Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Heya,
I would like to ask you all what supplements youre using on your tegus feeds so I can get an idea of whats the most popular. I was looking on importing a pot of herptivite and calcium with D3 after being advised to use it because of the more natural content; but if you guys could tell me what you use (and why you choose it over other products) I would be most grateful.

Really all you need is Miner All I Calcium indoor formula with added d3 or outdoor depending on where you keep him/her. Dust your crickets with the calcium while also feeding mice and fruit. Also be sure to get a good UVB light if you are keeping him/her. The UVB and calcium will help you avoid MBD and the whole prey items and fruit will give him/her everything else he/she needs nutrition wise.

Heya,
Is Rep-Cal Calcium with Vitamin D3 similar to this? Is it as good to use?
Thanks,
Jo

The St.Pierres recommends Miner All as the best. I did use Rep-Cal at one time and I can tell you it does not stick to crickets any where near as good as Miner All does. The Miner All seems to be a much finer powder. I still have a can of Rep-Cal that is near full but I spent the $8 on the stuff the experts say is the best.

If you want to read the exact words from Ron or Stella St.Pierre (I can't remember which on wrote it) read below.

Choosing a good quality calcium supplement:

I've tried just about every calcium on the market and tested them extensivly on hatchling tegus . The best calcium I have found for baby tegus is Miner All I (indoor formula with added d3 ) . This is WAY better than any other calcium I have tested .
Yes most pet stores do not carry it and it will take some extra effort of your part to locate it but YES IT IS WORTH IT .
It is usually appears to be a little more expensive than most other calciums since you usually have to pay for shipping but this stuff is very finely milled and it sticks to crickets very well so you will actually be using about 1/2 to 2/3 less calcium at every feeding since most of it will not be going to waste . (No I do not get paid by this company and no I do not own any stock in this company either and yes I do use it ) In the long run because you will have almost no waste this calcium usually ends up costing you a lot less than most of the calciums you will find at your local pet store . If your pet store doesn't carry it you can always ask them to order it for you too =)

Crickets are high in phosphorus and if fed unsupplemented your tegus will develop a calcium defficiency since calcium needs other mineral such as phosphorus to be in balance in order for your animals to absorb it correctly , same goes for Vitamin D3 (some calciums have way to much artficial D3 and this could cause a problem also ) . If you think all calcium supplements are the same look at the back of the bottle and compare them ... they are all a little bit different.

If you are using the Miner Al I you will only need a little tiny bit . Place your cickets in a cup and a small pinch (less than 1/8 tsp- basically like lightly salting your food -this stuff really does stick that well and you really only need a little tiny bit because of that ) of the Miner Al , put your hand over the cup and give it a little shake to distribute the calcium . Place these crickets in a bowl in your tegus enclosure (some will climb out but don't worry about it - you are trying to train your tegu to eat out of this bowl ) . Let your tegu eat as many of these crickets as he wants to .... you can not over feed a baby tegu on insects . It's better to feed a little bit a time and do it several times per day .

what happened to your tegu's tongue?

I got him that way; Stella St.Pierre told me it was probably bitten off by one of his siblings. As hatchlings they are housed together and most likely he was smelling food that another was trying to eat. It doesn’t seem to affect him in the lease.

This is an older picture

So far we've used three supplements.
We've also had a scare with metabolic bone disease due to vitamin D3 deficiency from our tegu not basking under his UV enough, but the three supplements we've used are:

To begin, we dusted our crickets with "Herptivite" which is very complete and has a lot of stuff in it.

When he had MBD (now almost recovered!)we used "Chameleon Dust" due to its very high calcium content and moderatly lesser phosporus content.

We also used the liquid supplement you add to the water, "ElectroD3ize" for vitamin D3 and I can't say anything bad about it.
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Melissa and Corny

I agree all the way with the Miner All I. I have just started using it and the stuff does the trick. It is pretty spendy at $13.00 for thing of it, which was only 3/4 of the way full, probably due to settling while shipping. But I wouldnt use anything else.
-Beth

If you want to use the best use Miner Al I .
There is no other calcium on the market that even comes close to it's quality when it comes to baby tegus .

This calcium contain just the right amount of d3 ratio to calcium that tegus need when it is added to crickets. On crickets it brings the calcium to phosphorus ratio to the correct balance for tegus .

Stella St.Pierre

Blue Tegu (Ron St.Pierre )

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Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com

Another vote for Minerall Indoor. I use it exclusively now, on all my lizards. Used to use a separate calcium with D3 and a vitamin, but, as an experiment when my baby leopard geckos hatched, I separated two testing groups, one using Minerall, and one using RepCal and Herpivite. The Mineral group grew faster, and had fatter tails. Also, cost-wise, Minerall was cheaper in the long run than buying two separate suppliment powders, although if you can't pick it up at a herp show, shipping adds to the cost. But Stella is definitely right about it sticking better and needing less.

...

v

...does anyone know a website that delivers supplements to the UK? I see Herpsupplies.com used to but they now only deliver to Canada, so anyone know where I can obtain this Minerall?

Again, many thanks.