Supplements question...

[Reptilelady86]

Hello everyone,
I am a tad confused on the supplementation part as far as how much and what kind. He's approx 6 inches in length including from head to tail. I know they need calcium and very little phosphorous. As it stands, these are the supplements that I do have for my beardie:

1) Zoo Med's Repti Calcium with D3
2) Rep-Cal Herptivite with Beta Carotene Multivitamins

Are these good? Is there any other supplements that I need for him? And also, how much should I be dusting the crickets/veggies with each supplement? Every day with Calcium d3 , every other day? I am giving him a little since I am not too sure how much to give him and then usually one day out of the week I give him the Rep-Cal Herptivite Multivitamin supplement. Let me know if this sounds right or needs to be changed.

Thank you everyone.

 

[PatsyB]

The Calcium is good, not sure about the herptivite, I have always used Reptivite. You also want to add the calcium without D3. So most people do calcium one day w/o D3, next day calcium w/D3, then multivitamin, day off and then start again. I used to do calcium w/o D3 daily and a multivitamin on the weekend. My reason being is I feel if you have a good UVB bulb you don't need to use the calcium with D3, and the multi-vitamin I used on the weekend had D3.

Now I use Repashy Calcium Plus, it has a little of everything they need and is safe to use daily.

 

[Reptilelady86]

Thanks for the recommendation @PatsyB. I have the Reptisun 10.0 36" tube. It fits perfectly on my 36"x 18" x 16" terrarium. Do you just use the Repashy Calcium Plus every other day or everyday @PatsyB? Also, how many times do you dust the crickets with the supplement? Is it per session (each time you feed a cricket) you dust the crickets or dust only a couple crickets?

Sorry if I am making this a bit confusing. Just want to make sure I am understanding this correctly.
Thanks.

 

[PatsyB]

You only want to dust one meal a day. I always dust the bugs because mine never really eat all their salad. I dust every time I feed. Mine are adults so they only eat every other day or so. Even when mine were small though, I dusted everyday. When you dust you don't want to do too much, you don't want it caked on the big, just a real light coating is enough.

 

[Reptilelady86]

When you say one meal a day.. that means handful of crickets and sprinkle the supplement on them? I usually put the crickets in a large cup sprinkle / shake the powder on them. Usually i feed him 3 times a day so basically one feeding in the morning usually when he wakes up hes super hungry put a handful of crickets in there, one for the afternoon and then evening. ex. AM feeding sprinkle calcium on handle of crickets and then he doesn't need anymore calcium on the other feeding times, is that correct?

 

[Draeju's_world]

Just be aware of the expiration date on containers of calcium + D3. It's better to buy small containers of this supplement for that reason. After it expires youre pretty much left with standard calcium powder as the D3 portion of it is no longer useful. The calcium itself does not expire like vitamins do.

 

[PatsyB]

When you say one meal a day.. that means handful of crickets and sprinkle the supplement on them? I usually put the crickets in a large cup sprinkle / shake the powder on them. Usually i feed him 3 times a day so basically one feeding in the morning usually when he wakes up hes super hungry put a handful of crickets in there, one for the afternoon and then evening. ex. AM feeding sprinkle calcium on handle of crickets and then he doesn't need anymore calcium on the other feeding times, is that correct?

Correct. Dust one feeding of crickets per day.

 

[Reptilelady86]

Awesome thank you @PatsyB and @Draeju's_world