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Very interesting study done on calcium!

snared99

snared99

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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.
 
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....
 
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.
 
CoolGecko said:
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.
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lucky...
 
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?
 
so could i just but some limestone at a store like home depot ? just to make my own calcium dust. or i think that i have some ice melt in my garge, and it sasy it is calcium carbinate, could i just crush up the flakes and use that?
 
I dunno this is just me but i would not use something from a home depot or my back yard for supplementing reptiles. Now this is not to knock whatever is working for that individual but that doesnt mean it will work in every case. Stay with what works, wheither by the books or not. Mineral and repcal were not in this test because they are not readily avaible in stores. But I would not go to homedepot in hopes of a calcium supplement. I wish more money was spend in the areas such as htis like supplements so we would know, and not just on a few brands. This post was just to make people aware that not all calcium sources do as much as said, as sold in pet stores. In a perfect world they would all be tested and the "by the book" suggestions would be perfect, but this is not a perfect world.
 
cornsnakekid92 said:
so could i just but some limestone at a store like home depot ? just to make my own calcium dust. or i think that i have some ice melt in my garge, and it sasy it is calcium carbinate, could i just crush up the flakes and use that?
Click to expand...

I would say no.
Human grade supplements are what you want. The difference between industrial or garden limestone/calcium sources and human grade supplements is in the "other" stuff that could be present. Contaminants like lead, arsenic etc.

Also, there is a difference between a substance that is composed of calcium and a substance that has "bioavailable" calcium. It has to be in a form that the intestinal tract can actually utilize.

So, this study, did it address the bioavailability of the calcium in the supplements? Can you give the title of this study, a source or a link? I'd love to read it myself.

Thank you.
 
The study was passed out at a veterainary conference, so it isnt a link or site. I have to get it copied from the vet and get in on disk and blahblah to get it on here. So it wil take some time.
 
I do not plan on doing what i said but i was just wondering. could i just crush up some tums? those are pretty much calcuim right?
 
cornsnakekid92 said:
I do not plan on doing what i said but i was just wondering. could i just crush up some tums? those are pretty much calcuim right?
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no!!!! Tums are ant-acids, they neutralize stomach acid. Give those to your leos and theyll have a rough time of it trying to digest food.
 
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