Proper diet for a young leos

[DrZen]

I know that there are a LOT of this kind of threads about diet and supplementation, however, they got me more confused than helped me :sad:

I have two young leos (4 weeks old), i got them with 3 weeks or so. I feed them mealworms daily (the male eats about 5-7 and the female eats about 5-8 ), I recently got crickets (they are fully grown), can I give them to my geckos anyway? I'm kinda worried.

I also got Rep-Cal Calcium with D3 and their Herptivite, I read on their site that the ratio of mixing before dusting the feeders is 1:1, can I dust every feeding? And can I keep what I didn't use on a bottle? (Here in Brazil it is expensive as it can be, but I just got it here because ordering from eBay would take too long).

Can I feed them everyday until they are 1 year old or should I stop it earlier?

Thanks. :biggrin:

 

[Andi]

They are 4 weeks old or 4 months? at 4 weeks you can not know the sex. I also used Rep Cal products but they are too high in D3 and I switched to Repashy.

a 4 week old Leo can not handle a fully grown cricket.

 

[DrZen]

They are 4 weeks old or 4 months? at 4 weeks you can not know the sex. I also used Rep Cal products but they are too high in D3 and I switched to Repashy.

a 4 week old Leo can not handle a fully grown cricket.

They are 4 weeks old...

Thanks for your attention.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

DrZen ~

A warm welcome to Geckos Unlimited!

Do NOT dust with those Rep-Cal products at every feeding. :-( Lightly dust with Rep-Cal's calcium with D3 no more than 2x per week. Consider getting Reptivite with D3 for the multivitamin.

I like Zoo Med's Rept-Calcium with vitamin D3 and Zoo Med's Reptivite (multivitamin) with D3/A acetate. Vitamin A acetate is important for healthy eyes and skin.

Caution: A little Reptivite goes a LOOOONG way. With Repashy's one is giving a multivitamin every time one dusts.

Rep-Cal's Herptivite contains Beta Carotene. There is some question whether leos can metabolize beta carotene.

Were your 4 week old leos incubated for a particular sex?

 

[DrZen]

DrZen ~

A warm welcome to Geckos Unlimited!

Do NOT dust with those Rep-Cal products at every feeding. :-( Lightly dust with Rep-Cal's calcium with D3 no more than 2x per week. Consider getting Reptivite with D3 for the multivitamin.

I like Zoo Med's Rept-Calcium with vitamin D3 and Zoo Med's Reptivite (multivitamin) with D3/A acetate. Vitamin A acetate is important for healthy eyes and skin.

Caution: A little Reptivite goes a LOOOONG way. With Repashy's one is giving a multivitamin every time one dusts.

Rep-Cal's Herptivite contains Beta Carotene. There is some question whether leos can metabolize beta carotene.

Were your 4 week old leos incubated for a particular sex?

Sorry for taking too long to awnser... :biggrin:

Are Rep-Cal's products so bad? The only way to get the products you mentioned is buying them off eBay, is there a chance of the products arrive damaged in any way? (Zoo Med's)

And again, sorry, I didn't get the last part of your message after the caution part.

And yes, they were incubated for a particular sex, that's how I know it.

I'm thinking about changing supplements, Rep-Cal's aren't sticking to the mealworms

-------

Looking at some older posts of yours, like this one : http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...ros-pics/54449-calcium-powder.html#post305348 . I see you recomended getting Herptivite, what changed your mind?

 

[DrZen]

DrZen ~

A warm welcome to Geckos Unlimited!

Do NOT dust with those Rep-Cal products at every feeding. :-( Lightly dust with Rep-Cal's calcium with D3 no more than 2x per week. Consider getting Reptivite with D3 for the multivitamin.

I like Zoo Med's Rept-Calcium with vitamin D3 and Zoo Med's Reptivite (multivitamin) with D3/A acetate. Vitamin A acetate is important for healthy eyes and skin.

Caution: A little Reptivite goes a LOOOONG way. With Repashy's one is giving a multivitamin every time one dusts.

Rep-Cal's Herptivite contains Beta Carotene. There is some question whether leos can metabolize beta carotene.

Were your 4 week old leos incubated for a particular sex?

I awnsered you, i think the post got deleted, but anyway...

They were incubated for a particular sex, that's how I know...

What's the problem powdering the calcium with D3 more than 2x a week (considering they are this young, won't they have problems?) ? And the multivitamin should contain D3 too? How often should I use it?

The only way of getting those products at a fair price is buying them of eBay (I live in Brazil), should I be worried about when the products arrive, they have already perished?

Looking through some posts, I found one of yours: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...ros-pics/54449-calcium-powder.html#post305348

What has changed your mind about Herptivite? Vitamin A (like everything in excess) can easily cause an overdose, right?

Can I lightly powder calcium withouth D3 and use the calcium with D3 on the frequency that you said?

And also, I don't leave calcium laying around the tank 24/7 (due to reading some recent posts here and on other forums)

Sorry for my poor skills, but the caution part, I really don't get it, can you explain it better?

Thanks for your attention! :biggrin:

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

I awnsered you, i think the post got deleted, but anyway...

They were incubated for a particular sex, that's how I know...

I see. I'm not sure if "incubating for sex" is 100% certain. Once they are old enough to mate, it will be important to separate them to prevent the female from becoming gravid at too young an age.

What's the problem powdering the calcium with D3 more than 2x a week (considering they are this young, won't they have problems?) ? And the multivitamin should contain D3 too? How often should I use it?

The problem with lightly dusting with calcium with D3 more than 2x weekly is a huge risk of D3 poison/toxicity! Too much D3 is as bad as too little D3. Depends on the multivitamin.

Some people use Repashy's Calcium Plus which is recommended for daily use.

I prefer Zoo Med's Repti-calcium with D3 and Zoo Med's Reptivite with D3 now. These Zoo Med products are newer than the Rep-Cal products that I recommended on 6 March 2011. No doubt I should have updated my recommendation way back then.

The only way of getting those products at a fair price is buying them of eBay (I live in Brazil), should I be worried about when the products arrive, they have already perished?

Excellent question! For my human vitamins I've been told by the company to store them between 59*F-86*F and away from humid locations like the bathroom or kitchen.

Looking through some posts, I found one of yours: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...ros-pics/54449-calcium-powder.html#post305348

What has changed your mind about Herptivite? Vitamin A (like everything in excess) can easily cause an overdose, right?

Research on supplements for reptiles lacks funding. However, there has been research done on chameleons suggesting that they do not metabolize vitamin A in the form of beta carotene. Beta carotene is how vitamin A is provided in Herptivite. Does this research extend to geckos? Vitamin A acetate is good for geckos.

Can I lightly powder calcium withouth D3 and use the calcium with D3 on the frequency that you said?

And also, I don't leave calcium laying around the tank 24/7 (due to reading some recent posts here and on other forums)

:yahoo: on keeping supplements out of the tank!

Sorry for my poor skills, but the caution part, I really don't get it, can you explain it better?

Thanks for your attention! :biggrin:

You may wish to delete your other two posts which seem to be the same as this post?

Suggest using Zoo Med's supplements like this:
1. Monday - Repti-Calcium with D3 on all crickets
2. Thursday - Repti-Calcium with D3 on all crickets
3. Reptivite with D3/A acetate adjusted for your leo's weight: Spread out the lightly dusted Reptivite with D3 crickets over the course of a week.

If you use a formal gutload product like T-Rex Calcium Plus Food for Crickets or Repashy's SuperLoad on a regular basis and feed a nutritious diet like an all purpose poultry food to insects including Blaptica dubia 24/7, it will no doubt be advisable to tweak the above schedule. Feeding your geckos insects and worms whose entire body is healthy (and not only their guts) is very important! Consider lightly dusting the prey as just icing on the cake.

On the 10 June 2013 I visited my exotics veterinarian with my leo and another gecko. The vet recommended Zoo Med's Reptivite with vitamin D3/A acetate multivitamin. He stated that only "a little tiny pinch of the multivitamin with D3" should be used 1x per week. He suggested formally gutloading the insects with T-Rex Calcium Plus Food for Crickets. He seemed satisfied that I feed Albers' All Purpose Poultry Feed to my crickets and to my dubia.

"Zoo Med Reptivite directions for Insectivores: Place crickets in a plastic bag with a small amount of Reptivite w/d3 and shake to "dust" crickets with the powder. Feed approximately 12 dusted crickets per week for every 2.5 ounces (71 grams) of body weight."

[So if your leo weighs 24 grams, the recommendation would be only 4 lightly dusted crickets per week with Reptivite with D3. Baby leopard geckos weigh much less, so be sure to adjust the dosage accordingly!]

These guidelines are good for crickets:
Click -- http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...-feeding-issues/68574-cricket-guidelines.html

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

PS:

Check out these posts following my Leopard Gecko Caresheet that is linked below in my signature:
Post #22: Mod Hilde on vitamins
Post #24: Calcium with D3 comparisons: Zoo Med, Rep Cal, Fluker, & Exo Terra

 

[DrZen]

PS:

Check out these posts following my Leopard Gecko Caresheet that is linked below in my signature:
Post #22: Mod Hilde on vitamins
Post #24: Calcium with D3 comparisons: Zoo Med, Rep Cal, Fluker, & Exo Terra

I've read your posts and caresheet, thanks for being so helpful :biggrin:


I feed them on a stable diet of mealworms, I will buy crickets that are appropriate for their size - I don't like breeding crickets - (according to the width between their eyes, right? ). Just wanna get it right...

The diet that you've recommended are fit for baby leos? (Calcium with D3 2x per week and Reptivite with D3 over the course of a week) Considering that probably they will get 1 cricket per week (according to your instructions, if I got it right) and feeding on mealworms dusted with Reptivite over the week.

Can I continue to follow them as they grow up?

Are these ( Repti Calcium® with D3 and ReptiVite? with D3) the supplements recommended?

Again, thanks for helping me! :biggrin:

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

I've read your posts and caresheet, thanks for being so helpful :biggrin:

I feed them on a stable diet of mealworms, I will buy crickets that are appropriate for their size - I don't like breeding crickets - (according to the width between their eyes, right? ). Just wanna get it right...

You are very welcome!

That cricket size sounds about right.

The diet that you've recommended are fit for baby leos? (Calcium with D3 2x per week and Reptivite with D3 over the course of a week) Considering that probably they will get 1 cricket per week (according to your instructions, if I got it right) and feeding on mealworms dusted with Reptivite over the week.

I use the same supplement schedule for hatchlings as I do for mature geckos. I've only hatched one baby leo, but I have hatched many northern velvet geckos. That's the schedule I use for them.

The updated directions (somewhere) suggest giving Zoo Med's Reptivite multivitamin with D3 based on a gecko's weight. My vet suggests only a tiny pinch of Reptivite with D3 1x weekly. I like to tweak this a bit further and spread out the Reptivite "dose" for the week throughout the week.

It is important to build healthy feeders bodies by feeding the feeders good meals 24/7.

Can I continue to follow them as they grow up?

/\ not sure what you mean.

Are these ( Repti Calcium® with D3 and ReptiVite? with D3) the supplements recommended?

Those are the correct supplements!

Again, thanks for helping me! :biggrin:

:banana: