Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys. I have a long story/question that I would really like to get a lot of feedback to. I still have a Rhino Iguana, but I have not been able to keep most of my other reptiles because I started college and I moved out, but I have always had an iguana in my house. Thanks Everyone.

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

She is full of it, mostly.

You don't clarify how often you use MinerAll with the herps.

From experience, an animal fed properly gets MinerAll once or twice a week, since too much will be just expelled via defecation. In other words, too many different vitamins and minerals cannot be absorbed every day, so the body gets rid of them thru waste, which means that even tho you're giving MinerAll everyday, not all of it is staying there.

Moderation is the key with supplements, unless the animal is/was ill. A proper balanced diet does/should do most of the nutrition.

The rest she is full of it, I got a laugh at the Calci-Sand (which everyone knows is bad) and the sperm-thing after 3 days.

Let her be, ignore her, it'll save you an ulcer.

-IJ