Liquid vitamin instead of calcium +d3?

[PoeticPlural]

Hullo all

So my gecko, Hashtag, simply refuses to Eat his food when I dust it with calcium+d3. In searching for an alternative I found a reptile liquid vitamin that includes D3 but not calcium. Would this be an okay alternative as long as I keep a dish of calcium without d3 in his tank?


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[indyana]

Sounds like he just needs to get hungry enough to try the bug anyway and learn to recognize dusted insects as food? Not sure on the liquid vitamins though. You shouldn't dose their water with anything. A lot of folks dust with vitamins and the free-feed pure calcium. I know Ron Tremper recommends free-feeding the vitamins as well, but some people are concerned about D3 overdose.

I think the liquid would be even harder to use and get the gecko the right amount of vitamins.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

They can overdose on D3 and do not need it in quantity so I wouldn't waste your money on that vitamin. I provide a small soda cap of Calcium without D3 to all my baby leos and breeding females as well as supplementing with Repashy Calcium plus and insect gut load. Healthy hatchlings should be ravenous and eat anything that twitches in front of them. If yours is a stubborn eater I might look for another cause such as internal parasites, improper temperatures, stress caused by improper hides, lights, too much space, etc.

 

[PoeticPlural]

Well he's not a hatchling he's 6 months old and 50grams. Also, I've tried essentially starving it out of him but he has waited an entire week before.

Also it wouldn't be in his water, it would just be a drop on his nose that he would lick up.

Does any of that make a difference?



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[DrCarrotTail]

If the vitamin you're giving is D3 he doesn't need it and it could potentially hurt him so how you give it doesn't matter.

Adult (45g+) male geckos do not eat much. Mine routinely go several weeks at a time without eating, especially during the breeding season. I tend to leave 5-10 mealworms in an escape proof bowl for those on hunger strikes and count and change them every few days just in case the mood to eat strikes them. I have one male on the hefty side that will eat everything in sight so he only gets fed once every 5-7 days or I only give him half a feeding every few days. In general, if your gecko isn't eating it's not growing or metabolizing quickly (unless it's sick and losing weight) As long as it gets some vitamins when it eats it should be okay. If your gecko is a healthy weight or overweight I would just leave him dusted feeders and weigh him once per week. If he isn't losing weight I would just let him relax and eat when he's ready. If he loses more than 10-20% of his body weight (depending on how fat is is to begin with) then I would start to worry.

 

[PoeticPlural]

Oh okay, thank you so much for the advice. I got him from a breeder about a month ago, and the breeder told me he was eating either 4 mealworms or one superworm a day. So that's what I was trying to keep doing. I guess I can feed less frequently though. Right now there are four un-dusted mealworms in an escape proof bowl.


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[DrCarrotTail]

Once they hit 40g I start feeding my geckos every 3 days. They get about 10 mealworms or 1-2 supers. I find the males eat far less than the females and several of my males are full grown in the 50-60g range. Once they hit a good weight they often only eat once a week but I offer them food at least every three days unless they start looking chunky.

 

[PoeticPlural]

Okay thank you so much


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