question regarding sulcata staple diet

[Yvonne G]

Yvonne, how about cuttlebone in the enclosure for them to eat when they want? Would you sprinkle their food occasionally too?

Dawna

Personally, I don't sprinkle any of my tortoises' food with supplements. Every pen has a cuttlebone in it. Sometimes they eat it, most of the times it stays whole and untouched. In my opinion, if they are eating the cuttlebone, I wouldn't sprinkle the calcium supplement on their food. Bear in mind that some foods are calcium-rich. I have TNT, but have never used it. Some people swear by it and don't use any other supplements. I tend to err on Nature's side and just allow the tortoises to be tortoises. If I notice a problem occurring, then I will address that particular problem individually, but I think we all supplement too much.

Yvonne

 

[galvinkaos]

i just found a 5" cuttlebones (huge) for 60 cents each and I bought them to cut them and put a piece in with the RES, the DT and the cockatiel. So far the RES are the only ones that did not munch on it.

Dawna

 

[Meg90]

Hey Maggie...tried to PM you. Told me you've got it disabled.

 

[tortoisenerd]

My tort has a cuttlebone but hasn't touched it. Since he's a baby I do sprinkle pure calcium over his food more days than not (but still have some off days). If I saw he was eating the cuttlebone I'd probably cut back or stop supplementing the calcium. But, calcium is pretty safe to not be overdoing it (although too much calcium can be a bad thing, like said earlier in this thread, other vitamins that are fat soluble are the ones you have to watch out for overdoing the supplementation). My personal opinion.

 

[Meg90]

Now this is what I am wondering....I went out today to buy fish for the frogs and ALL of the supplements that I found had D3 in them. EVERY SINGLE ONE.

Apparently, even the bird vitamins have it in there too.

I really want to here what Danny has to say about all this, because he is very adamant about having d3 daily for babies (or so I thought--I might be mistaken)

And now what I want to know is where everybody is getting their "pure" calcium.

I am darn near at my wits end with this, and pretty soon am just going to pulverize a pack of cuttlebones and make my own calcium.

Pictures or exact brand names would be lovely.

 

[tortoisenerd]

I'm personally using up Cuttlebone since I have two, and then I have a sample of Repcal w/o D3 to use up. I've seen Calcium without D3 at every pet store reptile section I've been to. Also, you can buy a human supplement called "calcium carbonate" that is just the powered calcium (sold in health food stores or vitamin stores), nothing added. My vet recommended it as it is pure and cheap. Comes in a container 2-3 times that of the reptile stuff for the same price.

I know Danny recommends D3 so I'm just posting my opinion since I know he has way way more experience than I do.

 

[nrfitchett4]

Now this is what I am wondering....I went out today to buy fish for the frogs and ALL of the supplements that I found had D3 in them. EVERY SINGLE ONE.

Apparently, even the bird vitamins have it in there too.

I really want to here what Danny has to say about all this, because he is very adamant about having d3 daily for babies (or so I thought--I might be mistaken)

And now what I want to know is where everybody is getting their "pure" calcium.

I am darn near at my wits end with this, and pretty soon am just going to pulverize a pack of cuttlebones and make my own calcium.

Pictures or exact brand names would be lovely.

I buy human calcium supplements and grind them in a coffee grinder. My ig also gets a multi vitamin since I premake and freeze his salad.

 

[Crazy1]

Meg you can get powdered Calcium carbonate at most healthfood stores or even your local pharmacy should have it or you could spend a lot more and buy it at the petstores, Jurassi Cal and Reptical are ones sold in petstores and they should state without D3. The only D3 I use for my Greeks including the hatchlings are in the bird vit I soak them in. But I also live in So Cal and they get outside time at least an hour a week or more most of the time during winter.
Here is a site that tells about D3 usage as well as 100 % pure calcium. It also talks about calcium to phosphorus ratios. Be warned there are some pretty nasty pics of badly cared for torts on this site. http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/webdiet.htm

 

[nrfitchett4]

Supplemental Vitamin D3 Overdoses???
http://www.reptilepets.co.za/rp0612od.htm

 

[tortoisenerd]

A couple broken links on that site but helpful. Thanks!

 

[nrfitchett4]

I just found it interesting. Doesn't look to have been updated lately. I'd hate to lose an animal that way.