Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay, to clear up a lot of conflicting information that I have been hearing, I would like some advice from all you experts concerning the following topics:

1) Calcium/Vitamin Supplementation
I have heard conflicting information concerning how often to dust the food with calcium and/or vitamins. My pet store has further confused me by claiming that the green cricket food that I feed them has the proper nutrients and I should only dust once a week, which is completely different than anything I have read online. Based on the product information, what would you suggest to me for a) dusting and b) inclusion of product in the terrarium?

My local pet store only provides the following (for carnivorous reptiles): T-Rex 2:0 Calcium/No Phosphorous Powdered Supplement with Vitamins.

Ingredients: Calcium carbonate, ascorbic acid, vitamin A acetate, cholecalciferol (source of vitamine D3) and stabilizers.

2) Heat source?
What is the best heat source? I currently have an incandescent bulb but it is so warm now that I don't need to use it. The winters here in Idaho can get pretty chilly though, and I know I don't want to keep the bulb on all night. But I have heard bad things about the heating pads getting too hot, or only heating the substrate. What about ceramic heaters? If somebody could offer me advice as to what my best bet is, that would be very helpful to me.

For young geckos, IMHO, the feeder insects should be dusted everytime you feed them, so long as it is a vitamin formula specifically designed for leopards. Gut loading your crickets may add additional nutrition, but does not necessarily guarantee your gecko is getting all the nutrition it needs. Most keepers I know gut load and dust. For an adult, you can usually back off the vitamin dusting to every other feeding or once a week depending on the geckos individual needs. Some keepers keep vitamin powder in a shallow dish in terrium so the gecko can take what it needs when it needs it, but I find it to be messy and hard to keep the vitamins fresh and viable.

As for heat and light, the best heat is an undertank heater properly installed. We have used ZooMed's for sometime without any problem; currently we have it on a timer to come on at night and during the day we have a small lamp with UV. There are a lot of arguments about whether Leos need light, but in my experience they eat more and are much more active when supplied with spectrum lighting during the day when they are asleep. What is most important is getting the proper temperature distrabution in their homes, hot side and cool side and being able to maintain that.

BTW Properly sized heating pads used per the directions (They will say "perfect for 10 gallon tanks" ect.) are made for belly heat and are fine. What you want to avoid at all costs are the heated rocks!

What I have found work best for me is using calcium supplement for people that you can buy in drug stores. I crush them up myself, wrapping them up in paper towel and crushing it with a large hammer. You can use coffee grinder to crush your calcium pills. Just make sure there is no coffee in it. I use calcium supplement with no vitamin D3 added and make sure it is calcium carbonate, not calcium citrate or anything else. I dust with calcium supplement every other day, or you can everyday if you want. I also use multivitamins for people and crush it up the same way. I dust the crickets with multivitamin twice a week. I have read that multivitamin and calcium supplement for reptiles are not quaranteed. Which means they could have only some vitamins listed or made up of mostly filler starch, unlike the people's, which is quarantee and you get what you pay for. You would only need to dust it slightly. Vitamins are important, but you don't need a whole lot of it. I'm not sure about the calcium, but a lot of people leave calcium in a dish for their leos, which you can do. Dusting your prey items is important, but it is also important to feed and water them properly. I try to feed them a variety of diet, such as crushed dog food, unmedicated chick mash (or cricket feeds), which is high in calcium, and some tropical fish flakes (which is good color enhancement). To add even more varieties, feed them nutritious vegetables and greens, such shredded green beans, shredded parsnips, winter squash, calcium rich greens, such as collard and mustard greens. You can shred your vegetable and green in a food processor. Stay away from lettuces which is low in nutrients. Dush their salads with calcium and multivitamin supplement. In addition, you can feed them those green cricket food also to add even more varieties. I find that crickets tends to eat each other if you don't give them enough protein, thta's why I feed them crush dog food. And lastly, To water them I just put some water in a dish with gravel so the crickets won't drown.

For heating, you can use heat lamp or heatin pad, which ever works best for you. It shoudl be at least 90 degree directly under the light or above the heat pad. This should allow the rest of the cage to be around 80 degree. Depending on where you live and how cold it gets, you may need a heat pad and a heat lamp or two heat lamps to maintain a hot side at 90 degree. The wattage is also dependant upon the temperature where you live. Night time temperature can drop down to a low 70 with a basking spot of around 80 degree.