Calcium/vitamins/uvb - help me out!

[E_M]

I have some questions about calcium and vitamin supplements, along with uvb lighting. I'm getting my first tegu juvie en a few weeks and I want to give him/her the best care possible.

Vitamins - Should I give my juvie vitamins? What brand and how often?

Calcium - I got the zoo med repti calcium without D3. How often should I dust this over his/her food?

Uva/uvb - What's the best option, a basking bulb with heat and uva/uvb or two separate sources? What bulbs do you recommend? I have the exo terra professional solar glo, but I want something better. I'm thinking about the solar raptor?

 

[laurarfl]

Here is some recent news on Solar Raptor
http://www.reptileuv.com/news/econlux-defective-products.php

Put calcium on any food that does not contain bones.

I use repti-vite or Repashy vitamins and give them once or twice weekly.

 

[E_M]

Thanks! So the solar raptor might not be as good as I've heard then.. The zoo med powersun is also recommended by a lot of people? But what's to prefer, having an mvb bulb or 2 different sources för basking and uvb? Does it even matter?

What kind of bulbs do you guys use?

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Since ReptiVite is a calcium based supplement Repashy seems like a better alternative (since I already have the zoo med calcium) and it contains beta carotenes, think I might go for that one.

 

[E_M]

Either the Repashy Calcium Plus for an “All-in-One” supplement or Repashy supervite + zoo med calcium w/o D3.

Zoo med contains no phosphorus though, while Repashy calcium plus contains calcium max. 20%, phosphorus min. 0.6%. And from what I can see, Repashy supervite doesn't contain phosphorus either. So wouldn't Repashy all-in-one (which claims to "transform insects into a food item that has an optimal calcium/phosphorus ratio") be better than zoo med w/o D3 + Repashy supervite that doesn't contain any phosphorus at all?

 

[laurarfl]

I use the PowerSun. Calcium Plus has such a high Ca: P ratio that it still outweighs the high phosphorous content of insects. Plus, insects should still be gutloaded. Phosphorous is still a necessary mineral, just in proper proportion. To be honest, I don't feed a lot of insects to my tegus, so I'm not that concerned about the P content in insects. I do like the natural source of vitamins over a synthetic blend that Repashy offers. If you want to use Repashy all-in-one, that is certainly an acceptable alternative. I only stated what I use, sounds like you have your plan worked out already.

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I also have a variety of products on my shelves. I alternate between them depending on who is eating what type of food and as I get on overall sense of the diet. I don't think that is the way a lot of owners use their supplements, so it is often difficult to make a sort of formula and say I use X product Y times a week or so. It just isn't that exact. I do have 5 different calcium products and 3 different multivitamins that I use plus I try to feed a varied diet.

 

[E_M]

But when they are juveniles they eat a lot of insects, that's what I had in mind. I just realized though that having one calcium supplement and on vitamin supplement might be a better option. I think I'll start off with the zoo med calcium and the repashy vitamins.