Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I feed my frogs 3 times per week. How often should I dust the crickets with calcium powder?(repto-calcium)

well i get my crickets from the petstore, so when i get home, i take a pinch of the calcium dust drop it into the bag, and shake it a little big, and eventually the all the crickets are lightly covered with the powder

once a week should be enough, especially if you gutload them.

snip "once a week should be enough, especially if you gutload them."endsnip

Gutloading insects is usually not as simple as most people make it out to be and if not done properly under controlled conditions is insufficient to properly supply correct nutrients to the frog..
At this time, all of the studies done on commonly used feeder insects show that gut loading unless done under very controlled conditions is usually insufficient to meet the needs of the consuming reptile/amphibian.

For a start see the following articles and associated articles in the appropriate bibliographies..

Sabatini, Jeremy A.; Dierenfeld, Ellen S.; Fitzpatrick, Marianne P.; Hashim, Laurette; 1998, Effects of internal and external supplementation on the nutrient content of crickets, the Vivarium 9(4): 23-24

Hunt, Amy S.; Ward, Ann M.; Ferguson, Gary, 2001, Effects of a high calcium diet on gut loading in various ages of crickets (Acheta domestica) and mealworms (Tenebrio molitor), pp. 94-102 edited by M. S. Edwards, K.J. Lisi, M. L. Schlegel, R. E. Bray, In Proceedings of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association Fourth Conference on Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition

Crissey, Susan D.; Ward, Ann M.; Maslanka, Mike T. 2001, Nutrient content of nutritional supplements available for use in captive lizard feeding programs, pp. 53-59 edited by M. S. Edwards, K.J. Lisi, M. L. Schlegel, R. E. Bray, In Proceedings of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association Fourth Conference on Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition

Wright, Kevin M.; 2001, Diets for captive amphibians, pp. 63-71, edited by K. M. Wright and B. R. Whitaker, In Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry, Krieger Publishing Co., Malabar

Ed

snip "I feed my frogs 3 times per week. How often should I dust the crickets with calcium powder?(repto-calcium)"endsnip

At this frequency, the supplementation should occur with each feeding. The typical recommendation in the literature are to supplement with each feeding if feeding three times a week or less often and to alternate with each feeding if offering food more frequently than 3 times a week.

If you mean Rep-Cal then while this supplement is sufficient in D3 and calcium it is deficient in vitamin A, E and other nutrients which can lead to other conditional deficiencies of the frog.

Also most vitamin/mineral mixes have a relatively short shelf life so you want to use the freshest mixture available and replace it after about six months as the fat soluable vitamins in the mix tend to oxidize.

Ed