Leopard Gecko: Soon to be new owner - Heating Query.

JessJohnson87

New member
Thanks Shane! I was going to pick up some of the Repashy Calcium Plus for Ziggy at some point. I'll hold off to see if Bell still thinks the Repashy the best thing she's ever had. Want to use an all in one instead of 2 different products every other week.
 

Zux

New member
Thanks Shane! I was going to pick up some of the Repashy Calcium Plus for Ziggy at some point. I'll hold off to see if Bell still thinks the Repashy the best thing she's ever had. Want to use an all in one instead of 2 different products every other week.

No prob Jess,

I at first used the two products Elizabeth and many others recommended from Zoo Med. But for a couple of reasons I decided to switch from those.

My first issue was getting Bell to eat anything dusted in the multivitamin at all (she seemed to be offended at the smell of it).

The second was that when I did give her calcium or multivitamins I could never relax about whether she was getting enough or too little or too much of any of it.

The third issue and one that has always bothered me is the nature by which we supplement, multivitamins in my case were being provided 1-2 times monthly because Bell's insects are always fed a healthy diet and gutloaded prior to being fed off. The way I saw it was this, surely it is more preferable to obtain vitamins slowly over the course of a month than all in one go with one or two dustings, this way the vitamins are spread and used more evenly and are always going to be absorbed properly be they fat or water soluble.

- Shane
 

JessJohnson87

New member
I only use calcium with D3 right now and he doesn't seem to mind that, he will eat anything I dust. But I was afraid of buying the multivitamin and him be repulsed by the smell/taste of it and waste $9. Just reading the ingredients in the repashy makes my mouth water....I know, I'm weird o_O
 

Zux

New member
I only use calcium with D3 right now and he doesn't seem to mind that, he will eat anything I dust. But I was afraid of buying the multivitamin and him be repulsed by the smell/taste of it and waste $9. Just reading the ingredients in the repashy makes my mouth water....I know, I'm weird o_O

Yea Bell didn't mind that Calcium with D3 either, just the multivitamin, and to be honest I would rather taste that too rather than the Multivitamin judging by the smell it had.

This takes the guesswork out of supplementing if nothing else since I can rely on the ingredients and formula, ticks all the boxes including preformed vitamin A etc so hopefully her enthusiasm for it continues.

I'll let you know :)


- Shane
 

Jonnette

New member
This is going to sound off the wall but what I figured out with my bearded dragon is the crickets will eat the calcium after you dust them with it. There was times she wouldn't eat them all so the crickets that were dusted cleaned it off there body and absorbed the calcium for when she did eat them. I wonder if they would with the mulitivitamins to that way the Geckos don't have to taste it and not want to eat. What do you think?
 

Zux

New member
This is going to sound off the wall but what I figured out with my bearded dragon is the crickets will eat the calcium after you dust them with it. There was times she wouldn't eat them all so the crickets that were dusted cleaned it off there body and absorbed the calcium for when she did eat them. I wonder if they would with the mulitivitamins to that way the Geckos don't have to taste it and not want to eat. What do you think?

Crickets and many insects believe it or not actually clean themselves with their arms as soon as they become dirty, within an hour a cricket if uneaten will often have removed almost all the dust but wont necessarily have consumed it (not enough that could be relied upon anyway). So sadly though a smart idea it probably wouldn't work :cry:
 

JessJohnson87

New member
I have no idea, most of the crickets I ever dusted got eaten but some reptiles do not like dusted food at all. Never watched dusted crickets to see if they would clean themselves, sounds like an interesting experiment.....
 

Zux

New member
Hey,

Repashy Calcium Plus - Update #2
Bell still seems to like the taste and smell and eats anything I have offered so far which has been dusted with it. All seems good !

- Shane
 

JessJohnson87

New member
I picked up some yesterday from the shop I get my roaches and hornworms at. Tried it tonight and he ate the first roach lightly dusted but wouldn't eat the other until both of us almost killed it. When I opened the bottle I was like oh my god this smells so good :lol:
 

Jonnette

New member
That's to bad it would be a lot easier for them. I don't even like the taste of them:( Its to bad they don't make flavored ones for the Reptiles and other animals that need them. What are the foods they would have to eat to get the Vitamins they need. Do you know? I'm going to google it and see. Thanks for the answer have a good night:idea:
 

Jonnette

New member
Does that depend on the size what you feed them. Tiny is just able to eat pin head crickets I don't have any new born ****roaches yet and the Super worms and meal worms are way to big for her. She isn't a leo or crested gecko she is a C mitratus she doesn't eat veggies and fruit from what I have read and been told. IMAG0471.jpg Its the only picture I have been able to get she love her crack to hide in.and I haven't been able to catch her out of it.
 
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Zux

New member
The reality is nothing we can feed is good enough a gut-load to remove the need for dusting sadly.
The bearded dragon food is a good base diet for the insects (I use it a lot also) but nowhere near good enough to fulfill their nutritional needs.

Dusting is something we are likely to always have to do no matter how much effort we put into creating gut-loads. Its a case of finding what works best for you, and your Gecko for me its the Calcium Plus.


- Shane
 

Zux

New member
Does that depend on the size what you feed them. Tiny is just able to eat pin head crickets I don't have any new born ****roaches yet and the Super worms and meal worms are way to big for her. She isn't a leo or crested gecko she is a C mitratus she doesn't eat veggies and fruit from what I have read and been told. View attachment 36798 Its the only picture I have been able to get she love her crack to hide in.and I haven't been able to catch her out of it.

You can feed insects of any size the same diet without concern. The smaller the insect the smaller the digestive tract but that's all relative to the size of the gecko anyway assuming he/she is being fed size appropriate feeders.

You should also be sure to supplement as normal by dusting the insects as needed. Even if the gecko only eats small insects they are still poor in nutrition and ca: pho ratio balance.

- Shane
 
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Zux

New member
Hey guys,

So if you guys remember I was planning on including Phoenix Worms in Bells diet. Once I had grown them all on and ready to feed I decided I would try her with a few - this was last week. It turns however out Bell forgot to mention she HATES Phoenix worms and will actually look away with disgust if I try to offer them to her as if to say "get this glorified maggot out of my viv, right now".

So that was disappointing and the Black-Soldier Fly larvae became the first insect of about 14 species I have tried so far that she refused outright.

On a brighter note the first generation of my Silkworms are coming to feeding size as we speak which is lucky as Bell loves them more than anything else I have ever offered her including a nice fat wax-worm. The only other insect she got close to that excited about was the first time she saw a locust. I guess the fact that they are lauded as being the 'nutritionally speaking' best feeder one can offer that makes up for the time and expense of her not eating a single of my BSF Larvae colony.

Has anybody had their Leopard Gecko's refuse a Silkworm by the way?
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
Did you try rinsing off any medium and leaving some Phoenix worms in a bowl overnight?

My leo loved her Phoenix worms. She has not tried silkworms.
 

JessJohnson87

New member
I've wanted to try Ziggy back on the phoenix worms, but the only place that sells less than 100 is Petco and those were really small. I haven't tried silkworms with Ziggy, I might order a small batch after I get back from visiting family for Thanksgiving. I was surprised that he has been so willing to accept a new type of feeder when I think he was primarily fed mealworms before I got him.

Shane feel fortunate that she will eat almost any kind of insect. After reading about so many other leo's refusing to eat anything but a certain insect. Maybe phoenix worms taste different to them.
 
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