Fluker's Calcium with D3

[Boom King]

I know the whole calcium/D3 topic has been beaten to death on this forum but I feel that I have a bit of a unique dilemma. I recently bought a 1 year old gecko and I have never had any experience with any reptiles before. I did a lot of research online and on forums in terms of how to house it and feed it. Out of all the forums, I found this one the most informative and with the most respectful members. I did not browse the Supplementation forum much until after I got my gecko.

After browsing through, there seems to be much debate on the danger of too much D3. I was not aware of this until I had already bought all of my gecko supplies. I had bought a small jar of Fluker's calcium with D3 and Exo Terra multivitamins. After reading this forum, I checked the labels and it turns out that Fluker's has 100,000 IU/lb of D3. I'm no chemist or reptilian biologist but this seems like a large amount compared to other brands. I have only used it twice so far so I don't think it's a real danger yet. However, once I realized this, I bought a small jar of Exo Terra calcium without D3. It turns out that the multivitamins also has some D3, 14,740 IU/lb. I plan on chucking or returning the Fluker's and dusting my feeders each feeding with the Exo-Terra calcium and dusting with the vitamins twice a month. Would this be a good method of supplementation? Has anyone used the Fluker's calcium and encountered any problems with their geckos?

 

[scotty]

well I am not chemist either and that does sound like a lot of D3, but i use the same thing and i have had no problems with it. I would dust the crickets maybe 1 time a week. An interesting thing is that i dont think that they know exactly how leopard geckos get vitamin d3 in the wild.

 

[bzlizzy]

maybe you can place exo terra calcium w/o d3 in a dish for your lizard in the tank, then dust your feeds with the fluker's D3 once a week. that should be pretty alright. since the d3 in fluker's is pretty high. but i read that it highly unlikely to OD on D3 so it shouldnt be much of a problem.

 

[thegeckoguy23]

I would recomend buying some reg cal heres what my cal schudle is monday-wensday I use reg cal and on thursday I use cal with D3. And you can use multivitamans the other day honstly i don't find it a true need...


Jake

 

[Knibitz]

It's not a lot. Rep Cal, which many people here use, has 300,000 UI / kg
1kg equaling about half a pound.
if 100,000 UI / lbs is a lot... then who was the idiot who decided the combination for rep cal?

IU stands for International Unit, which, in this case, is the effective amount of the substance.
So within a pound of the calcium, you have 100,000 effective elements of D3 in it.
But the little pot you have is no where near a pound.

I've been using flukers without any ill effects myself.
However, if you feel better not using it, then by all means take it back.

 

[Jgreen909]

http://geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=55664

Vitamin D3 is a vitamin that helps with the absorption of calcium. If you don't have enough, the calcium just hangs around in your body, and doesn't actually hep to make strong bones. Most animals make their own D3 simply by having exposure to the UV in sunlight...it is a natural process. Since leopard geckos don't see the sun much, they get theirs from their food, so you should dust your feeders with it.

Cant speak for all but my Ca+D3 (Exo-terra) contains 65 mg/kg and comes in a 90g bottle which last me about 2 years (including waste via the shake-n-bake method). This equates to less than 5.85mg of D3 for over the course of close to 2 years - NOT including waste. This is at most 0.009mg per day, assuming 100% utilization. That means less than nine one-thousandths of a thousandth of a gram per day. I dont dust everyday, so my gecko receives even less than that.

My opinion - there is no risk. I have kept reptiles (and used Ca+D3) for many, MANY years. Until I see scientific, peer-reviewed articles that say otherwise, I will stand by my statement.


As helpful as the internet is, it is a source of tremendous disinformation. Just because someone says D3 is bad, it does NOT make it so. Multiple scientific, peer-reviewed articles are essential to prove or disprove a hypothesis.

 

[NWA_JTV]

It's not a lot. Rep Cal, which many people here use, has 300,000 UI / kg
1kg equaling about half a pound.
if 100,000 UI / lbs is a lot... then who was the idiot who decided the combination for rep cal?

IU stands for International Unit, which, in this case, is the effective amount of the substance.
So within a pound of the calcium, you have 100,000 effective elements of D3 in it.
But the little pot you have is no where near a pound.

I've been using flukers without any ill effects myself.
However, if you feel better not using it, then by all means take it back.

Actually, there are about 2.2lbs per kg, so the 300,000 IU/kg = ~136,364 IU/lb. It is still a higher concentration, but not rediculously so. There is still a lot of debate going on with regard to D3 and toxicity even for human intake. Generally speaking, it is understood much less for reptiles so it is somewhat difficult to gauge what is too high a concentration and what is too low.

Personally, I think following the general guidelines of using a supplement with D3 a couple times a week is probably the safest bet. What Knibitz said with regard to the volume you have is accurate, though. How many feedings will you be able to dust before you run out of powder in the canister? The largest canister I see on their website is 8oz (1/2 lb) which would contain 50,000 IU of D3 in the whole container. Spread out over a large number of feedings, one per week, I would not think this concentration would be detrimental.

Can anyone speak to how many feedings (roughly) you get out of a container of calcium? Using that as an estimate, you can figure out your gecko's weekly intake of D3 based on your number of feedings.

*edited to correct a couple of awkward wordings

 

[Knibitz]

Actually, there are about 2.2lbs per kg

oh wow XD
I was reading it backwards!
Sorry - brain is dead o_o