supplementing retinyl palmitate(vitamin A) ?

FOREVER ENDEAVOR

FOREVER ENDEAVOR

New Member
hey all, do any of you guys supplement vitamin A? if so how do you go about it..how often how much? i know too much canbe fatal, and to little can cuase eye problems..interested in hearing your opinions.
Thanks
Ray
 
I get the lowest dosage vit a gelcap, prick it with a needle, get one teeny drop & smear it on the feeder and give that one feeder to the cham.

I usually use hornworms or silkworms.

Once a month.
 
i have 8000iu/160% gels..soud good?... i have only supplemented once.. i was told a once a week routine is fine,....but that sounds like a lot to me though..i think ill go once a month untill i see reason to up it..
 
mine's 10,000 iu & that's the lowest I could find. I'll work on getting a lower one though maybe this week. I don't wanna od the cham

I did the once a month thing cuz that's the advice I received from Brad Ramsey and I haven't had time to research further.
 
I am uncomfortable giving preformed vit-A via "human supplements" and have found that gutloading once a month with natural sources of preformed A like- cooked chicken (no seasonings or BBQ sauce LOL), fish oil, scrambled eggs (these are fantastic for a lot of reasons-amino acids) and even small pieces of cheese and dollops of yogurt seem to work well.
These things periodically, along with regular sources of betacarotene (as we are unsure how well chameleons convert this- and it doesn't become toxic at higher levels) have worked for me for years and are a more natural means of supplying needs....

Just my thoughts though.. :eek:
 
I also read this thread before where Jim Flaherty from the Chameleon Company says:

3) It is also my experience that beta carotene, while possibly beneficial in other ways, does not meet the Vitamin A requirements of chameleons. This observation has been made by many others in the last 12 years. We use supplements which contain it, but we also address Vitamin A needs in other ways.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/having-some-issues-4240/index4.html

and this:

Dr. Ferguson et al concluded in the '90's that chameleons need pre-formed Vitamin A. To my recollectoin, as I don't feel like pulling out the study, Scott Stahl worked this one as well, and it was reported by Ardi Abate in The Journal of The Chameleon Information Network. My work with far more chameleons than they had to work with confirms that with a gold star. A single eye closing is the first outward sign for the layman (or laywoman) hobbyist. My results have been confirmed by others independent of my critters.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/cyrus-eye-mbd-1944/index2.html

Seems like he uses supplements.
 
Last edited:
Hi Dave on the 2 threads I referenced & the thread you did, I didn't see anywhere where it mentions the frequency on dosing vit a liquid?

I see where it mentions the powder form.

Brad says once a month, is this enough?

Jim was right about chams not liking oil.

I pricked the gelcap & wiped the oil on a hornworm and gave it to my veiled. He acted weird after that like something's wrong.

This wasn't today of course.
 
mika said:
Hi Dave on the 2 threads I referenced & the thread you did, I didn't see anywhere where it mentions the frequency on dosing vit a liquid?

I see where it mentions the powder form.

Brad says once a month, is this enough?

Jim was right about chams not liking oil.

I pricked the gelcap & wiped the oil on a hornworm and gave it to my veiled. He acted weird after that like something's wrong.

This wasn't today of course.
Click to expand...
Howdy Mika,

I think the book's table is referring to any food given should have that amount of Vit A.

I'm still in a quandary as to how often I want to give a tiny droplet of Vit A. I think somewhere between once every 2-4 weeks is safer than more often than that, yet probably better than none at all :eek:
 
Thanks Dave,

I might have to go to one of your meetings & bring my very large cup of hornworms whose running out of food & my veiled won't eat it.
 
Howdy Mika,

If you let those hornworms have access to soil, they will dig down and start morphing to moths. Nicole, one of our members, is breeding the moths and reselling to baby worms to the group! She'll take trade-ins too! She just called me to say that the next batch of moths are hatching. So in a couple of weeks she'll have eggs hatching and baby worms again just in time for the next meeting on June 24th :).
 
Personally the drip out of the gel tabs scared me, I was afraid of giving too much. So I searched the 10 or so local pet shops for a powder that had performed Vit A in it. T-rex makes a dusting powder, "2:0 calcium/ no phosphorus". I got it specifically to adress the vit A issue. It was the only thing I could find that didnt use beta caratene as its source of vitamin A. Instead it has vitamin A acetate, 36,000 IU per 100 grams, it also has Vit C and D3. I have been using it only once every other week on half the feeders for that day.
 
Scott85 said:
Personally the drip out of the gel tabs scared me, I was afraid of giving too much. So I searched the 10 or so local pet shops for a powder that had performed Vit A in it. T-rex makes a dusting powder, "2:0 calcium/ no phosphorus". I got it specifically to adress the vit A issue. It was the only thing I could find that didnt use beta caratene as its source of vitamin A. Instead it has vitamin A acetate, 36,000 IU per 100 grams, it also has Vit C and D3. I have been using it only once every other week on half the feeders for that day.
Click to expand...

I am more scared of this powdered supplement than the gelcap!

-Brad
 
Jamie said:
I am uncomfortable giving preformed vit-A via "human supplements"
Click to expand...
Jamie said:
and have found that gutloading once a month with natural sources of preformed A like- cooked chicken (no seasonings or BBQ sauce LOL), fish oil, scrambled eggs (these are fantastic for a lot of reasons-amino acids) and even small pieces of cheese and dollops of yogurt seem to work well.
These things periodically, along with regular sources of betacarotene (as we are unsure how well chameleons convert this- and it doesn't become toxic at higher levels) have worked for me for years and are a more natural means of supplying needs....

Just my thoughts though.. :eek:
Click to expand...

The "human supplements are fish oil

-Brad
 
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