Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys. I have a long story/question that I would really like to get a lot of feedback to.

I work at a local reptile store. I have been there for almost 2 years. I have been working with a large number of my own reptiles for almost 12 years now. I have only been breeding them however for about 8 years.
Recently I got into an argument with the owner's wife, who I won't name for obvious reasons, lol, about the supplementation of reptiles. I told her that I have been recommending to our customers that buy our lizards to use MinerAll. The indoor kind for the captive reptiles. However, the owner's wife is not the smartest woman in the world. She has a hard time admitting that she is wrong and she herself has only been working with reptiles for about 5 years total.

She seems to think that MinerAll should only be used once, maybe twice a week because it has too many multivitamins and the RepCal Calcium with D3 should be used on the days in between. That seems like a such a crock to me because it doesnt make any sense to do that. I have talked to countless breeders and hobbyists that use MinerAll exclusively and have done so for several years. I personally have used MinerAll exclusively for the past 9 years on all my reptiles and have raised over 1000 bearded dragons, countless leopard geckos, pictus geckos, crested geckos, fat tail geckos, uromastyx, iguanas, tegus and monitors on MinerAll. I follow the instructions on the can of powder, but sometimes give the young adults just a little more that it recommends, but not often. This argument has been going on with us for several days now, and she seems to have called the local reptile vet and he supposedly agrees with her on the subject, but she has a big history of lying about things like that.

She has said things like leopard geckos are pure cricket eaters, and none will eat mealworms, which we all now is a load. She has said that bearded dragons will expel sperm if not fed for 3 days after laying eggs, which again, is bull. She thinks that a study was done finding that calcisand and playsand is the best mixture for reptiles as a substrate.

I know that much of this was to take out some of my frustration with this woman, but I want some feedback about others' experience with supplements and any links to sites regarding reptile supplementation. I would also be happy to hear anyone's experiences with people like this lady.

Thanks guys.

Phil

Sounds like she has all the answers man!! LOL!! NOT!! Weird but our geckos eat a lot of mealworms, maybe there just a different species of leopard gecko or something!! lol I dont really know what to tell you about her. Just tell your customers what you think is right and best and ignore her! If shes the boss theres not a lot you can do and still keep your job!! lol

As far as suplements go, I do think that there is such a thing as to much D3 and over doing it on the other vitamins. The only time our leos get D3 is with there multivitamin. Calci poweder has no phospherus or D3 in it. Maybe im wrong but our leos are doing great. If someone disagrees with me i would also love to hear of a better way of doing it.
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Mike & Wendy

2.0.0 Siberian husky, Jackrussel/schitzu
0.0.1 Ball Python
1.0.1 Leopard Gecko
1.0.0 Beardie
4.0.0 Beta's
3.1.0 Future Herper's

Well, to tell you the truth there is such things as over supplement. If you are not sure about each reptiles needs, it is best to be under supplemented. This way if problem occurs it is much easier to treat and cure it than say problems which arise from oversupplementing. I usually supplement the juvy leo with calcium supplement only every other day, and multivitamins with D3 twice weekly, and my leos are fine. However, I use the human calcium and multivitamin supplement because I think they contain more of the trace minerals, instead of filler, than the animals and contain all the minerals and vitamins as listed on the label. In other words, they are more trustworthy if you go by the label because they're selling'em to people. This is according to Mallissa Kaplin, but other people may disagree. If you wonder...there are no study done on any reptile nutritional requirement.
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Pic of my leos.

Oh I want all of you to know that I too agree that it is possible to over supplement a lizard, however I do not believe that it is possible to do that to a growing or breeding lizard, and also that it is very hard to over supplement them with how much of each minerall that is in the Multivitamin supplements we all use.
However I really do agree with you.

Thanks for the reply.

Phil

yeah man I hear ya.lol. It happens. Bosses can be a pain.

I actually use MinerAll only once a week on my adults, but I leave a dish of it in the cage for them at all times. They do fantastic and the babies do well also.

Thanks for the reply.

Phil