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Thread: Having a difficult time trying to find answer.

  1. #1

    Exclamation Having a difficult time trying to find answer.

    Hello everyone.

    I have been tirelessly searching the internet for some kind of information on how much and how often Argentine Tegus should be given calcium/calcium d3/multivitamin? It has been very frustrating trying to find something about this.

    Should the multivitamin have vitamin d3 in it? I think I have an idea of about how much regular, non-d3 calcium should be given in a day, but I really need some solid answers. I have another thread i made a few days ago on feeding and supplementation called "reviews on TeguTerra care sheet".

    Lastly, is whole ground turkey better then regular ground turkey? Does whole ground turkey need calcium and multivitamin supplements?

    Any help would be appreciated.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
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    Las Vegas
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    i dont think many people could answer this. but ill try to

    i give non-d3 calcuim everyday and d3 calcuim every other day to every three days as for mutiviamins it depends on what i feed my tegu that day if i add it or not.

    like i will add cow heart/liver that has tons of vitamins in them this is like a once every week thing tho

    as for the mutiviamins ill add it every other day

    whole turkey as in like with bones in it? or just the meat? as long and the bones ar'nt super big for the tegu it should be fine. i use ground turkey thats 95%-99% lean
    The ones you love, truly love, Never die. You keep them with you, and like this you keep them alive.

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by chaos-carl View Post
    i dont think many people could answer this. but ill try to

    i give non-d3 calcuim everyday and d3 calcuim every other day to every three days as for mutiviamins it depends on what i feed my tegu that day if i add it or not.

    like i will add cow heart/liver that has tons of vitamins in them this is like a once every week thing tho

    as for the mutiviamins ill add it every other day

    whole turkey as in like with bones in it? or just the meat? as long and the bones ar'nt super big for the tegu it should be fine. i use ground turkey thats 95%-99% lean
    Thank you! Also, what I mean by whole turkey is you can buy the entire turkey ground up, organs, bones, everything. Basically like regular ground turkey except the whole thing.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
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    Las Vegas
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    oh ok. umm... idk if where you live but where im at no store here sells the whole turkey like that. but good luck mate

    but hay if you want food like that for your tegu try this site. ive used it for some of my food and i love it
    https://www.hare-today.com/index.php?cPath=23
    The ones you love, truly love, Never die. You keep them with you, and like this you keep them alive.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
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    Abbotsford, BC
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    Unfortunately for us, solid answers for these questions are not available right now. It's pretty much trial and error right now because data is lacking. I'll try to help though.

    Calcium - One way to approach calcium is to try to provide a 2:1 calcium phosphorus ratio. You can assume that there is probably enough phosphorus in the diet already, so you can adjust the calcium levels with supplementation to bring the levels to a 2:1 ratio, or twice as much calcium as phosphorus. You can go online and easily figure out how much phosphorus and calcium are in the food items you are using. You'll probably find that the diet is low on calcium if a 2:1 ratio is the goal, so in that case you would add the amount of calcium needed to get 2:1. If you are using calcium carbonate (probably) then you need to multiply the amount of calcium by 2.5, as only 40% of calcium carbonate is calcium.

    D3 - Providing UVB is by far the best way to go. It eliminates completely the question of "how much dietary D3 does my reptile need?". There has been a number of estimates made:

    500–1000 IU vitamin D3/kg diet for captive carnivorous lizards (Allen and Oftedal 1994)

    35 IU vitamin D3/MJ gross energy consumed (approximately 260–1,800 IU/kg diet) (Kik and Beynen 2003)

    But another study found deficiency symptoms at lizards consuming 2000-3000 IU/kg diet (Bernard and Allen 1997)

    There is also lots of differences found between and within species in ability to avoid deficiency symptoms through dietary D3.

    Effects of vitamin D3 supplementation and UVb exposure on the growth and plasma concentration of vitamin D3 metabolites in juvenile bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps). Oonincx, D.G.A.B. et al. 2010

    So the answer is really up in the air. I generally would provide a fairly generous amount and watch closely for symptoms.

    Multivitamin - Again, no real idea of how much. There is so much variation between species' needs and between brands. Whether it has D3 or not doesn't matter too much, it is usually a very small amount. If you have adequate UVB then I would avoid one with D3, though. But I wouldn't rely on the amount of D3 in a multivitamin to ward off a deficiency if you are not using UVB, I think it is too low in most brands to be the sole source of D3. I give a generous amount once a week in my adult but I'd do more often the younger they are, maybe 4 times a week at the youngest stages.

    Yes, the ground whole animal is much better than just the ground meat. You shouldn't need to supplement with whole ground animal but I definitely would with meat, it needs lots of calcium among other deficiences in just muscle tissue.

    Hope this helps.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    San Antonio,TX
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    9,505

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    You got some great tips above. I can't add much to it. If you want to you can get a meat grinder and grind up hole food items yourself. This way you get the natural calcium from the bones instead of the powder. If you feed your Tegu a lot of fruits and veggies than you don't need to use the vitamin powder as much. I recommend using the lean meats, too. To much fat is not good for your Tegus heart. I know this video is for a dog but you can do this for your Tegu also.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytEwOadnGJQ

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHCBBAviQ50
    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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    http://www.youtube.com/user/txrepgirl

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