Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As a baby and juvenile my beardie would eat his salad voraciously. He would always get a varied mix from week to week, with: collards, dandelion greens, squashes, beets, red peppers, apples, strawberries & mangos...

However, now that he has grown to adult size (he's a 1.5 years old now) all he ever eats is superworms. He doesnt even like crix much anymore. The only time he eats a bite of a green is when i put it up to his mouth and coax it in there when he smells it with his tongue.

So, because I am afraid he's not getting enough calcium, I give him a calcium drop (calci-herp) once every five days or so. The instructions on the bottle say it's intended for animals during high calcium needs such as egg production, egg laying and post egg laying. I think this is a "high calcium need" time for him since he does get calcium from any other source and I'd hate for him to develop MBD. Anyone else familiar with this product? Anyone else supplement their lizards with calcium this way? Is it safe? Does he get enough calcium now?

You can gutload superworms using normal cricket feed and regular vitamins, but I don't think you hurting him giving him calcium that way, so long as it's every 5-6 days. I keep a container or supers with the dry crix gutload around, and the supers love the stuff. They'll burrow in and around it, and Draconis gets a large amount of his vitamins that way. Of course, now he's switching back over to crix again, wish he'd make up his mind...
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Dl

thanks for the advice. the supers are housed in a big bucket of oats, cornmeal, bran and wheat grains. about once a week i toss in a half cup of gutloaded crix food. they also get collard leaves for moisture (and calcium) and an occasional yam. i'm hoping the supers are nutritious enough for him since that's all he seems to eat. his tank setup does include a UVA&B strip light and zoomed's vitasand as his substrate.

here's another pic of him