Supplements noobie

[GeckoJoe88]

I never used supplements before, anyone have a guideline on what to get and best place to buy them at?

 

[Music City Geckos]

Calcium & Reptiles/-/ReptileApartment.comDepends on personal choices. I personally use a 2:1 rato of Vionate and Osteoform SA. As well as gut loading my feeders 48 hours before feeding. Here is a good article on calcium.

 

[indyana]

There are a lot of different methods (looking up caresheets on various breeder sites will give you some ideas). The important components are:
- calcium
- D3 (necessary for the absorption of calcium)
- reptile multivitamin (fills in the cracks in a sometimes limited diet)

You'll find varying opinions on how/when to dust food versus leave a dish in the cage, etc.

My favorite brand is Repashy at the moment. I dust food with Calcium Plus. I also provide a free-feed dish of pure calcium and UVB lighting to make extra calcium available (more useful for juveniles and breeding females, but all my geckos have access).

Edit: I also spend a lot of time feeding my feeder insects healthy gutloading foods (MS2 insect chow, Repashy HydroLoad, yellow/orange squash, leafy greens, etc.).

 

[GeckoJoe88]

After doing a bit of research I will be using a gut load recipe I found for mealworms and dust them with repashy calcium plus with every feeding, opting to not leave a dish of calcium in the tank at all times

 

[indyana]

Just a heads up, I heard a few different folks mention bone issues with hatchlings last year when using Calcium Plus without additional calcium. Keep in mind that you might have to supplement more for developing babies or the breeding females.

 

[GeckoJoe88]

Yeah, I am quite a bit away from stepping into breeding, probably 8-12 months