Calcium dish

6037201

New member
So I'm thinking if I can put a calcium dish into my enclosure and I will dust the insects with muti-vitamins.

Can I do this? Will geckos still get enough calcium that they need? It just means I'm not gonna dust the food with calcium cuz they already have a calcium dish in there, so I'm only dusting insect with multivitamins.
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
So I'm thinking if I can put a calcium dish into my enclosure and I will dust the insects with muti-vitamins.

Can I do this? Will geckos still get enough calcium that they need? It just means I'm not gonna dust the food with calcium cuz they already have a calcium dish in there, so I'm only dusting insect with multivitamins.

What brand and type of calcium do you mean: calcium with D3 or plain calcium? Either way light dustings are more of a for sure thing than a plain calcium dish in your leo's enclosure.

Which multivitamin are you using? Does it contain D3?
 

6037201

New member
What brand and type of calcium do you mean: calcium with D3 or plain calcium? Either way light dustings are more of a for sure thing than a plain calcium dish in your leo's enclosure.

Which multivitamin are you using? Does it contain D3?

What's the difference between the two calciums?
 

6037201

New member
Not all supplements are equal.

  • There are 2 types of calcium: plain (no D3) calcium carbonate and calcium carbonate with D3.
  • There are many brands of multivitamins. Some manufacturers make multivitamins with and without D3.
Click: Gecko Multivitamins

Which type the gecko needs? If the multivitamins also has D3 in it then I don't have to buy another calcium supplement right ??
 

Gunner253

New member
I wouldn't put anything in the viv. I personally just use repashy calcium plus. It's all you need and I just dust at every feeding. If you wanted to go the separate supplement route I'd get a multivite with d3 and a calcium without d3 and dust once or twice a week with the vitamins and the rest of the feedings with calcium. Calcium is very important and so is d3 but d3 is toxic at high levels and calcium is not.
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
Which type the gecko needs? If the multivitamins also has D3 in it then I don't have to buy another calcium supplement right ??

How old is your leo? If you use Repashy's Calcium Plus you'd also need a pure precipitated calcium carbonate like NOW human brand or Zoo Med's Repti Calcium without D3.

Repashy's Calcium Plus all-in-one multivitamins:
Oftentimes experienced keepers and breeders tweak the supplements more than the manufacturer suggests based upon the health of their leopard geckos.

Here's the Repashy's Calcium Plus multivitamin schedule that GU's acpart (Aliza Artz) has used for all her leopard geckos ----> breeders and non-breeders.

R = Repashy, Cc = pure precipitated calcium carbonate (without vitamin D3)

Week 1:
M-------T-------W------Th-------F-------Sat-------Sun
R.....................Cc...............................R...................


Week 2:
M-------T-------W------Th-------F-------Sat-------Sun
Cc...............................R..........................................

For hatchlings 0-2 months old: Aliza also places a bottle cap of pure precipitated calcium carbonate (without vitamin D3) in the cage 24/7.

Repeat this schedule every 2 weeks throughout your geckos' lives.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Zoo Med supplements:
Here's what I use. There are 3 separate schedules (124, 125, & 126) depending upon your leo's age. I love Zoo Med supplements because each contains lots of calcium! Some other supplements are weak on calcium.
Weekly Schedule 124 for Leopard Geckos 12 months old & under

Crickets or dubia >> Monday - lightly dusted with Zoo Med Repti Calcium with D3
Mealworms >> Tuesday
Crickets or dubia >> Wednesday - lightly dusted with precipitated calcium carbonate without D3
Crickets or dubia >> Thursday
Crickets or dubia >> Friday - lightly dusted with Zoo Med ReptiVite multivitamins without D3
Mealworms >> Saturday
No food or free choice >> Sunday

Future weeks:
Continue on since all weeks are identical. . . . . .

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Click: Why I use and highly recommend Zoo Med's Repti Calcium with D3 & Zoo Med's ReptiVite multivitamins without D3?
 
Last edited:

JTB

New member
Honestly, whilst I may be throwing somewhat of a spanner in the works here, using both synthetic supplements and plain old calcium is quite outdated and compared to what we are now capable of doing, guesswork.

Nobody actually knows how much D3 reptiles need. There just hasn't been a Pugh research to determine the answer. However, we do know full well that all reptiles (and pretty much every vertebrate, at least) makes their own vitamin D3 under UVB rays; it's the 'sun vitamin' that everyone raves about, responsible in part for the proper uptake of calcium into the bones and thus wards off illnesses such as MBD (metabolic bone disease). They can, when exposed to a UVB index of the correct magnitude, produce their own vitamin D3 in a fully natural way without the need for any dietary vitamin D3. Bit what's so bad with just supplying it via the mouth? Well, as previously stated, we do not know how much they actually need and so it is easy to both underside and overdose; if produced in the skin, then the animal can 'stop' the D3 cycle until it requires more or simply go into an area of greater shade.

I would recommend, therefore, not using any supplement with D3 in it and instead using appropriate UVB lighting. I won't go too in-depth about selecting this, but basically, you want to fit a bulb that runs approximately half of the length of the enclosure, situating this at the same end as the heat source so that the photogradient and thermogradient align as in nature (the sun provides heat and light simultaneously, as it were). If you're using an enclosure with a mesh top, get a ~5% output UVB bulb (some brands do 6%, others 7%) and house this in a reflector, above the mesh. If you're using a wooden enclosure then you will only need a ~2% output UVB bulb, but ensure that this is used in a reflector and placed right at the top of it.

NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER put any light source to the side of a reptile, as here you will be faced with eye issues.

Good UVB bulb brands to look out for are Arcadia (the best, as far as I'm concerned!) and ZooMed (which I've never used but are critically acclaimed). You will want to replace the bulb every six-nine months in most cases, although Arcadia bulbs are guaranteed for a whole year.

Bear in mind that you may require a different output UVB bulb if your enclosure is not of a standard size (about 60cm long, 30-60 cm high and 30-60cm deep).

As well as this, using plain old calcium is also somewhat outdated. We now recognise the importance of magnesium in the calcium cycle and so companies are beginning to re-think their old plain calcium powders to incorporate roughly one tenth magnesium. Definitely have a look out for such a product.

On the whole, whilst I won't explain fully why here, I would personally always stick to the supplements produced by Arcadia: EarthPro-A and EarthPro-CaMg. If you use these, then it's as simple as feeding three feeds dusted with A and one feed dusted with CaMg, never not-dusting a feed and also leaving a bowl of CaMg accessible at all times. These supplements do rely on having a proper UVB lighting system installed which, again, I cannot recommend enough. They also have the benefit of having zero synthetic vitamins in them; there's no risk of overdose! Definitely, in my opinion and probably the opinions of anyone else who's used these products, the way forward.


I will note that this is not the only way to 'do it'. Elizabeth's method has been shown, through experience, to work; she's very knowledgeable on the subject and I would not doubt her in what she says. However, the method about which I speak has been proven not only through trial and error but scientific research and that, for me, has to come out on top :)
 
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