How much Calcium?

[laurarfl]

Bone meal is a good source of calcium.

 

[Lauraj10551]

Thank you. I am going to get some today.

 

[Nickya Murphy]

Laura and chitodadon have brought up some points that I overlooked and would like to emphasise on this topic. Not only is the practice of "dusting" when using ground meats inadequate for meeting the needs of your tegu (or any other animal), the hand-in-hand practice of 2 or 3 times a week is also insufficient. Any meal where you aren't using whole prey (ie. ground meats, organ meats, fruits & veggies), you need to supplement to get the essential nutrients levels where they are needed (particularly calcium and phosphorous). Admittedly, this doesn't have to be at each and every meal. However, as a rough guess, if you are not offering properly balanced diet for more than 20% of all meals, then you are taking a huge risk at running into nutritional deficiencies. Think about that, 20%. Considering on average that most tegus eat about every other day, that is roughly 3 meals a week. Lets say you skip doing the grudging supplementation for one meal a week - that equates to about 33% of their total diet and means the risk of nutritional deficiency is quite substantial.

Laura has also brought up another point that I think is definitely worth contemplation. Liver as a substantial component of the diet. I wouldn't stop at liver, I think this argument should encompass all similar organs - those that are filters. Filter organs (liver, kidney, to some extent lung) are responsible for cleaning up the wastes and toxins in the body system. If an organism has been contaminated with anything, it is in these organs that the contaminants are likely to be sequestered and concentrated. For this reason I feel these organs should be avoided.

Yet another thing to consider is the nutritional content of organ meats (outside of calcium and phosphorous, that is). Many organ meats are particularly high in vitamins D & A, both of which are lipid soluble. Non-lipid soluble vitamins are typically excreted via urination when they are overly abundant. Lipid soluble vitamins tend to get stored in fatty tissues when they are abundant. This means that while you can take all the vitamin C you can get your hands on and it won't harm you, with vitamins A & D you CAN overdose on them and suffer hypervitaminosis diseases. Tegus in particular have two big organs in their abdomens that are nothing but fat, the fat bodies. This means they have an even greater means of building up these vitamins to dangerous levels. Unfortunately, science hasn't worked out what are the safe levels for vitamin A & D.

Which brings us to the possible dangers of oversupplementing. Some people warn of oversupplementing with calcium, that this leads to soft tissue calcification. Recent case studies seem to indicate this isn't entirely true, that it isn't oversupplementing with calcium, but oversupplementing with calcium AND vitamin D3. Hence why there is a big push for calcium supplements without vitamin D3 added. The animals still clearly need vitamin D3, but it appears to be much safer for them to acquire this through proper UVB exposure than through dietary supplementation.

As Laura has stated, I have to admit, I am blunt and direct to the point. It has been speculated by some (with far greater knowledge and experience in the field than I) that I am potentially within the Asperger's spectrum. My concern is not whether I've trampled a few toes and feelings, it's whether I can improve the care and knowledge of tegus (and other reptiles & amphibians). I don't know if you were around back then, Laura, but I did challenge Bobby many times on his nutrition and other advice - hence why he booted me from this site when he started it up. Few would heed the warnings because the worship of Bobby was still prevalent - it has taken a while but thankfully many are now seeing Bobby isn't as knowledgeable as he likes to portray himself to be.

How do you feel about using baked egg shells for a calcium supplement powder?