Diet question

[ccole93]

So I've been trying to lay out a meal plan for my tegu every two weeks. I've been giving him one raw meat, one vegetable, one seafood and one insect per week in alternating pairings. One day he'll have turkey/squash and the next he'll have shrimp/gutloaded crickets, etc. On Fridays he gets a pinkie mouse.

Then the next week I get four new things to feed him, like beef/parsley/salmon/crickets. I don't have dubia roaches yet but I should shortly. Is this a good way to alternate his diet? If I'm giving him a pinkie mouse once a week should I still be dusting his food? Obviously he's getting UV but I've been dusting his food with calcium/D3 and read it can be toxic.

 

[james.w]

Yes you should dust anything without bones.

 

[ccole93]

Okie dokie. I've been kinda lightly sprinkling it on but I think I'm gonna throw it all in a bag and shake it. He tries to avoid the spots that have calcium on them. Tricky little bastard.

 

[Dubya]

Take it easy on the D3 if you have UVB lighting. I use the Zoo Med calcium without D3. it is just calcium carbonate. I mix it in the food just by guesstimating, but I read here that excess calcium just passes through, but D3 builds up in tissues. I mix in an amount that I estimate would be the proportion of bone to flesh in a prey animal. My little guy is doing great.

 

[ccole93]

Alrighty! I'll get plain calcium then.