I used to dust Haku’s food with a multi vitamin (herpivite or something?), but he wouldn’t eat it it was on them so I stopped (bad fb advice I think) and now I want to get him back on the dust 😂. I still give him calcium in his tank, like I leave it in there in like a lil dish/lid for him to lick. It’s the kind without d3. I guess I’m asking for a “how do I dust and when and what” type thing. Thanks in advance!
#supplements and dusting schedules???
normal dawn
prime shard
!supplement
analog latchBOT
Supplements are a necessary part of a leopard gecko's (or most any captive herp's) diet. In the wild, they would be eating a wide variety of prey, and that prey would be eating a wide variety of foods itself. In captivity, there's no way to replicate this perfectly, which is why offering supplements and as varied of a diet as possible is crucial in preventing deficiencies and illness.
The exact schedule you use for supplements will depend on your individual animal, its age, and your feeding schedule. However, a good place to start is by picking up some calcium, calcium + D3, and multivitamins. If you use UVB, you will likely not need a D3 supplement since UVB allows reptiles to produce their own D3. This takes the guessing game out of how much D3 to provide (they can overdose on it) since they will regulate their exposure and D3 levels themselves. D3 is needed to use calcium in the body, so animals will become calcium deficient without D3. Additionally, make sure any calcium supplements you use are phosphorus free since they generally get enough phosphorus in their diet, and too much will cause a calcium deficiency.
Fluker's Calcium + D3 https://bit.ly/39lMQ9d
ZooMed's ReptiCalcium with D3 https://bit.ly/3f7lHdS
Fluker's Calcium (no D3) https://bit.ly/3ntLUpD
ZooMed's ReptiCalcium (no D3) https://bit.ly/2wrkeN0
RepCal Calcium (no D3) https://bit.ly/35DMY4u
Repashy Calcium Plus Multivitamin https://bit.ly/39kqVPu
RepCal Herpivite Multivitamin https://amzn.to/3lBo4rK
ZooMed Reptivite Multivitamin https://amzn.to/38NMQRL
Fluker's Repta Vitamin Multivitamin https://amzn.to/3lC8TON
If you'd like to learn more about how to assess supplement brands, here's a good article from Reptifiles: https://reptifiles.com/reptile-vitamins-reptile-calcium/
If you'd like to learn more about how reptiles use D3, here's an article from Arcadia: https://www.arcadiareptile.com/d3-cycle/
Example supplementation schedules:
http://bit.ly/3cpFcyO
prime shard
bottom link :3 there are 3 example schedules for each life stage and with/without uvb