Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took my 4month old male blizzard,Devlin, to the vet a few weeks ago because he seemed to have no energy and was shaking A LOT. The vet said that it was most likey a Ca deficiency. He gave him a Ca injection and gave me drops that I have to force feed every day. If I miss the 24 mark by more than 2 hours he starts shaking again. His diet is the same as all of my other leos and none of them have problems. The vet said that he may just may not absorb Ca as readily as the others do and he may need the drops all of his life. Is there anything that I can add to his diet(gutloaded cricket and mealies) that will increase his Ca? He has Ca in his cage and eats more of it than any of my other guys do. Has anyone else ever had this problem? Anything else I can do for him? I know that Ca drops stop the shaking, but does it sound like it could be anything else? thanks

You can try phoenix worms. From what ive read they naturally have 23 to 61 times more calcium than other feeder insects and there grubs so most juvi leo's love them. you can check them out and buy some at www.phoenixworm.com
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1.0.0 leopard gecko (albino)
2.6.1 Western banded geckos
1.0.0 gloden gecko
1.0.0 Green iguana
1.0.0 California Newt
0.1.0 Ca King snake
1.1.0 Rosy boas
1.0.0 Nelson milk snake
0.0.1 Painted turtle
0.1.0 Girlfriend

Looking for...
0.4 leopard geckos (carrot tails and lavenders)
1.1 Mexican black kinsnake
1.0 english bulldog

What do you use to gutload the insects? In particular, I'm wondering about vitamin A, D3 and calcium in either the gutloads or in any supplements that you use to dust the insects with.

Do you have a UVB light on his cage?

Are they all in the same cage?

Mealies and crickets get science diet dog food, grapes, carrots, and apples. The quench and regular cricket feed is Ca fortified. Pure Ca is kept in the cages. Insects are vitamin coated(it contains D3 and A amoungst other stuff)2 times a week. Ca coated 4-5 times a week~For the little guys anyway~ No they are not all in the same cage! I have 6 cages for 9 leos and 1 AFTG. No UVB lights. Did I cover everything?

My concerns with the amount of calcium and D3 and vitamin A are that the three are the major players in the balance needed to keep the calcium levels right. Vitamin A (preformed) and vitamin D can build up in the system when used as supplements. If the source of vitamin A is beta carotene it can't build up and if the vitamin D is produced by the lizard or obtained through exposure to UVB it normally shouldn't build up. Vitamin A is said to be antagonistic to vitamin D3. If the balance is not right, then they work against each other. Basically the amount of calcium used by the body is regulated by amount of vitamin D3 available.
Here are some articles that explain it better than I can...
http://www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/index.php?show=6.Vitamin.D3.and.Calcium.html
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I would check the dog food and see if it has preformed vitamin A in it or vitamin D3...and check the sources of vitamin A that you are using to supplement/dust the insects to see if the vitamin A in it is preformed too.

I would improve the gutload too.
Here's a gutload that comes highly recommended for crickets and other insects that will eat it...
http://adcham.com/html/husbandry/gutload.html

Here's an article on UVB tranmission through skin too...scan down to the part on leopard geckos...
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/skintests.htm#discussion

I'm wondering if because this lizard is a blizzard he has a more delicate system when it comes to balancing things.

Just my two cents worth...
Hope this helps!

I don't know if it will help much, but...try gutloading the crickets and mealies with crush dog food. Crickets loves them, so do mealies, and it's high in calcium. All my leos do fine on gutload insects this way. You can also try human calcium/D3 supplement. I heard it has more calcium and vitamin D3 than the reptiles'. That might help also. You can coat your feeder insects with it. You buy them in tablets, so you have to crush them yourself with motar and pastel, or what I do is I wrap them up with two layers of paper towel and crush it with a hammer.