# Paprika



## boombotty (Oct 12, 2005)

Hi all, 
I've read a few posts about adding paprika to the supplement for color enhacement. Is it better to dust the flies with this, or put it in the ff media. Also, how much for each.
Thanks for the help,
Scott


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## Raymond (Aug 26, 2006)

I think that most people just dust a little onto the ffs along with the other supplements when feeding. It seems to work fairly well from what I hear. I have heard about including it in media, but I honestly have no idea if this would be beneficial towards coloring, etc.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

The peprika is added to the vitamin and calcium dustings. The only time large enough amounts of peprika would be transferred from the media to the frogs would be by feeding larvae... which is totally possible and even recommended for variety in the diet (its like having two feeders in one!).


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

I mix the paparika 1:1 with my Herptivitie:Repcal to dust the FFs. I have also found that grinding the paparika a bit finer using a mortar and pestle seems to help with distribution and sticking of the same to the flies.

Bill


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## Chondroholic (Aug 18, 2005)

How often do most of you supplement with paprika?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I supplement with peprika as often as I supplement with vitamins... I basically add some peprika to the vitamin powder right before I dust.


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## boombotty (Oct 12, 2005)

Thanks for all the info guys. I also read that Sport Doc uses NatuRose supplement. By the look of his Reginas, it seems pretty good.
Scott


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## Max Power (Jul 22, 2006)

Yes NutuRose is the best way to bring out the reds... comes in a fine powder too


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

Thats how his vitattus got so red also...i just got 4 from him, so im ordering some naturarose also  (the froglets are pretty dang red right now...i want them to stay that way)


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## CanadianAmphibian (Jul 27, 2006)

I heard that they work but I' ve never tried it myself.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

I suspect the reason it works so well is because it contains astaxanthin. 


Ed


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## boombotty (Oct 12, 2005)

Do you think it would be bad for the blue on azureus? I use the same cup to dust ffs for my byhs & azureus.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

It wouldn't be bad for the azureus, but it won't really do anything good for it either... won't actually do anything to the blue! 

The colors in the skin of a frog are made up of three different types of chromatophores (pigmentation cells) - melanophores, xanthophores, and iridiphores. 

Melanophores do the browns and blacks primarily (amelanistic animals lack this color - "albinos" are animals generally thought of as lacking melanin but this laymen's term has expanded to include just about any abnormal pigmentation issue). 

Xanthophores do the reds, yellows, and orange colors using pterydine or caroteniod pigments they contain (this is the pigment affected by the dietary amout of caroteniods like adding peprika). 

Iridiphores to me are the most interesting... primarily responsible for the white or silver on herps (the transluscent bearded dragons lack iridiphores), they can in fact be responsible for colors such as blue, and interact with xanthophores to produce the infamous green we see on our frogs. As they are crystalline structures, its really limited just by what wave length is being reflected by the cells - which is why they tend to have a metallic coloration that can look different in different lights (think mint terribilis - mainly a white animal that can have tinges of green, yellow, etc, depending on light). In thumbnails it seems to me that more of their coloration is made up of iridiphores, than say, the tinc group, as they have highly metallic coloration and their yellows, oranges, and reds don't seem to be influenced much by diet.

Since the only pigment influenced enough by diet to be visually noticable to us is xanthophores, those are the only pigments we are really influencing when we suppliment their diet for color - so basically no, you cannot increase the blue in azureus. BUT, that isn't to say you can't influence the color of azureus at all... they still do have xanthophores which would probibly pick up pigments from the diet. This would actually give your animals a slightly purple tinge, as the hobby has seen in the past. This supplimentation has to be constant, or else the purple cast is lost (much to the disapointment of those who really wanted these animals to stay purplish but didn't know how they got that way). This isn't to say the animals are purple, just that they are a shade more purple than their unsupplimented relatives.


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