Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can someone please pass this information along.

I am trying to do a growth rate study on two seperate groups of Tegus to determine the pros and cons of each way to feed.

Thanks in advance.

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Jerry
E and J Reptiles

you can probably pick some up at your local feed store or you can substitute calcium supliment like rep-cal
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

For Beardie :

Have you tested replacing the bone meal in the San Diego Zoo diet with Rep Cal or any other calcium ? If so how long did you feed your tegus this diet and what were the results of the offspring this altered diet produced ?

I have tested both the San Diego zoo diet and various altered forms of it extensivly on Blue tegus which can take a greater dietary punishment than any other tegu I have have ever worked with . I can tell you from first hand experiance in 4 years of testing it on Blues that the results from altered diet are NOT pretty. I can also tell you that results from feeding the diet mixed the correct way to small group of blues worked nicely for 3 generations of testing it . I can also tell you that perfectly healthy blue tegus that had been raised on my best diet and had prviously produced excellent offspring produced a clutch of offspring that had birth defects when fed altered diet while gravid and then went on to produce only healthy offspring when fed correctly after that.

For Beardie and everyone else who would like to keep their tegus happy and healthy:

If you are going to use ground turkey mix it exactly like the San Diego Zoo diet , if you don't I can guarantee you will run into some very serious health problems. I have absoloutly NOTHING to gain by sharing my experiance on this as most people don't like to hear that it can hurt their animals to feed them turkey any way they want to because most people do not want to go through the trouble of locating the right stuff and weighing it out.

I can not tell you how many people have emailed me reguarding serious health problems their tegus have had feeding turkey that was not mixed correctly .There have been way too many to keep track of over the years. If you look at my web page you will not see feed your tegu turkey on it.This is because of the problems it causes when not mixed right and the fact that most people don't go through the trouble of mixing it right . If you love your tegu and you want it to live a healthy long life do NOT feed it turkey that is not mixed correctly .

Bone Meal and Rep Cal are not the same . Bone Meal is made from whole bones that are ground up . Not all bone meal is even the same , it comes in different grades . The lowest grade is labeled for gardening and can contain high amounts of heavy metals . Heavy metals or not something you really don't want to eat or feed to your animals . The best quality is sterilzed and sold for human use ,this is what you should use on your tegus and it is found in health food stores .

Rep Cal is made from ground oyster shell and is phosphorus free .Rep Cal is designed primarly to go on crickets and other insects that have a high Calcium to Phosphrous ratio . Since the insects it was designed to go on have a high phosphorus to calcium ratio they do not add phosphorous to it . Raw ground turkey does not have a high phosphorous ratio.

If you want to use Rep Cal use it for what it was designed for and that is a well fed cricket . The reverse it true also , you don't want to be putting bone meal on your crickets.

If you want to feed your tegu turkey take the time and make the effort to mix it corectly .
For every 10lbs of raw ground turkey
add 90 grams of bone meal that you purchase at a health food store and add 2 Centrum vitamins . Take your time mixing it so that the calcium and vitamins are evenly distributed through out all of the turkey .
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Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com

I hate it when I do this in a hurry
this is wrong
Rep Cal is designed primarly to go on crickets and other insects that have a high Calcium to Phosphrous ratio
it should have been the opposite
Rep Cal is designed primarly to go on crickets and other insects that have a high Phosphrous to Calcium ratio
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Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com

Thank you so very much for that highly informative post. I will have to admit there are probably not to many folks as well versed in raising tegus as you.

I have only been using rep-cal with turkey for 2 years on my reds. I also mix in various fruits and veggies. All the babies born with parents on the diet were all healthy and are in turn currently on the diet as well. I have not seen any adverse effects. Since you do have sveral good and valad points however, I will probably be making a trip to the health food store myself real soon.

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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

I totaly agree with you!

love your photos, that male is huge! thanks for sharing
kind regards

Hi all. I wish to make smaller amounts of the SDZ diet for my ackies. I understand the need to mix very well and in the right proportion. The problem is, if you make 1 or 2 lbs of it, it is hard to get the centrum tablet cut to the right size in proportion. Can any other vitamin supp. be substituted? Herptivite or similar?

Thank you for your time.
Carole
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Check it out. www.reptilecare.com