Reptile & Amphibian Forums

just curious ... i was told by a breeder to only use calcium until your cham is full grown, an just gutload your crix properly . true?
also, this may sound dumb, but is it ok to use one container to dust with two separate supplements?
let me know

Jason
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Jason
f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/dank7oo
1.0 maroantsetra panther chameleon
0.2 dwarf panther chameleons
jsinger_jimt@hotmail.com

Chameleons should always have some calcium added to their diet, since there's so little of it in all of their staple diets, namely crickets. The amount of calcium should certainly be decreased when they're full grown, but they grow for almost 2 years.... I've been decreasing mine at about 6 months and again at about a year. For using the same cup for dusting 2 supplements, I suppose you could, you'd just get a little of the last supplement in with the new one and you may need to remember that when doing up their supplement schedule a bit. I have a total of 4 supplements I use and I just have 4 plastic cups, each labeled with what is in it and I use the right one when I need it. They're just stacked in the meantime so they don't take up any extra space.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

Ok, I'm confused about this *different cups* thing. I might just be tired, but I'm lost...so, I'm gonna ask. Tyler, when you dust with vitamins and calcium, for example, do you dump the crix or whatever in one cup, then the other, then in the enclosure? If so, doesn't the dust from the first cup dump into the second cup mixing the two? Do you then just trash the rest of the dust?

I know I sound like dimwit, but I've obviously been doing it all wrong...LOL! I've just been measuring out small, equal amounts, mixing it together, dusting crix and putting them in enclosure. I do calcium w/ D3 alone sometimes, but other times I mix it with the vitamins (all Rep Cal brand).

Oh dear...time for bed...I bet I'm gonna regrest this post in the morning...hehehe!
Kristen
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1.1 pygmy leaf
1.0 carpet
1.0 jackson

I don't supplement more than 1 thing a day... My 4 cups have written on them: Calcium only, Calcium and D3, Multivitamin, and Miner-All O in the 4th. So on one day, I use the Calcium only cup for all my chams. Then the next day, I use the Multivitamin cup for all my chams. If a chameleon isn't getting supplements on a certain day, I just use a cup with no supplements in it. All my chameleons are on a supplement schedule, by days of the week, so say on a Tuesday, they all get Calcium and D3, so I give them all Calcium and D3. Then on the next day, all the gravid girls get multivitamin and the adult males get no supplements, so I do them separate. All I do is get the crickets into whatever cup I'm using, add a pinch of the supplement that I have written on the cup (sometimes there's just leftovers from the time before so I don't have to add any), and swirl the cup around a little to get the dust lightly on all of them. Then I shake the cup a little in each cage to get out however many crix I'm putting in. Get it?
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

Got it, Tyler...thanks for the explanation. Is there anything wrong with mixing it? I thought I read that you could on the Rep Cal container...so I've been doing Calcium w/ D3 two days and Vitamins on one. I've been mixing the two together on one day (Sunday) and doing the Calcium w/ D3 on Thursday.

I got the schedule from the Kammers, which is who I got my Pygmy from. I just hope I got it right.

Thanks again
Kristen
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1.1 pygmy leaf
1.0 carpet
1.0 jackson

Ok, glad you got it. I don't think there's anything wrong with mixing them. I think I read somewhere that you're not supposed to mix them and store it, like if you mixed the whole containers together. I don't know why. But supposedly if you mixed them fresh it was ok.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

the problem with mixing and storing them is that the d3 can be destroyed by the beta-carotene, so it is ok to mix them just before hand, but not to store them mixed together.
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groups.msn.com/JEChameleons
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