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Posted by Colchicine on February 28, 2003 at 08:21:27:
A recent discussion on the salamander forum led to a post about what criteria you should use to buy vitamin supplements for reptiles and amphibians. Do not be frightened by the big words, if you take the time to understand the following it won't be hard to figure out when looking at a label. I do not know which brands, if any, fulfill these criteria, but I thought it would be interesting to post nonetheless. Thanks to Edk for the information.
The first thing with any supplement is to look for the expiration date. If the supplement does not have a expiration date keep on looking, the reason for this is that the vitamin-mineral mixes will catalyze the oxidation of the various ingredients rendering them useless to the animals. The second thing to look for is D3 as this is the only isomer of vitamin D that can be used by amphibians and reptiles for calcium metabolism. The third item to look for is a 10 to 1 to 0.1 ratio of vitamin A to vitamin D3 to vitamin E. The fourth item is to look for a 2 to 1 ratio of calcium to phophorus.
Other items that can help make a supplement a better choice would be the use of betacarotene instead of retinol (vitamin A) as it is far less toxic and does not affect calcium metabolism. Also another point to keep in mind that over supplementation is just as bad as undersupplementation.
