Reptile & Amphibian Forums

everywhere i read about monitors everyone mentions/refers to Miner-all, i've never noticed it at petco or petsmart.. plus i was just checking their website products...

anyway ive had zoo med's reptivite since the beginning of 2006, i dont think i even used it on my savannah, but i started using it on my ackies since they dont move up to mice very quickly (they are 5 months old now)

Reptivite = vitamins, AND minerals & electrolytes, now that i look closer, so they degrade each other?
Miner-all = minerals, you guys use "I"ndoor or "O"utdoor?

and.. where is it commonly found/purchsed?
since my ackies only eat crickets, i guess i would use Miner-all I for Insectivorites?
bah i guess im going to S&S Exotics and then chopping up some pinkies, sheesh =/
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Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

So have I for over 15 years, and I have raised lots and lots of small monitors with it. I don't use any suppliments for larger monitors.

I tried minerall for a period of time, but never saw any advantage to it, so back to RepCal. But the way Reptivite is a vitamin suppliment, RepCal is a calicum suppliment. I use both. Cheers

I'd imagine you could slip Calcium tablets you buy at Wal-Mart in F/T prey so they continue to get the Calcium they need. I know the bones of the mice and stuff help with that, but alittle extra never hurt =)
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Hi, I never add suppliments to anything you can thaw out. There is no need to add to mice.

I think I can say my results with grow and reproduction, is as successful as anyones. Its growth where calicum placement is a high demand.

If you experience calicum problems with reproduction, then your parent stock are kept properly.

The only time I have ever seen calicum problems during reproduction is after many many clutches(in a row) where I stopped feeding the female to stop her from breeding(it did not work)

Again, the only circumstance I see a need to use suppliments is with insect feeders, where for some reason you cannot very the diet with rodents or birds. Cheers

Hi Frank,
Since limestone is calcium carbonate, the same stuff of repcal(without the vitD), have you ever heard of someone using it with their reptiles? I know you can buy a 50 lb bag at a feed store for about $5, though I think it's course, akin to sand. Not sure if it could be ground up further, easily. I've thought of switching to this for my large sulcatta. Any thoughts?
Mike

Hi Mike, hows it going? I don't think I would do that. If I were going to do anything like that I would go with ground up bone(apples to apples) bone meal. Not feed them ground up stone, or seashells. If I was to use my little thinker(brain) I would think its not about being calicum carbonate, its about what and how its bound together. I am thinking bone is far easier to digest then stone.

But, why on earth would you need that much Calicum powder? No offense, but I raised up some sulcattas, got our male at the very first Orlando show, whats that? near twenty years ago? We have never gave him suppliments and heck, we fed him all wrong, you know lots of protien(monkey chow) when he was little. Thing is, hes grown up to be a great male, perfect shape, no pyramiding and a gread dad. And of course, like a normal boneheaded sulcatta in all other ways. No sir, not once it its life did he or his girlfriend get suppliments of anykind.

When I was at my peak(breeding tons of monitors) I would buy RepCal from the Bean Farm in bulk. Call them up and its at your door. That is one reason I did not go with Minorall, even thought the inventors and sellers of that are friends of mine. I would call them up, and not see calicum powder for weeks and months. Then one day, I would get a box with a large bag of white powder,????????????????????? I kept looking around for cops. No labels, no reciept, no nothing, just a large bag of white powder. hahahahahahahahahahahaha So I buy from the Bean Farm. Now only half gallons, about once every couple of years.

So why would you need big bags of it????? Cheers

heh yeah oh man thats a riot
hahahah, bags of chlorine, cops, hah not a fond experience
this is my first year raising monitors, its been like 4 years since i actually "raised" my remaining iguana, but i forgot all the basics and myths
i remember seeing that calcium carbonate substrate for sale, i was like wtf... do they inhale the dust?
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Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

I kept prehensiletailed skinks for 15 years. Started with a pair, she had babies, every year, sometimes twins. They had the oddest habit of eating small stones. I even went so far as to embed the stones in resin(artificial creek bank) and the dang lizards would pull them out. hahahahahahaha

Heres another funny one, I had an exhibits company at one time. We used lots of resins. Well one filler for resins(marble tops) is calicum carbonate. It comes in various grades, down to a very very fine powder. I wonder is that is used in these calicum mixes we buy??? hahahahahahaha I would not be surprised.

I really do not think these companies are grinding their own bones, could be, but I doubt it. Talcum powder is all calicum carbonate. hahahahahahaha this is indeed getting funny.

Aw heck, the point is the same, RepCal and mineral, both seem to work fine. In my opinion, Its only needed on rare occasions, like babie monitors, growing very fast and mainly feeding on insects. Other then that, its not needed. Cheers

hehehe
yeah i laughed so hard at the white powder delivery and abundant question marks??????? everywhere, i tried to explain it to my girlfriend... she just yelled to come back to bed... hahah, im like no look, this is the context, you will see, and she just walks off, hahahaah
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Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

so how often do you alternate between repcal/reptivite? or say you schedule..?
i did not realize vitamins or minerals were less/more crucial than each other?
hmm.. alot of this stuff is just hear say/speculation tho, huh?
i guess i just saw several iguanas succumb to calcium def., and i noticed how my savannah flourished with rodents, so my cricket only diet ackies.. well.. my cousin was a vegetarian and she was weak, bah, im not a doctor, i guess crickets just are inertebrates with no meat/protein.. hmm.. YOU KNOw... i swear i feed my monitors better than i feed myself.. healthwise that is, hah
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Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

With me its not spectulation, I practice raising monitors. Oh, and breeding them. I have produced, let me guess, aprox. 100 generations of monitors.

I mix reptivite in with the calicum. 70/30, calicum to vitamins. Use on insects only.

I started using the vitamin mix, when I occurred a repeatable problem with odatriad monitors. Again only when fed insects, at the time, crickets/superworms/waxworms. and occasional wild grasshoppers(at times theirs billions around here). They had eye infections and nerve problems. They would not die from this, but eventually die from some normal infection. I had the University check it out and a reptile vet. They both could not come up with anything wrong. While they were working on the problem(it took months) I went to the store and bought Harts mountain reptile vitamins, mixed it 50/50 with reptile and the problem went away(reversed) in a matter of days. The vet even put down several animals to have them checked for whatever nasty thing they could think of. I then switched to RepCal because I could get it by the gallon.

At the very same time a friend in europe had it occur, and came up with the exact same cure, all on his own(don't know if a vet helped)

So no, its not spectulation. On the otherhand, I am not sure that calicum powder is of actual need, as I used it from the start. So its possible it could be a sugar pill. But I do not have Calicum problems and I have no need to test it. I simply do not need to be that smart, it works, I going with it. hahahahahahahaha I call it a works donut. It works don't it?

To clear it up a little, I did not see problems until I was raising groups of 20 or more together at a time. I never saw that problem when raising one or two monitors together at a time. Cheers

calcium was a biggie with my iggs
i lost one directly of that
then i started feeding them collard greens
now thats almost all i feed them, er, her

i guess it cant hurt, not works donut?
i dont even know what i tried to just say, but, the lizards are going nuts, the humidity is down to 30% or less, and temps are low 70's, 69F last night, no pun intended =P
i had the idea arizona had little humidty
in my room ALONE, its usually 55% humidity, 80's temp, without lamps/blubs/heaters/water spray/covering screens
but a cold front came in a few days ago my skin its itchy as heck
my digi thermos verify this, i keep on top screen of my varanids' cages
so i never put much worry into cover screen tops/front to contain humidity, but now im worried and spraying mist at my ackies and they hate it, hehe, run off

could be an excuse to try repcal? heh
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Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

For most of the year its dry as a bone here, but for a few months midsummer, its very humid(monsoon season)

In winter our inside humidity can drop as low as 2 or 3%. hahahahahahahahahaha really dry.

The thing is, no matter what the outside or room humidity is, its really about the inside of the cages. In other words, if it was the right humidity in your room. The wood would wrap and paint would peal off, and all such things that happen in the cages.

Having hot basking areas, means you made a air dryer. That amount of heat drys out the air.

About you iggie, Again, I do not believe they are any different then monitors. The same problems exsist. When you keep monitors with a hot area of nintie, they too have calicum problems. If you gave your iggies the same basking heat you give monitors, they will not have such calicum problems.

Remember, the sun heats in a very universal way. No matter what the air temps are, the mass temps in tropical areas is very hot. While iggies live in areas where the air temps are from the 70's to the high 90's, the basking areas(places in the sun) are very hot and over 120F up to a long ways over. I know, I temps on wild iggies from over lots of their range. Cheers

i didnt quite understand what you meant here:
"When you keep monitors with a hot area of nintie, they too have calicum problems."
like 90F temp = not good for calcium?

yes i figured my 75 watt "night" bulb, killed the humidity, i use to keep the digital thermo in the basking spot, but it would goto 130F temp and display "--"
hehe, maybe someday i will buy a temp gun
so now im back at 50 watt GE floods

heh well like, my enclosure is made of a plastic tub, plexiglass and plastic PVC type side walls
no paint no wood...
i dont wanna 2nd guess you
but, its hummiddddd in houston, god
i love the heat, but the humidity kills me the last few years, im getting old
but luckily its not 80-90% humidity anymore, and i can wear shirts with sleeves, everyone poked fun at my sleeveless-ness
we are cheap on AC
fan is crap
im use to sleeping in 80 F temp and 80 % humidity, well even typing on this computer, its like hey another heat producing machine, geh, actually im glad i have separate rooms, woo
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Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

heh ok sue me
i put the digi thermo in there and it went to 105 F and under 30% humidity, in the basking spot, which is only 6-7 inches farther away, hmm, ambient temp
the tank is enclosure is pretty large tho..
heheh, so nm what i said, i guess, hehe
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Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

Frank, Do you premix in bulk, meaning not just before you use it?

Not a bad question, yes, i do. I mix it up in a big plastic jar. It takes about three months to use up. No problems. I wonder why they don't sell it that way? Cheers

I've been wondering about that for years. Thanks, Frank.

I believe they sell it unmixed because like reptiles every owner mixs at a slightly different ratio. I myself dust vegtables and insects at different ratios, leaving it unmixed gives the keeper the option. Not to mention that some only feed the mixed every other feeding and straight calcium in between. Leaving it unmixed gives the best ratio for usage.

But heres a pickle why do Hotdogs come in packages of 10 and Buns in packages of 8?

I doubt anyone is still reading!
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Jeremy

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
0.0.10 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.2 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
1.0 Child -coming soon-

So you must buy 4 packages of (10)hot dogs and 5 packages of (8)buns in order to not be wasteful....duh? I thought everyone knew that! If you can't eat 40 hotdogs in one sitting, you aren't human. haha.