Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright guys, thought i'd run this by you and see what you thought
I'm making a new mix of supplements that will be about

5 parts calcium
2 parts multi-vitamin
1 part calcium WITH D3

I figured i'd just combine all of these and use it to powder food for my leos. Sound alright?
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0.0.3 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Miniature long-haired dachsund

Sounds like it could work, but you can do even better buy purchasing the t-rex leopard gecko dust. Allen at Sandfire has already done the work for you. It is a complete supplement that balances the nutrients of your bug to make it a complete food every time it's fed. In addition to what you have in you mix, it also has a high quality protien source and beneficial probiotics added. It's formulated to be used every feeding, and can be left in the bottom of a feeding dish for those that use mealworms.
good luck
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Bill DiFabio
Garden State Herpetoculture...website to follow...
Email Me
"The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense,
not between right and wrong." - Carl Jung

Awesome! That sounds great. I was just making this mix so i could just have one thing to use instead of 3, and i wouldn't have to worry about over or under using one of them. Thanks.
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0.0.3 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Miniature long-haired dachsund

Just in case you do feed mealworms out of a feeding dish...you can use a product called t-rex Sandfire Superfoods ILF. It is another product in the same line as the Leopard gecko dust or ICB. ILF stands for Insect Load Formula, so it is a gutload. This is actually the product I use for my leo colony. It is the only supp. my adults and babies get and it available at all times in the feeding dish. I will let Allen explain it:

"Thanks for finding that old post Bill.

One thing to add on the gutloading thing that many overlook.

The ILF gutload that I developed has three main applications. The first and
most obvious is for pre_loading insects before they are fed. The previous link
covers this topic pretty well.
The second use is primarily for larger breeders who feed mealworms, but will
work for anything that eats mealworms, and frankly, I don't know why more
people don't do it. (The top three leopard gecko breeders (by quantity) in the
world are all using the ILF in this way for their colonies.)
Using an 8 ounce deli container with about a quarter inch of ILF in the bottom,
and keeping it with a bunch of mealworms at all times. The mealworms eat the
ILF, and stay dusted in it at the same time. No other supplementation is
necessary.
The third and most important use if the ILF (or any gutload for that matter) is
the least practiced, and one of the most important.
Picture this:
You toss in a dozen and a half crickets in your Dragon cage... he snags about
ten of them right off the bat, and the rest of them dissappear under cage
furniture or are just not eaten because the Dragon has had his fill.
What happens to these Crickets? In about two hours they are going to be
hungry and looking for something to eat.... what do they find to eat in most
cages? Lizard Feces!..... and thats what they usually eat Eating feces does
many things. It decreases the nutritional value of the cricket for one. More
importantly, it creates an intermediate host situation for many parasites that
might be present in the feces. Many parasites require an intermediate host such
as an insect to even have the opportunity to re infect an animal and complete
another life cycle.
Lizard takes crap.... cricket eats crap.... lizard gets more parasites....
So keeping a high quality gutload in your terrarium will give insects something to
eat other than feces..... and they will ALWAYS make that choice... reducing
chances of parasite transmission and at the same time keeping the insect at max
nutritional value for the time your dragon finally finds him and picks him off....

I have been spending way to much time on here.... I hope you have got some
useful information from my posts. I will use some of this info in the writings I
am doing for our new website, and I really need to get back to it....

Seeya, Allen Repashy"

>>Awesome! That sounds great. I was just making this mix so i could just have one thing to use instead of 3, and i wouldn't have to worry about over or under using one of them. Thanks.
>>-----
>>0.0.3 Leopard Geckos
>>0.1.0 Miniature long-haired dachsund

Link to info about gutloading vs. dusting

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Bill DiFabio
Garden State Herpetoculture...website to follow...
Email Me
"The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense,
not between right and wrong." - Carl Jung