Calcium Citrate for Leopard geckos??

[Saskia]

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Hello to all of those who whish to read,

As I have stated many times, in my country (Venezuela) the reptile hobbists are not very common, and we are like a community and we kinda know each other, several hundreds of people.... But in the pet trade, the reptiles are not an option, so, all of us who keep herps we need to buy our supplies elsewhere, in my particular case I travel to the US a couple times a year and I buy more than enough stuff for my animals (I always have plenty f calcium -both with and without D3; Reptivite, UTHs, temp guns, etc etc etc), but I have many friends who don´t have the option and so, they keep animals in poor condition, I am always giving away calcium and vitamins, because I care about all of their animals (although I am of those who think that if you can´t provide propper care for an animal you shouldn´t have it alltogether, but I can´t decide for other people), so, since they already got leopards I preffer to give them calcium and al they need.

Today I saw a video abot a Leopard gecko setup, which is in the Leopard Gecko caresheet from this forum and I see that the video poster uses NOW Calcium Carbonate (for humans) as his plain calcium for his gecko, and of course I ran to the drugstore to see if they sold that here, and they don´t buuuuuut they do sale Calcium Citrate both, with and without D3.

So, is that a possibility for leopard geckos, or even reptiles in general?????? Can people at least use those as plain calcium to put in the tanks 24/7 ??? What is the difference between calcium carbonate and calcium citrate???

[Saskia]

I have been doing some research and what I have found is that both are god for the organism, but calcium citrate is more expensive to produce and therefor laboratories tend to produce more calcium carbonate, if that were true then calcium citrate would also be an option as plain calcium source for leos.... any chemists here that can give a more scientific opinion? I would REALLY like to be able to give options to the leopard gecko keepers from Venezuela (PS, there is also calcium carbonate here, but ALL of the brands include D3 vit. the only option WITHOUT D3 is calcium citrate)

[avoidtheboyd]

Calcium Citrate is derived from citric acid I think so I'm not sure if it would be good for reptiles or not considering it would probably be substantially more acidic than carbonate.

[Saskia]

Calcium Citrate is derived from citric acid I think so I'm not sure if it would be good for reptiles or not considering it would probably be substantially more acidic than carbonate.

Are you absolutely sure about that??? I have being reading about Calcium Citrate and I haven´t found any links that say it has anything to do with citric acid, (I wish I could post the info that I have found here, but it´s all in spanish), and in fact I am reading that it´s absortion is a lot easier and more effective that calcium carbonate

[avoidtheboyd]

Yeah pretty sure... its a calcium salt precipitated from citric acid.

[Saskia]

Yeah pretty sure... its a calcium salt precipitated from citric acid.

Oh, Ok, so, you would say it´s not recommendable for reptiles?? Any ideas about what other options could we find in the non-reptile market??

[avoidtheboyd]

Truly I'm not sure if it would be ok or not. I'm not sure if any has ever tested the effects of citric acid. Carbonate is an acid too so I don't think acidity would be the problem.

[avoidtheboyd]

Can you not order calcium from anywhere online? It doesn't have to be for reptile use so can you not order from like an online supplement store?

[Saskia]

No, sadly, this is the third world hehehe, there are not online stores here, I went to the biggest pharmacy chain there is (Something like a huge Walgreens) and they don´t have Calcium Carbonate withount D3, if they don´t have it probably no one else does.... which leads me to another question... Can Calcium Carbonate with D3 for humans be used for reptiles?? Because I was always thinking about the non D3 type, but, can the D3 type be used?????

[Saskia]

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I understand online trade is like something you americans see and use everyday, but even as it is known here, nobody dares to do it because we have such a corrupt society that no one pays for anything without receiving it immediately, so, the few brands that have tried to do it, have not been succesfull