# What vitamins does a Leopard Gecko require?



## ScienceQuinny (Jun 30, 2013)

I have calcium on its own, also calcium with d3.

What other suppliments do I need? Could you please leave a link? Thank you.

Sean


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## Paulington (Aug 14, 2014)

Hey Science.

First of all, I'd love to see a picture of your Leopard Gecko, they are cute little things, how old is your Leopard Gecko?

Secondly, how and what are you feeding your Leo? Do you feed mealworms and crickets? Do you mix that up with grasshoppers, silkworms or something else occasionally? IMO mealworms alone don't cut it, a varied diet is essential to care I believe.

Are you gut loading whatever you feed your Leo? This in my opinion works wonders, usually you do it by taking whatever prey items you wish to feed your Leo, putting them in a separate container and putting in some "loaded" food around 24-48 hours before you plan to feed your Leo. I know people who use a vitamin supplement, calcium supplement (No D3) and some dry cat food and mix it up with milk and crush it a bit so it forms a kind of runny paste, they drop that in, wait a day and then feed their Leo!

As well as this, around 1-2 times a week you can "dust" your Leo's prey items, for this you can use a multivitamin and calcium supplement with D3. Drop some of both in to a container or bag, drop in your Leo's gut loaded prey, close off and give it a light shake, enough to coat the prey, then take them out and feed your Leo!

Now, as for which supplements, I know a lot of people use Herptivite Multivitamin and RepCal Calcium with and without Vitamin D3. Of course, this is personal preference and the advice rings pretty much true whatever brand you use.

On top of that, be sure to keep some pure calcium (no D3) in the tank at all times, only a small bowl of it, with a few grams in, enough so your Leo can eat it as he pleases.

As said, it's personal preference, but those are what I would recommend and only once or twice a week. Remember, too many vitamins, especially D3, can be harmful. Whenever you can fix a problem, you can also make it worse. Do some more research on line as well, please don't take my word as gospel. :2thumb:.

Hope that helps. .


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

You've had good general advice above, although IMO cat food has too high concentration of protein and milk also is too high in protein and the lactose is not always tolerated well by Leos. 

It is most important to gut-load your insects well. You can use a commercial gut load product (or mix your own after some research into dietary needs) and then add fresh veggies / fruit - anything that is recommended as a staple on a Bearded Dragon food chart is good. 

As for dusting, probably the easiest thing you can use is Repashy calcium plus. This gets dusted onto every feed and contains calcium, D3 and a load of other vitamins and minerals. Many people also add a dish of pure calcium carbonate into the viv as well.

Plain calcium or calcium with D3 are better than nothing but they lack other very important nutrients.


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## Paulington (Aug 14, 2014)

Jools is right and added a few things I forgot, my post got quite big!

As for gut loading, you can use bug grub too with a dash of multivitamin/calcium in there, as for milk being too high protein, I disagree with that, 5 millilitres of milk has 0.17 grams of protein whereas five grams of crickets has 0.65 grams of protein and five grams is less than what most 12 month and older Beardies eat every live feed day. The lactose I didn't account for, in which case you could just get lacto-free milk! .

Same with the vegetables, you can feed a bug grub or some other food/milk/vitamin/calcium mix and then 12 hours or so before feeding throw some vegetables and small bits of chopped fruit in with the gut loaded prey.

Ultimately, just find what works best for you and your Beardies, every keeper and every animal is different, that's the beauty of them in many ways, try different gut loads and such, what Jools and I have posted is a pretty good starting point I think. .


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## ScienceQuinny (Jun 30, 2013)

Hi there, currently I own 2 bearded dragons, just gathering info for my first LG. I will predominantly be feeding the Gecko Dubia Roaches as I have a colony for my Beardies, of course meal worms and crickets will be thrown in there for variety.

I gut load my Dubia yes, spring greens, butternut squash, oranges, whatever vegetable matter is going spare really.

Thanks both for the help, definitely cleared a few things up.

PS. Ill get a picture uploaded when I get my LG sometime in the week.


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## ScienceQuinny (Jun 30, 2013)

With the Repashy Calcium Plus, is it ok to use every feed, I read somewhere too much D3 is bad?


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Yes - you're quite right - too much D3 is harmful.The Repashy Calcium Plus is designed for every feed. It has a lower concentration of D3 than Nutrobal does. Try to add as much variety in the feeders you use as possible. Leos can get fixated on a particular feeder and then eat nothing else. Or they can get bored with the same feeder and refuse it after a while. There is also some anecdotal evidence emerging that if Dubias are used as the principle feeder then it increases the risk of gout in your lizard - especially if the Dubias have been fed a very high protein diet.


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## ScienceQuinny (Jun 30, 2013)

Right ok, good to know.

So use the Repashy every feed, have a small bowl of calcium in the viv at all times. Thats covering all bases in regards to vitamins and supplements?


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Yup :2thumb:


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## ScienceQuinny (Jun 30, 2013)

Hi, here is a picture of my new Leopard Gecko 

https://twitter.com/SeanWard1983/status/505076224159666176


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Very pretty, healthy looking little gecko - congratulations!


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