D3 No D3 ARRRGGG

[Tumdace]

Ok ive read a few different things, but I wanna get one thing clear and make sure im not wrong here.

The breeder I bought my chameleon from told me Calcium with no D3, and vitamins with no D3.

A Big Al's rep told me Calcium WITH D3, Vitamines with no D3.

Then I read on here Calcium with D3 twice a month, calcium with no D3 every day, and Vitamins with no D3 when?

 

[York1]

Calcium no d3 every day, Calcium with d3 2 times a month. Vitamin with out d3 twice a month is what i use

 

[Olimpia]

I'll explain a litte background so you understand the WHY behind it all. It'll make more sense than just listing another schedule.

- You want to use calcium WITHOUT phosphorous or D3 at most feedings for a couple reasons. 1. The body works best with a calcium to phosphorous ratio of about 2:1. However, crickets and other feeders have a lot more phosphorous than calcium (1:3!), so we need to correct for this by dusting with calcium. And 2. D3 is easy to overdose on via diet, you always want to rely more on a good UVB bulb/sunshine over supplements which should always just fill in little gaps. If you were to give D3 every day (depending on the brand) it's more likely to lead to health problems.

- But you do want some D3, to fill in any gaps, like I said. So dusting with it lightly a couple times a month or so is usually sufficient to make up for any possible shortage in the body but not be too much that it causes problems.

- Then you also want a multivitamin (which can include D3, in my opinion, so you can do an all-in-one type thing) to also fill in any gaps in nutrition. A good gutload is important (what you feed your bugs) and a multivitamin a couple times a month or so will help round out the diet.

Let me know if anything doesn't make sense. But that's why we usually recommend plain calcium at most feedings and D3/multivitamins a couple times a month.

 

[pssh]

Olimpia explained it well. If you tell us which brand of supplements you have and how often you plan to take the chameleon out for natural sunshine we can give you a good starting point for how often to give each supplement. Of course, you will want to adjust as you see fit once you get the hang of things/learn more.

 

[jrath]

one of the best and easiest explanations to understand that I've seen, thanks Olimpia