D3?

[Marc10edora]

I bought some calcium powders a few days back. One has calcium with D3 and the other is just plain calcium. They are both phosphorus free but I don't know which one I should be using. My lighting set up is this: one 5.0 reptisun uva/uvb florescent fixture and a 100 watt basking bulb with a max basking temp of 85*F. I gutload my crickets with vegitables : carrots, lettuce, sweet potato and give them flukers all purpose cricket feed. Also my silkworms are gutloaded with mullberry chow. Should I be dusting silkworms too?

 

[DrewNYC]

it depends on the age of you cham, you can dust the silk's. everyone's regiment is different typically calcium wD3 2x week, calcium w/o D3 every other day plus herpivite 1x every other week.
again it depends what kind of chameleon you have and how old it is.
drrew

 

[ross6661989]

food

what fruit and veg shoul i give to the cameleon. can i give it any fruit and veg or are certain ones harmfull to the cameleon.

 

[danielle609]

Vitamin D allows the chams body to utilize calcium. Chameleons will naturally produce their own vit. D. if they are exposed to natural sunlight. That being said, not many chams will produce enough vitamin D in captivity so it is a good idea to supplement vitamin D in small amounts at least once a week. It is important not to over use it though because it it a fat soluble vitamin which can damage the kidneys because it isn't extcreted by going to the bathroom. I normally use the calcium w/ vitamin D twice a week and just plain calcium the rest of the days. (I use a vitamin mix every other week) I don't know much about silkworms, but I believe they already have a pretty good amount of calcium in them. So I am not sure wether or not it would be necessary to dust them. It looks like you have the perfect lighting set up and doing a great job gutloading! I don't know if this helped at all but I felt like typing

 

[dodolah]

from what i heard is NO BROCCOLI.
It contains some chemical that inhibits calcium absorption.

 

[ross6661989]

so i can give my cam anything bar from BROCCOLI. i have been giveing it some cucamber with some calcium sprinkled on it to make sure they get enough, shes only young at the mo so its better safe than sorry.

 

[BigTex]

also, spinach is said to block calcium absorption so that is something to consider. collard greens are a calcium rich food, kale is one of the most nutrient dense foods, apples are good, oranges good too. its nice to have some variety in what you offer your crickets so that they can in turn be more nutritious for your cham

 

[PardalisGirl]

What kind of chams????

What kind of chams are we talking about? Most types don't eat that much in the fruit and vegetable departments. The D3 issue depends on age and sex. Young chams and females are more dependent on D3 supplementation than an adult male cham is. It only takes a tiny amount of D3 to provide the right effect of calcium absorption. The better your cage lighting the less D3 you need. Remember the size relationship between a person and the vitamin pill they take. Now bring that down to the size of a cham and their powdered D3or calcium. Tiny amounts....D3 is like a switch. When D3 is absorbed through sun light or artificial lighting the cham's body can turn off the switch when the proper amount of calcium is aborbed. The cham will not overdose on calcium. It does not work like this with D3 supplements. The supplement amount determines how long the cham's body is switched on for calcium absorption, not the cham itself. The cham will absorb as much calcium as there is D3 in the body. It will overdose on calcium if there is too much D3 present.

 

[kinyonga]

You can give veiled chameleons greens (dandelion, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrot, sweet potato, squash, zucchini, sweet red pepper, etc.) and a little fruit (apple, pear, berries, melon, etc.) All should be provided in appropriate sizes (diced, slivered, thin wedges, etc.) for the chameleon to handle. Some (such as leaves of greens, slices of sweet red pepper, apple, pear, squash) can be impaled on a branch..others can be provided in a dish.

 

[Marc10edora]

Wow, I posted this a loonnnng time ago. But thanks for the reminder I guess. I didn't know that you can feed sweet peppers to your cham. I'll have to give that a try.

 

[kinyonga]

I now see that this was an old post that someone has "re-activated"...but I guess it worked out okay since it gave some information, eh??!!