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Thread: Calcium overdose vs. Calcium deficiency, how much calcium to give?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2012
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    Default Calcium overdose vs. Calcium deficiency, how much calcium to give?

    Hello all,

    I am receiving my giant extreme tegu from bobby of varnyard either monday or tuesday. I have just about everything set up except I am still a little confused about the food. Every tegu herper or reptile store owner says to supplement tegus with something like zoomed repticalcium WITH D3, however if you read Bobby Hills care sheet, he is explicit in advising to use repticalcium WITHOUT D3. I planned on listening to bobby however then i read a thread about how its possible to overdose them on calcium, something called calcification. I dont want to feed my new tegu hatchling mice and apparently their bones arent even developed that young so i thought of a solution. I went ahead and bought a ninja food processor 700 watt, after checking some forums to see if this would be ok or not. I plan on buying whole chicken, turkey, fish (minus the heads) and grinding them up into mush (no visible bone shards) with either tegu safe fruits or vegetables. Then feeding the mush to my tegu? Does this seem like a good idea?

    Since the only reason people feed their tegus pre killed and thawed rodents is for the calcium in the bones of said rodents. The reason for using a food processor is to bypass the trouble of feeding rodents specifically to achieve digestion of said rodents bones. theoretically you would achieve the same effect of feeding mice or rats.

    Also, if this is a good idea, how often should i feed my new tegu hatchling a whole food prey item (mashed up meat, bones and organs). If i alternated whole turkey with bones and fruit, whole chicken with bones and fruit, whole fish with bones and fruit, then beef organs (no bones) with fruit daily would that be too much calcium? Since it is essentially the same as feeding mice, how often do you feed your tegu mice as hatchling? If i fed him in that order one meal a day, he would be ingesting bone 3 out of the 4 days i feed him, contingent on me feeding him beef organs such as hearts and liver. would that lead to calcification? should every meal have calcium in it? If I am doing that do I even need to buy a calcium supplement such as repticalcium? should it be the one with or without D3?

    I will also feed my tegu eggs, however i dont think eggs and fruit taste good together so ill probably feed him eggs and fruit separately.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
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    Earth
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    Bobby Hill is an excellent breeder....but doesn't understand squat when it comes to biology. Likes to think he does, but conjectures and makes up nonsense that is often misleading, sometimes dangerous.

    You've brought up a good point here. Calcium and vitamin D3. Yes, you can indeed overdose them with calcium and lead to calcification of soft tissues. This apparently is done by also oversupplementing with Vitamin D3 (ie. you have to give lots of calcium with lots of vitamin D3 at the same time), hence why Mr. Hill is adamant against it. However, Mr.Hill (and others) will say give tons of cod liver oil. What is cod liver oil? It's a supplement VERY HIGH IN Vitamin D3. Mr. Hill has argued that the difference is that cod liver oil is natural, whereas the stuff in vitamin supplements is manufactured. While this has some truth, the fact that it makes any difference to your tegu's body (or your own) IS NOTHING BUT HOGWASH. Vitamin D3 is vitamin D3, the living body cares not how it was made. The REAL problem is people like Mr.Hill like to go by the very erroneous adage that "if a little is good, a lot must be better". Moderation is far better. You want to indeed supplement with calcium, particularly when you have a growing tegu. You also want to ensure your tegu gets vitamin D3, however you have a choice between UVB production (arguably the best way to go) or dietary supplementation. The thing with oral vitamin D3 is that it is a lipid soluble vitamin (most are water soluble) and so as a lipid soluble vitamin it can be stored in fatty tissue, and therefore it can lead to vitamin D3 overdose.

    When you are planning your tegu's diet, we should be thinking about proper nutrient balance instead of just throwing supplement willy-nilly and going by "a dusting", "once a week", or other rule-of-thumb statements. Calcium and phosphorous should be balanced in a 2:1 - 3:1 ratio. Not just in the meat, but in the TOTALITY of the diet. Look up the compositions of the food items you are using (there are plenty of information sources, many have been quoted and requoted here at this forum), for calcium a good goal to try to achieve for is getting the same percentage of calcium (as a measure of total mass) as what we generally see in adult vertebrate prey items. Also pay attention to the phosphorus levels - they should be half to one third of that of the calcium. Vitamin D3 can be used, but pay attention to the amount you give. I can't give you a solid "science suggests ....." because it doesn't exist, no one has worked out what we should have as our daily intake. However, if you have UVB lighting, I suggest a moderate intake of vitamin D3 (if you use oils, one capsule or half a teaspoon should be plenty, if you're using supplements with D3 already included, then you should be focusing your attention to the calcium content).

    So to answer some of your questions more directly, you should have calcium in EVERY meal. It isn't the calcium content that you need to worry about with calcification, it's the vitamin D3 content WITH the calcium you need to concern yourself with.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    southern california
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    fantastic response, thank you very much. I will look up whole prey items such as chicken and fish and check phosphorus levels and feed accordingly.
    jesus owned a tegu

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    tupinambis. I'm so glad you replied to his question . I was hoping you would. Thank you for your help.

    tayrocksyoursocks56. I'm sorry I didn't repond to your question. I knew tupinambis would give you the perfect answer. He knows alot about Tegus.
    Rich is not how much you have, or where you are going, or what you are.Rich is who you have beside you.

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