Calcium dusting?

[Fluffball176]

Hello. I have a juvenile Leopard Gecko. I offer him 2-4 mealworms daily. Every Other day I dust the mealworms in calcium power with vitamin D3 and I have a dish full of calcium (no D3) in the tank at all times.

Is this to much for dusting? To little? Are mealworms bad for dusting?


Sorry for asking a lot of questions but I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Answer what you can, anything will help.

 

[Yamori]

Dusting every other day is fine, personly i only dust 4 times a week (every second day) as mine will simply refuse to eat if i dust any more than that. Having a dish with calcium in the tank is pretty standert practice but not really needed in my opinion.

Mealies, supers etc are fine for dusting just make sure to give them a good shake to get a decent coating of calcium on them. Ideally you want to give your leos a varied diet made up of crickets and or roaches, mealworms and superworms.

I myself use crickets as a staple and also offer supers and ocasionaly silk worms.

-

Darren

 

[Fluffball176]

Dusting every other day is fine, personly i only dust 4 times a week (every second day) as mine will simply refuse to eat if i dust any more than that. Having a dish with calcium in the tank is pretty standert practice but not really needed in my opinion.

Mealies, supers etc are fine for dusting just make sure to give them a good shake to get a decent coating of calcium on them. Ideally you want to give your leos a varied diet made up of crickets and or roaches, mealworms and superworms.

I myself use crickets as a staple and also offer supers and ocasionaly silk worms.

-

Darren

Thanks! This answers quite a few of my questions. My Gecko is a bit small for roaches (I think...) so right now I'm only using mealworms and crickets (I don't feed them to him much anymore becasue he gets his teeth stuck in the carpet from time to time).


By the way that's one of the best signature I've seen in a wile.

 

[Yamori]

No problem,

Regarding roaches, you can buy them in a variety of sizes starting from extra small to small, medium, large and extra large.

Easy to keep and breed and are very good nutritionally. I used them as a staple feeder for quite some time but back then i had styrofoam backgrounds in my enclosures and had alot of problems with these evasive little critters not only hiding behind it but also burrowing in to it.

They are verry good at hiding and are the best escape artists so you really have to make sure your enclosure is escape proof.

Having problems with the carpet ha, i have heard of leos getting their claws stuck in the carpet but not their teeth. Have you considerd an alternative substrate?

contrary to popular belief sand is actualy a verry safe and easy to clean substrate.

I have personaly used natural desert sand for years and never had an issue, It was actualy the breeder i bought my first reptiles from that suggested that i use sand and he has not only bred numerouse species of reptile for the past 28 years but was once a full time vet specializing in the care and treatment of reptiles.
-

Darren

 

[Fluffball176]

No problem,

Regarding roaches, you can buy them in a variety of sizes starting from extra small to small, medium, large and extra large.

Easy to keep and breed and are very good nutritionally. I used them as a staple feeder for quite some time but back then i had styrofoam backgrounds in my enclosures and had alot of problems with these evasive little critters not only hiding behind it but also burrowing in to it.

They are verry good at hiding and are the best escape artists so you really have to make sure your enclosure is escape proof.

Having problems with the carpet ha, i have heard of leos getting their claws stuck in the carpet but not their teeth. Have you considerd an alternative substrate?

contrary to popular belief sand is actualy a verry safe and easy to clean substrate.

I have personaly used natural desert sand for years and never had an issue, It was actualy the breeder i bought my first reptiles from that suggested that i use sand and he has not only bred numerouse species of reptile for the past 28 years but was once a full time vet specializing in the care and treatment of reptiles.
-

Darren

I've asked about the reptile carpet on a diffrent site and heard the same thing. I plan on switching to Play Sand when he gets a little older, as I hear (with all reptiles) it's best to keep them off loose substrate at young ages.

 

[adam&nikki]

No problem,

Regarding roaches, you can buy them in a variety of sizes starting from extra small to small, medium, large and extra large.

Easy to keep and breed and are very good nutritionally. I used them as a staple feeder for quite some time but back then i had styrofoam backgrounds in my enclosures and had alot of problems with these evasive little critters not only hiding behind it but also burrowing in to it.

They are verry good at hiding and are the best escape artists so you really have to make sure your enclosure is escape proof.

Having problems with the carpet ha, i have heard of leos getting their claws stuck in the carpet but not their teeth. Have you considerd an alternative substrate?

contrary to popular belief sand is actualy a verry safe and easy to clean substrate.

I have personaly used natural desert sand for years and never had an issue, It was actualy the breeder i bought my first reptiles from that suggested that i use sand and he has not only bred numerouse species of reptile for the past 28 years but was once a full time vet specializing in the care and treatment of reptiles.
-

Darren

ive used sand as well for my leos with out issues for years just make sure you sift the play sand really well also pack it down so its hard

as for feeding i dust 2 to 3 times a week i feed with meal worms silks hornd worms ( when i can get them) my staple is crickets i usally dust the crickets and leave everything eles natural

 

[Fluffball176]

ive used sand as well for my leos with out issues for years just make sure you sift the play sand really well also pack it down so its hard

as for feeding i dust 2 to 3 times a week i feed with meal worms silks hornd worms ( when i can get them) my staple is crickets i usually dust the crickets and leave everything eles natural

I take it packing the sand down will make it harder for a Leo to ingest sand wile eating (or from being curious)? I was going to use Mealworms for his main diet, but if I can safely feed him crickets by packing down the sand that would be even better.