calcium

[kitteny-angel]

Hi I am new to this forum, please excuse any mistakes I make. I have two juvenile horsefield tortoises and was wondering, how often I have to put powdered calcium on their food and if to give them D3.

Any help would be grately appreciated

Kitteny-Angel

 

[Madkins007]

Hi I am new to this forum, please excuse any mistakes I make. I have two juvenile horsefield tortoises and was wondering, how often I have to put powdered calcium on their food and if to give them D3.

Any help would be grately appreciated

Kitteny-Angel

Forgive the longish answer, but I feel that if you understand the why, things make more sense.

Calcium is one of many things needed to make good bone, but you also need phosphorous in a ratio of somewhere between equal amounts and twice as much calcium. This is often called the Ca: P or Calcium: Phosphorous ratio and written as 1:1 or 2:1.

Most grocery store foods have less than great Ca: P's. Some common lettuces, for example, have right under 1:1. You can find lists of common foods and the Ca: P on-line.

We add small amounts of calcium to help ensure we are getting a good weekly dose of calcium in the diet. My rule of thumb personally is a small pinch every week or so, and another pinch if I know this week or two was low in calcium (I try to avoid this, but it happens sometimes.)

Vitamin D is an important part of using calcium- it basically 'unlocks' cells so calcium can get in. No vitamin D, no calcium use. There are two kinds of vitamin D- D2 and D3- D3 is better.

You can get vitamin D3 from some foods (oily fish, red meat, eggs, some oils, and food that has it added, like milk. Mushrooms have D2 in them. No other plants have any real amounts of either D), vitamins or supplements (multivitamins, calcium with D added, etc.), UVB lamps, and 'unfiltered' sunlight (the UVB rays cannot penetrate most glass or plastics). Almost everyone agrees that sunlight is the best option.

The problem is that too much vitamin D CAN be a problem when it is gotten any way other than the sun. More IS NOT better with this!

So- if you are using UVB lamps or the guy has access to unfiltered sunlight, then calcium withOUT vitamin D is probably best. If there is no other real UVB or vitamin D source, then calcium with vit D is usually OK.

I hope this helps.

 

[Missy]

I just give mine a cuttlebone and sunlight

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Some people do it every day. Others never use it. Babies need more than adults. Females need more than males.

I use a little twice a week on my sulcata babies.

If they are getting some sunshine several times a week, they don't need any D3.

 

[GBtortoises]

I do not put calcium in any form on my tortoise's food. Instead I keep it constantly available for them to consume as they feel they need to. For very young tortoises I keep a small, shallow dish of calcium carbonate powder (ground cuttlebone), along with small pieces of cuttlebone. For mid size and adult tortoises I simply leave cuttlebone for them. Over the years I've found that my tortoises of different sizes and species will consume the calcium at very different intervals and amounts. I have also never had problems with my tortoises getting kidney stones or excessive urate build ups. I believe this is due to them not being overdosed with calcium and being able to control their own intake. Keep in mind also that many of the foods that we feed tortoises in captivity are already very high in calcium content.

 

[kitteny-angel]

Hi I am new to this forum, please excuse any mistakes I make. I have two juvenile horsefield tortoises and was wondering, how often I have to put powdered calcium on their food and if to give them D3.

Any help would be grately appreciated

Kitteny-Angel

Forgive the longish answer, but I feel that if you understand the why, things make more sense.

Calcium is one of many things needed to make good bone, but you also need phosphorous in a ratio of somewhere between equal amounts and twice as much calcium. This is often called the Ca: P or Calcium: Phosphorous ratio and written as 1:1 or 2:1.

Most grocery store foods have less than great Ca: P's. Some common lettuces, for example, have right under 1:1. You can find lists of common foods and the Ca: P on-line.

We add small amounts of calcium to help ensure we are getting a good weekly dose of calcium in the diet. My rule of thumb personally is a small pinch every week or so, and another pinch if I know this week or two was low in calcium (I try to avoid this, but it happens sometimes.)

Vitamin D is an important part of using calcium- it basically 'unlocks' cells so calcium can get in. No vitamin D, no calcium use. There are two kinds of vitamin D- D2 and D3- D3 is better.

You can get vitamin D3 from some foods (oily fish, red meat, eggs, some oils, and food that has it added, like milk. Mushrooms have D2 in them. No other plants have any real amounts of either D), vitamins or supplements (multivitamins, calcium with D added, etc.), UVB lamps, and 'unfiltered' sunlight (the UVB rays cannot penetrate most glass or plastics). Almost everyone agrees that sunlight is the best option.

The problem is that too much vitamin D CAN be a problem when it is gotten any way other than the sun. More IS NOT better with this!

So- if you are using UVB lamps or the guy has access to unfiltered sunlight, then calcium withOUT vitamin D is probably best. If there is no other real UVB or vitamin D source, then calcium with vit D is usually OK.

I hope this helps.

Thank you all very much for your help. Mine have access to UVB lighting 12 hours aday and do go outside in the sun when the weather allows. I won't therefore have to give them D3. Can they be given too much calcium as I sprinkle it on their food once aday and they have cuttlefish, which they do not seem to bother with? I don't want to kill them with kindness.

Regards

Kitten-angel

 

[Madkins007]

Unless your diet is horrible, you don't need daily calcium powder. In theory, excess calcium is passed in the urine- IF the tortoise is well-hydrated. The problem is that captive tortoises are often at least somewhat dehydrated.

Like I said, the powder is a kind of insurance. Buying to much insurance is silly, and overdoing calcium is unneeded. A pinch or two a week will do.

As you can see, different people use different plans. The thing in my own mind about the bowl of calcium and the cuttlebone is that is assumes that the tortoise will a. know it needs calcium, and b. recognizes the powder or cuttlebone as a source. I do not know the answers to that one way or the other and am not saying this to knock other people's methods.

 

[fel1958]

TRY ZOO MEDS 4 FOOT REPTISUN FLUORESCENT LAMP WITH THE WITH THE REPTICALCIUM POWDER.GREAT STUFF!!! [email protected]

 

[tortoisenerd]

From my research I feel comfortable with using a small amount of pure calcium powder daily over food for a hatchling, every other day for a juvenille, and every few days for an adult. I believe that because its water soluble any extra will be peed out, and you'd have to really clump it on to get it to the point that it interferes with absorption of other nutrients. Lack of calcium can cause many problems and I think supplementing calcium is the way to go. I also provide a cuttlebone that my tort doesn't touch. I don't like the let them eat how much calcium they want approach as some torts tend to never touch it. I think the benefits of calcium supplementation outweigh the risks. Most of us feed different diets than torts would get in the wild, on average lower in calcium, higher in nutrients. Torts in captivity tend to be less hydrated even with soaking such that even a lower oxalic acid diet than they'd get in the wild can cause stones in captivity. There is a lot we still don't know about torts. Best you can do is gather information and try to make an informed decision on what you think is the way to go for now. Agreed that with UVB you don't want to supplement D3 as that is fat soluble and its tough to know how much would be toxic. I buy a human calcium supplement called NOW that is very cheap, and use a pizza shaker (for pepper flakes or parmesan cheese) to sprinkle it. Much more ends up outside the tort than in, so even giving it often, not much is actually ingested.