Julie...
First, let me say that there is no magic single regimen that all keepers
should use. What I will describe here works for me and the gex I keep
and that's all I can recommend. For the sake of list discussion, I'll
tell everyone what I do, though I've kept pretty quiet about it in the
past. Also, I've not been keeping gex anywhere near as long as a lot of
folks on this list (only about 5 years). Their willingly shared
experience has given me a great leg up, though. I have no scientific
experiments, with controls, performed on hundreds of animals to base my
opinions on. What I do have are observations, showing continued
improvements, in the appearance, longevity and breeding success of my
animals. I've successfully bred several Phelsuma species to F3, and I
think that speaks for itself!
One of the best improvements I've made in my husbandry is the way I feed
and gutload my feeder insects. I went from only feeding orange wedges
and carrots to my current regimen... the cricket bins always have
alfalfa on the bottom. There are always orange wedges. There are always
small dishes of cut up veggies (carrots, sweet potato, zucchini,
cactus). There are always either kale, mustard or dandelion greens in
there. And there is always a dish of the dry gutload formula that was
developed by Susan James (from CJ). The veggies get swapped out every
other day or so to keep them fresh. The same with the dry gutload. The
cricket bins get cleaned weekly. I'm seeing very minimal dieoff. Oh
yeah... no stinking (literally) water dishes/sponges for crickets to
drown in and for bacteria to breed in. The veggies supply all the liquid
they need!
Initially, I was using only RepCal (with D3) for calcium and Herptivite
for vitamins. I dusted my insects every feeding, with Herptivite added
to the RepCal a couple times a week. I was feeding every day. I now
believe that is way too much supplementation in general, and since
RepCal has way too much D3 for Phelsuma IMO, I think some of the
problems I was seeing were from too much D3. Since Herptivite has no
vitamin A, but only the precursor (beta carotene), I thought I was OK
there. Now, I believe vitamin A is beneficial, but only if not
overdosed. What's the correct dose????
Just as a sidebar... vitamin A and D3 are both fat soluble vitamins.
That means that excess are not excreted but stored in the organs. If
continually overdosed, the will build to toxic levels. Too much vitamins
and calcium can also lead to gout. For anyone that would like to read
Dr. Ken Lopez's articles about this topic, check out the Chameleon
Journals site (http://www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/vetcare.cgi?index).
There are articles there on vitamin A, D3/calcium, gout, edema and other
items. These are relevant to all herps.
The next progression was to switch to Mineral for calcium. It also has
some minerals that were not in RepCal or Herptivite. The D3 is much
lower and more suitable for Phelsuma (IMO). You still need vitamins,
though. I also started feeding every other day and only
supplementing/dusting once or twice a week. I've done this the last
couple years.
Recently, I switched to Dr. Susan Donoghue's dust
(http://www.HerpNutrition.com/). I've not used it through a breeding
season, so I can't say it has caused any changes, good or bad, yet. I
use that dust once a week and I use pure calcium carbonate once a week.
I no longer dust with any vitamin powder. I do add vitamins (liquid
Reptasol) to the fruit babyfood mixture I give the gex once a week,
though. I think that's enough, especially with the improved nutrition of
the insects. Dr. Donoghue does not have a dust specifically for geckos
so I use the chameleon dust. She also has an insect gutload formula,
though I still use the CJ recipe. Check out her site!
Oh yeah... the above comments are for adult animals. Hatchlings,
subadults and actively breeding females get supplements more often, some
more than others. Breeding groups all have a dish of calcium carbonate
in their tanks at all times. That's why I said there is no single
regimen.
Sorry for the long post, but that's what I'm doing for supplements!!!
Julie Bergman wrote:
>
> Doug,
>
> What are you doing with your supplements? Inquiring geckos what to know!
> ;-)
>
> Julie B.
> http://www.geckoranch.com
> GGA lifetime member
--
Doug Johnston
www.ncal.verio.com/~scubadug
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