Good info and I agree for the most part. I hope that what I said about switching wasn't taken as being experimenting. I should have been more clear, the times that my dragons spend most many hours outside I sometimes make the conscious decision to not use calcium w/D3. I read the Reptiles mag. article by Allen Repashy and that is stickied at the top of the " general " forum here on this forum. He mentioned some things about calcium + D3 in that article.The main difference between D3 your body naturally produces, and D3 in supplemental form, is your body will only make as much D3 as it needs when exposed to UV. The chemical pathways shut down once enough D3 is circulating in the body, making it impossible to become hypervitaminosis D.
With D3 in supplemental form, your body will attempt to absorb all it can. D being a fat soluble vitamin means it can potentially build up to toxic levels if over supplemented, and the body can suffer from hypervitaminosis D when taken in this form.
That being said.... The amount of D3 in our dragons supplements is much too low (and much too low on the bioavailability scale) to ever need to worry about that. Your dragon would suffer from an overdose on calcium many times over before any ill effects of too much D3 from the supplement occurred.
That also being said... I only use calcium with D3. It's what I've always used. I've never jumped back and fourth between with and without. If i'm dusting with calcium, it contains D3.
How much it helps? I'm not sure. I'm not going to set up an experiment where one dragon gets good lights and no supplements and the other gets no lights but D3 supplements.. unethical IMO and not necessary. But, the D3 in the supplement doesn't hurt, so it stays.
-Brandon
I hope that wasn't the impression that you got from my post., my determinations were in line with what I read by long time reptile breeder who wrote about vit. D3 toxicity in this article that is stickied in this forum at the top of the " general" thread.I agree whole heartedly, the idea of intentionally mis-treating any animal much less a beardie just to see what happens don't set well with me at all. The idea the the end supports the means is total B.S.
Oh no not at all, i was replying to something Claudiusx was talking about, never in my weirdest dreams would i think you would want to experiment on them or brandon either for that matter. ( i should have replied to his post in stead of just commenting, I'm sorry)I hope that wasn't the impression that you got from my post., my determinations were in line with what I read by long time reptile breeder who wrote about vit. D3 toxicity in this article that is stickied in this forum at the top of the " general" thread.
Oh I know, I wasn't trying to direct it at you or imply that you were requesting it The subject has come up before in the past during another discussion (not with you )I hope that wasn't the impression that you got from my post., my determinations were in line with what I read by long time reptile breeder who wrote about vit. D3 toxicity in this article that is stickied in this forum at the top of the " general" thread.