MVBs, UVB and Calcium question

[Robert]

My somewhat newly adopted Leopard Tortoise is now finally enjoying the rays of a nice new mercury vapor bulb. This is her first winter having access to any UVB.

I have been powdering her food three times per week with a Calcium plus D3 supplement. Now that I have switched to a bulb which supplies UVB, should I nix the added D3 and just use a plain calcium supplement?

Any specific supplement brands recommended?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Rob

 

[Tom]

This is an area of much debate. In my experience, all the MVBs work. I have not done a huge, scientific comparison study to prove which one is best, but I have had good results with more than half a dozen different brands. Just make sure you get ones that says UV A AND B. For a while there were some being marketed that only produced UV A. They were quite a bit cheaper, but with no UV B you might as well go get a regular incandescent bulb.

I saw a study on green iguanas back in the 90's that proved that they can not use dietary D3. I have heard that tortoises cannot either. I don't think anyone really knows for sure. My opinion is that if it doesn't hurt anything and it costs the same, why not? Maybe the D3 does nothing, but maybe it helps a little. When they are getting sunshine on a daily basis, (about 9 months out of the year here) I don't bother with D3 in my Ca. Over the winter, I use it as cheap insurance, even though they are all under MVBs. Mark showed us recently that it would be quite difficult to overdose them by using a calcium supplement, and none of us can produce one single example of a D3 overdose. So supplement away.

 

[Madkins007]

I have a chart of dosages, etc. I posted somewhere, but I also have a larger version of it on my site at http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/nutguide.html

The thing about dietary vitamin D is that we just plain do not KNOW if tortoises can use it, but there is a lot of evidence that they both can use it, but that some species use it quite a bit in some situations. Mushrooms, for example, are an interesting sign. Wild fungi are chuck full of D2, and almost all forest species of tortoises and American Box Turtles eat a lot of fungi. There is not a lot of other nourishment in a mushroom, so why do they eat them if not for the D?

 

[jobeanator]

sorry to hyjack this thread, but mark, your site is awesome absolutley love it. your information and findings are very interesting i love learning new things!