Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Since I've had Uma, my albino pacman frog, I have been using an equally mixed formula of the two rep-cals (the blue and the pink). I just took two teaspoons of the blue jug and two of the pink, put it in a bag and shook it up to make my powder bag where I then put the food in to dust. I have a leopard gecko which I use the Reptivite powder with. I have been reading up on what kinds of vitamin supplements to use and many say reptivite, where as I was told to get the two rep-cals and mix them. Reptivite has vitamin A in it which I was told is bad for frogs. Which method should I use,
Reptivite or mixture of both rep-cal formulas? Here are the pics.

Vitamin A in and of itself is not bad for amphibians and is a metabolic requirement. It is only a problem when the ratio of vitamin A to D3 is greater than 10 to 1. There is a lot of discussion that excessive vitamin A is a real problem and can kill frogs but to be sure that this is accurate the livers of the frogs would need to be analyzed to determine if this was in fact true (I have seen no data to this effect as of yet).

If you are using Herptivite, this product will supply the vitamin A via betacarotene which frogs seem to be able to readily synthesize to vitamin A (unlike some bufonids).

You want to mix the supplements so the ratio of A to D3 is about 10 to 1 and there is a ration of 1-1 to 2-1 of calcium to phosphorus.

Ed

So, if I just used Reptivite instead of mixing the Rep-Cals, would this be okay? I would just pour some into a bag and shake the crickets in it, I just wanted to know if I could do this and if it would be healthy for my frog. Thanks

I don't have the container sitting in front of me so I cannot check the ratios.
You will have to check them.

Personally I prefer to use Rep-Cal Herptivite as they have expiration dates printed on them so I can make sure that they haven't been sitting on the shelf forever but then you need to figure out how much of each one to use... Typically you want to replace the supplements every six months as the fat soluable vitamins such as D3, A and E can begin to degrade.

Ed

Okay, thanks for the help I'm going to look into the ratios in the products.

I think, probably more important than the actual supplements used is that you feed your frog a variety of prey and/or make sure all of them are well fed prior to being sacraficed.