Supplements

[TravisConklin]

Hello everyone, trying to get ready for my sons and my beardie. Doing lots of research, great site by the way. I am about to order some more stuff and the site I am ordering from has some of the supplements. A (Calcium Carbonate Powder) http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Calciumcarb.html with no D3 since I will be using a UVB. A Multivitamin with acidophilus http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Multivitamin.html

My question is has anyone used these products? If so the, pros and cons. Also, should I be doing this (the adding of Calcium and Multi)? I have never supplement for a pet before.

 

[Repkyle]

I use calcium carbonate 3 times a week, and multivit twice a week. I put the feeders into a tub with a pinch of the supplement and gently shake. Then serve you can dust salad to but ATM my little guy won't touch the stuff yet.

Hope this helps, and good luck With you baby beardie

I forgot to mention I have no experience with them brands but I'm sure the advice applies to all

 

[izzbo]

When Klaude, my bearded dragon, was a under 1 year old I dusted his bugs w/Exo Terra Calcium + D3 every third day and used Rep-Cal Herptivite multi-vitamin once a week. So for example on Sunday I dusted, then on Monday and Tuesday no dust, and on Wednesday dusted, etc ... And usually used the Herptivite on a day during the week that I wasn't using the calcium. So I wouldn't forget I got a calandar by his cage and marked out about 3 months in advance. A blue C for calcium days and red M for multi-vitamin days. A little over board but when I started I had a hard time remembering when to dust and when not to. After he fully matured I switched his live feeding to every other day and dusted each feeding w/Calcuim + D3 since he is eating less and kept the once a week Herptivite.

I've heard of people using just calcium and no D3 and who like to dust every day but they supplemented D3 at least a few times a week. I do think you need to supplement D3 somewhere even though you are using a UVB.

Hope that helps out some.

 

[TravisConklin]

After reading more, I am a little confused about the calcium and calcium with D3.

The site mentioned above says, I don't need the calcium with D3, and it seems like with the above posts that I should use it.

Understand? Little clarification if you could please.

 

[Paradon]

You don't need it. the multivitamin already has the vitamin D3 in it.

 

[izzbo]

The poster above has it correct. If your multi has D3 you're ok.

 

[TravisConklin]

Thank you for the replys. Think I got it now.

 

[Paradon]

Also you wanna follow the Beautifuldragon recommendation on how much to supplement. You wanna supplement calcium more than multivitamin because a lot of the food they eat has a lot of phosphorous like the insects and veggies and so do the multivitamin you use. So every time you supplement multivitamin you also want to add a pinch of calcium to balance out the ratio of calcium to phosphrous ratio, which should be about 2:1 ideally. And also on extra days, you wanna supplement calcium alone for the reason that their are a lot of phosphorous in their food. Just follow the beautifuldragon chart and you're be fine. Remember! YOu wanna your dragon to get more calcium than phosphorous.

 

[techdave]

Using the d3 is dependant on what type of uvb bulb you are using.

A MVB(Mercury Vapor Bulb) does not require d3
A bulb such as the Reptisun 10.0(the one that's recomended if you 're in the US) does require d3

 

[Paradon]

I think there's enough D3 in the multivitamin. As long as you supplement consistanty on schedule, your bearded should be fine.