Fluker Liquid Calcium, any good or stay away?

[purplemonster]

I stopped at the pet shop today to look around and ran across fluker's liquid calcium. Says I can add to food and into water. Talked to an employee who seem to know her stuff. She was helping an elderly woman buy some lights for her kid's beardie, I over heard and employee seemed to know the right answers. I asked about the liquid calcium, she said it was good, I thought putting a little in the water might be a good idea. I ran out of the powder and I swear...I think my gu avoids eating some of the "powdered" meat. Buttttt, I found reviews on amazon or something where people said be carful, one guy said his chameleon died from it! Already put a few drops on his food, he ate it all of it, but after reading that, I'm a little nervous.....

[dpjm]

I'd avoid it. There's no way that you can monitor how much calcium the tegu is getting by adding it into the drinking water. The powdered stuff is good, I like Zoo Med because it is not oyster shell. Try whole prey like rodents, fish, chicks instead of powdered meat, then no calcium supplementation is required.

[purplemonster]

Thanks for reply

Guess I wrote that wrong...I do feed chicken(meat-liver-gizzard-heart) turkey, rodent etc. I meant I think my gu sometimes avoid eating the meat that has the powder calcium on it. I haven't seen a lot of zoo med...always see fluker, rep cal and exo terra. The bottle came with a dripper cap. On the bottle it says," 1/2 tsp per 8oz of water and 1/2 tsp added to food 3 times a week.
fluker.jpg

[Mkrizzz83]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005FTMGYO


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[dpjm]

I would really avoid using it. Calcium is not something that you should supplement haphazardly - you need to know how much your tegu is getting, it needs to be regulated. Unless you know exactly how much water your tegu is drinking, there is not way to know how much your tegu is getting by adding it to the drinking water. Again, there is absolutely no need to supplement calcium on whole animal prey. The only time I ever use a calcium supplement at all is when I am feeding him food that I know to have a low ratio of calcium to phosphorus, which is the vegetation portion of his diet. Then I will use only a very small amount, like a tiny sprinkle, certainly never enough that it would turn him off his food.

The reptile pet industry wants to convince us that captive reptiles need huge amounts of supplemental calcium in their diets but this is never the case when they are fed a proper diet. Products like this are a great example of this manipulation and are more dangerous than useful. The instructions are very vague and obviously they have chosen some arbitrary amount to add to the food some arbitrary number of times a week. Ditch this crap!!

Also I would try to avoid using "meat" as much as possible and stick to only whole animal prey for the "carnivorous" part of the tegu's diet. There is a night and day difference between the nutritional profile of, say, a whole chick and just the meat, even when some organ meat is included. Whole animal prey really is the only way to go.

The reason I go with Zoo Med calcium when I do use it is that it is not derived from oyster shell. Oyster shell can be contaminated with lead. Order some online if you can't find it in stores - it will last a long time because you use it sparingly.

Hope this helps.

[Mkrizzz83]

I take a slightly different approach than dpjm. I feed mostly whole prey ground meats from hare-today (organs, bones, etc included) and I mix in a hefty scoop of calcium into it. Every other day they also get whole prey items such as rats, fish, mice, or quail. I think either way is completely acceptable.

Matt


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[dpjm]

I like whole prey ground meat as well. I don't use it myself but it is miles better than, say, ground turkey breast. Just not sure why it would require any supplementation of calcium. Most whole animals have acceptable calcium phosphorus ratios, perhaps with the exception of very young animals like day-old chicks. I might supplement a bit then, but otherwise not.