon is getting too much as opposed to not enough. Watch the urates for discoloration. Discoloration will be a sign of over supplementation, which will be compounded by a lack of water in the diet.

Personally, I exclusively use calcium with d3. Never have used only calcium. Never have seen or had a dragon with hypervitamintosis D. But, thats a whole seperate discussion.

-Brandon

 

[Axil]

Calcium dusting is hardly a science. The amount of variance is huge. Even if you're dusting 5x a week, how much calcium powder is your dragon consuming? What if you dusted every feeding just with lighter amounts of dust then you normally do. Now you're dusting 14 times a week but the dragon is getting the same amount of calcium.

If your dragon is only wanting to eat the roaches that are dusted, then let him. You can always adjust by using a lighter coat.

Easier to tell your dragon is getting too much as opposed to not enough. Watch the urates for discoloration. Discoloration will be a sign of over supplementation, which will be compounded by a lack of water in the diet.

Personally, I exclusively use calcium with d3. Never have used only calcium. Never have seen or had a dragon with hypervitamintosis D. But, thats a whole seperate discussion.

-Brandon

Thank you for the response.

He actually calls BS on me if i try to go really light on the dusting, and won't eat them. He skipped his morning feeding entirely today, and that may have been what happened. My daughter was handling it so I'm not sure, she said she dusted them and he still refused. Tonight he ate a bunch of roaches and a few mealworms and supers. Oh and salad... he has been way better about eating lots of salad the past week.

His Urate has had a slightly orange tinge on one end the past 3 days. I think his hydration is good, he pretty much won't drink unless it's on or in food, but his feces are always damp with a small pool of extra water so I've always figured he must be getting enough.

He's also dealing with pinworms (no treatment) and while he acts fine i wonder if that could be part of the reason for discolored Urate, and perhaps also the reason he wants more calcium. Maybe the parasites steal some?

I know what you mean with the D3/no D3 being a whole can of worms. I've listened to a couple podcasts with vets warning against too much, and my own vet said no more than twice a week. On the other hand some people seem to use a lot more than that and it seems to rarely be an issue.

The other things going on with him right now is he has taken to wall surfing in the mornings every day. Not sure if that's a good sign because he's more active or a bad one because he's stressed out about somthing. Usually if i take him out for a few minutes he knocks it off when he goes back in.