# Calcium & Vitamins



## nano (Oct 14, 2008)

I have a pair of Burmese Mountain Tortoise hatchlings and was wondering which calcium and vitamin supplement is the best. I know that they need the calcium with no D3, as they are under a UV light. (It's too cold in Canada right now for them to go outside). Is the liquid calcium and vitamins ok for them? They don't seem to like the powder.

The other problem I am having is that they don't seem to touch the veggies when the calcium or vitamins are on them! Is there another way I can make sure they are getting the calcium they need, as if they don't eat they are getting nothing.

Right now I am trying Calcium 3 days a week and vitamins once a week!

Thanks


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## nano (Oct 20, 2008)

Any suggestions anyone?


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## egyptiandan (Oct 20, 2008)

Hi,
Are your tortoises active? Usually they don't like bright light. Like Redfoots they get a lot of the vitamin D they need from the live animals they eat.
If they aren't liking the calcium supplement your using, you could try some of the others on the market.

Danny


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## Yvonne G (Oct 20, 2008)

nano said:


> Any suggestions anyone?



Go to Terry Kilgore's redfoot page and follow the instructions for feeding the baby redfoot tortoises. Your little Burmese tortoises will eat carion in the wild, so you can feed him the type of cat food that Terry recommends for the redfoots. 
http://www.redfoots.com/redfoot.htm
Your little tortoise will get a good portion of his calcium and D3 from the food he eats. You can also put a cuttle bone in his habitat. They usually don't touch it until its been in there for a while. I guess it has to "age" before it smells attractive. You can buy cuttlebone at a pet store in the bird section. It is part of the skeleton of the cuttlefish.

Yvonne


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## nano (Oct 20, 2008)

Thanks! I will check it out!

Kristy


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## Madkins007 (Oct 25, 2008)

Many torts do not seem to like powdered vitamins or calcium. I lightly toss the food, or mix it with wet foods to hide it. I suspect the dust looks and/or tastes bad or looks like some sort of mold to some torts.

By the way, I just saw a report on reptile vitamins that said that many brands did not have the nutrient levels listed on the label (often short on calcium, oddly enough), even some big names, and that many brands had ratios of vitamin that are considered less than optimal. The recommendation is a ratio of vitamins A:E of 100:10:1, while some name-brand mixes run:
- 41:22:1
- 10,000:100:1
- 297:18:1
- 13,000:10:1

The article concluded that it might be best to use a good human vitamin (ground up) that is better regulated and more likely to have what it says. They point out that they are probably cheaper per ounce as well.


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## Yvonne G (Oct 25, 2008)

Madkins007 said:


> The article concluded that it might be best to use a good human vitamin (ground up) that is better regulated and more likely to have what it says. They point out that they are probably cheaper per ounce as well.



That's a good point. Our own Ed (EJ) from this forum and Tortoise_Keepers on the YAHOOgroups has always said that he crushes human vitamins for his tortoises...I THINK he uses Centrum.

Yvonne

(Where is Ed, anyway? He hasn't posted here in a heck of a long time!)


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## Madkins007 (Oct 29, 2008)

(The smilie on my post is part of a ratio- it is supposed to say 'vitamin A:vitamin D:vitamin E', but if you leave out the words vitamin, then the : and D combine to make the  smilie)


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