Experiences Keepers Need Only Respond 18+

I am looking for the most efficient way to load my feeders with calcium an other water soluble vitamins.

Has anyone ever injected with a common syringe their mealworms or crickets with calcium?

I am wondering if it would be more efficient to go buy a box of syringes and simply inject their food.

Steve

The geckos themselves know when they need calcium and will lick it from a dish inside the enclosure. The whole shake and bake method for feeders has been disproved by Ron Tremper. The geckos know what they need and will get it when they need it. I put a ratio of 1 part Osteoform SA (calcium) to 4 parts Vionate (vitamin supplement) mixed together in a Tupperware dish and put it in with the feeders when I feed the geckos. The thinking is that the mealworms will eat the Vionate as they sit in the dish. Also I leave a small milk cap of Osteoform SA in the enclosure at all times. Injecting each feeder would be super time consuming. If I get a minute after work I'll post the video with Ron Trper talking on the subject. I believe it's the Herpers TV episode on YouTube.

^^ I agree with the above. The other problem with injecting the feeders beside time would be dosage, as it would be very easy to dangerously overdose your geckos on vitamins and minerals. Overdosing is just as dangerous as underdosing.
If your worried about your geckos not dosing themselves enough through the stuff you leave in the cage, you can top up their reserves once in a while with stuff like "Zolcal D". Zolcal is a liquid calcium that you can add to water or syringe feed (in the correct dose to weight ratio).

Well straight from the legends mouth "dusting feeders in an arbitrary practice".

I will simply leave a dish of calcium and save my self more time.

Steve

Just make sure if you use Tremper's no-dust method you use Vionate or OsteoForm and not just pure calcium. He also gutloads his feeders with chicken mash.

Since reptile calcium supplements are hard to get by here (yes, such a country exists in this planet lol), powdered cuttlebone (the soft part) + finely powdered eggshells has done wonders for my leo for a couple of years now

I will say that there is quite a variety of opinion about feeding and supplementing geckos.
For example:
Ron Tremper feeds his geckos mealworms (as far as I know) and, as described above, leaves the supplements in the cage for the geckos to use as needed (one thing to remember, that has been mentioned before on other posts, is that the scale of Tremper's operation mandates time-saving methods. That doesn't necessarily mean that the husbandry is bad, but it may be "adequate" where a small scale hobbyist can do something different that would be "great")
Other people on other forums, who are experienced keepers, state that mealworms are not a nutritious staple, and that currently leopard geckos are so prone to over supplementation (hyper calcification) that calcium or other supplements should never be left in the enclosure.

What makes it worse, is that people also claim that possibly the ill effects of the protocol they're not recommending can take years to make themselves known.

what's a keeper to do?
Read up, choose something, and watch the results, adjusting as necessary. Nothing much can be done about the "won't show up for years" issue.
I started off 11 years ago keeping calcium without D3 in the cage and dusting with calciumD3 and vitamins. I switched to Repashy Calcium plus in 2009, took the calcium out of the adults' cages and dusted every feeding. After reading endlessly on another forum about too much calcium and D3, I started dusting every other feeding and took the calcium out of the hatchlings' cages. When some of my hatchlings showed signs of early MBD, I returned the calcium without D3 to the hatchling/juvie cages and the symptoms reversed quickly.

I have no opinion about the calcium in the cage vs. on the feeders for adults. Well-fed feeders is a big piece of the puzzle, but it turns out that too much protein gets transformed into uric acid and causes gout in the geckos. There's a good article about the nutrition of feeders here:

Nutritional Value of Commercially Raised Insects | Gecko Time

If I had 1 leopard gecko and a relative amount of free time, I would probably feed it a staple food (like mealworms), feed it something else (like super worms, crickets, silkworms or roaches) 1 week a month, keep calcium without D3 in the cage until the gecko was about 6 months old, and use google to do research on the most reasonable supplements (which include but are not limited to Repashy calcium plus, Vionate, Osteoform, Rep-Cal reptivite and calcium).

A lot to chew on, so to speak. Have fun.

Aliza

I am already on that track. to the T.

Great minds think alike? Well, whats left of mine

Steve

I use the Repashy Calcium Plus. I used to use it every feeding but now I skip a dusting here and there. I'd say I probably end up dusting feeders 1 to 2 times per week. I do not keep any calcium in the cage, though mine are pretty much adults at this point. One is 10.5 months old and the other is 2 years old.

I dust with repashy, gutload with fruits and veggies and leave vionate in the geckos' bowls. I also leave laying females a dish of pure Ca in their bins. Too much calcium can cause just as many issues as too little so I wouldn't be forcing as much as possible into feeders or geckos. As long as they get a bit and are healthy to begin with they should be fine I'd consult a vet before going crazy with injecting feeders and whatnot.

I gutload my feeders well. Mealworms live in a bedding of pro geckos gutload and also get carrots before feeding. My dubia get Marcy's chow and carrots also. I dust my feeders and also leave calcium with a little vionate in bowls at all times (except when they spill it all). Minerall is a great one for dusting because it sticks well to the feeders. I've watched many geckos eat the insects with the dusting on them, so I know they are getting quite a bit that way. I made a post awhile back in the feeders section with my steps and pics of gutloading and dusting.