Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have used Rep Cal with D3 for years. My animals were mostly inside due to the weather. I have recently moved to AZ and my animals are now mostly outside getting natural rays. I seem to recall that the Rep Cal w/out D3 was for animals getting natural sunlight and the w/ D3 was for artifical light animals.
Can anyone verify? I went to their website and saw nothing to explain uses for the two.

>>I have used Rep Cal with D3 for years. My animals were mostly inside due to the weather. I have recently moved to AZ and my animals are now mostly outside getting natural rays. I seem to recall that the Rep Cal w/out D3 was for animals getting natural sunlight and the w/ D3 was for artifical light animals.
>>Can anyone verify? I went to their website and saw nothing to explain uses for the two.

If the animals are outdoors every day and getting at least a few hours of unfiltered sunlight, then they do not need supplemental D3.

When I needed to add calcium to the diet of outdoor torts, I did it in several ways:

1) I added bonemeal to the soil in the pen several weeks before the torts are put in. This increases the calcium content of the soil and should increase that of any plants that grow there.

2) Cuttlebone. The female torts would definitely eat the cuttlbone. The males were less interested, but then again, they weren't laying eggs :->

3) I used calcium powder from a brewing store. Calcium is used in some phase of beer brewing, and the calcium powder they use is fine and works well for dusting veggies. You may want to compare the prices at the brewing store with those at the pet store.

Since the torts were getting calcium from several sources (soil, cuttlbone, and good foods), I didn't dust the food too often. Maybe once a week. If they wanted more, they had cuttlebone.