Very interesting study done on calcium!

I work at a vet when im not doing the geckos, and a very interesting study came in the other day about calcium powders from pet stores. The study had 5-6 difference calcium brands, including the big names flukers, zoo med, etc. Out of all the calciums test only one of them had what would be sufficent for a reptile. The rest either had too low amount to test or the calcium percent was extremely low. Phosphorous was also test with these brand and again only one passed the test.
I bet right now your wondering what brand it is that does what it says...lol
Zoomed-was the only powder that had a good supply of calcium and phosphorus.
Unfortunetly this study did not test some of the most widely used powders in the gecko world like herptivie, osteoform, vionate, and repcal. But it did show that buyign calcium from a pet store is a gamble.

That is interesting. Could you name the ones that were not sufficent?

Flukers was not, and I beleive jurrasic cal. There are a few more I would have to look at the study again but basically zoomed was a safe bet and the rest were not.

Yep.. that is true... That why I make my own calcium over here at home..I gotten better results out of making my own than buy from petstore....

Thanks for the info.

How do you make your own calcium?

Well see now thats a shame, i use jurrassical. arg.

I use limestone to make calcium... A lot of them in Texas I just dig right out of my backyard and test it to see if it is limestone or not by putting vinegar on it if it frizzles then it is calcium... The reason it reacts because it is calcium carbonate which react to vinegar by frizzling... I sand them or drill into powder and it is easy to do just have to right tools and location.

Originally Posted by CoolGecko

I use limestone to make calcium... A lot of them in Texas I just dig right out of my backyard and test it to see if it is limestone or not by putting vinegar on it if it frizzles then it is calcium... The reason it reacts because it is calcium carbonate which react to vinegar by frizzling... I sand them or drill into powder and it is easy to do just have to right tools and location.

lucky...

But does the limestone have good phosphorus levels?

phosphporou is not too important if you gutload - there's plenty of it in most insects that are fed well. Calcium is harder to get via gutloading. Repcal and minerall are good sources. I *know* that they work, and they are the only brands that I actually trust, simply because I proved them to work for myself!

Hundreds of veiled chameleons rasied with ZERO UVB (of course, now I use UVB lights ,and sunshine when possible) back in the "days before zoomed bulbs", and the only source of calcium and D3 was repcal - not a one had MBD,a nd they all grew up nice and big.

I later used minerall, from sticky tongue farms, to raise two chameleons from babies to adults, again, with no UVB - one deremensis , one calyptratus.

I have seen too too many people with "everything the books say", still have mbd problems with geckos and chameleons, and they always have soem second rate, P.O.S. calcium "dust". This study confirms it to me. Why in the heck didnt' they test repcal and minerall?