Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If your Rhac is eating the diet exclusively, I highly discourage the additional supplementation of calcium or vitamins.

The diet is complete, in fact, quite rich in calcium and vitamins. My calcium content is close to 2% in the MRP's, and I am actually doing some trials right now on calcium content that are leading me to think that this is actually quite a bit more than necessary. Too much calcuim, though not as bad as not enough, can still create problems in excess. Too much calcium can interfere with the absorbtion of essential nutrients and vitamins such as vitamin A.
Laboratory studies with leopard gecko's have shown that a 1% calcuim diet is all that is needed for growth and egg producing females.
Avian history also shows that even in egg laying chickens that lay eggs on a near daily basis, only require 1.5% calcium in their diet.
I am currently monitoring some grow outs and egg producing females on three different calcium levels, and so far, the ones on the lower levels are doing just fine. More isn't necessarily better, but it is better to err to the high side than the low, so most herp diets lean in that direction. If you look at the Superfoods section, read my post about participating in my studies. I want to get some outside feedback on a blind study of egg producing females on different levels of calcium..... I could use some help....

If you are feeding the MRP's along with a regular insect regiment, then supplementing the insects with a normal insect dusting regiment is fine because they fall outside the balance of the diet. You should look at the ICB's that I designed for dusting, as I think they are much better than just a straight calcium/vitamin supplement. (then again I am a little biased

The third situation is for those people that insist on mixing baby food with the diets. I can't discourage this enough.... this throws of the nutritional balance of everything, and just dilutes the whole formula. It is OK to use this tactic to switch gecko's over, but it should be done in decreasing amounts over a matter of a few weeks.

This topic is a whole post of its own, so lets start a new thread on that topic when we are done here.

It is late, and I need to kick off for the night.... I will answer the GGD vs. CGD tomorrow night and talk a little more about the differences at that time...