Any Alternatives To Calcium Powder?

[armaggedonx]

Are there any other ways of giving reptiles calcium other than dusting theyre food with the powder? I dont really know what else there could be, drops for theyre water or something, not sure lol. Random Question.

Cheers,
Keith

 

[snakefin]

I suppose crushed cuttlefish bone minus the shell? Not too sure whether its mineral content is good, see who else has a take on this.

 

[snakeguy101]

or instead of crickets you could give them insects high in calcium.

 

[Richie_ELP]

Nutrition composition of commonly fed prey.
http://www.anapsid.org/resources/preynutrients.html


Nutritional aspects of insects as food.

http://nagonline.net/Technical%20Papers/NAGFS00397Insects-JONIFEB24,2002MODIFIED.pdf

Spend seven bucks and use a good calcium supplement, the animal deserves proper care.

 

[Sylvias]

Yeah any other method is really just much more difficult... insects rich in calcium are also usually high in fat..such as wax worms. I'm sure it's possible to provide enough variety to cover all the required vitamins and minerals but it is most likely going to be ridiculously expensive and difficult to achieve.

 

[Otolith]

I saw these chalky looking calcium/mineral water bowls once. According to the label it supposedly leeched out appropriate levels into the animals drinking water, seemed a little hinky to me so passed.

 

[Sylvias]

Some reptiles drink more than others though, thats the problem with that...not all of them drink every time they eat so i don't see water as being an appropriate means of getting the correct supplements... i know there are vitamin supplement drops for birds that I use but birds drink water every day...through out the day, reptiles don't

 

[armaggedonx]

I DO buy him a good calcium powder for dusting his insects, it was just out of curiosity really lol

 

[EricIvins]

Gut loading your feeders comes to mind.......I havn't used any kind of supplement in 5 or 6ish years and havn't had any issues......

 

[LRM]

The reason calcium powder is so popular and downright vital is that most folks feed their animals very selective diets. Most herps are lucky to get more that 4 kinds of insects in their regular diets and those insects more than likely have either nothing in their guts or a bit of apple or potato. You could raise multiple species of roaches, crickets, locusts, pill bugs, mealworms, wax worms, superworms, flies, earth worms etc etc and make sure they all are getting fed about as well as you... or choose a few of them and supplement twice a week with powder.

Powder is just more feasible. Never skimp, always buy the best and never over use it.

And of course, if your herps will take veggies then by all means give them nothing but the best and a garden of variety.