Supplements?

[MajorLunitik]

Are any of you guys and gals using supplements for your slithery friends? How about that Reptivite powder? Is it any good?
[addsig]

	Geek Auto Linker or Gallon Geek Auto Linker Gallon - United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters

[morti]

Since the snakes you have are a boa and a ball python, the info I am about to give is taylored to those species...

These snakes get all the nutrition they need from a healthy diet of rats. The only people I know of who advocate the use of supliments are the people who are selling them. Some lizards need them because their food sources are naturally low in calcium, but rats have plenty.

-Your Sick Uncle Morti.
[addsig]

And also some insectivorious snakes, such as the rough green snake, need supplementation like lizards. There has always been a debate over whether snakes synthesize vitamin D via UVB light, or more succinctly, whether they need this type of light to manufacture vitamin D.

Basically, for your snakes, what Morti said...If you wanna see the nutritional content of various prey items, check out Misc caresheets over there <--- to the left. There's a table I compiled of nutritional composition of various prey items.
[addsig]

	Ultra Violet Radiation B Ultra Violet Radiation B

[yeto]

some experts recomend using suplements, even for boas and pythons, but watch out with vitamin D, it shortens the shedding cycles of the snake, wich can be very dangerous for him/her, so, anyone who wants to use a suplement, be sure it lacks vitamin D
[addsig]

[yeto]

sorry....it is vitamin A instead of vitamin D i was a little confused on that [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]
[addsig]