# Repashy Vitamin A Plus



## nanc1061 (Nov 17, 2017)

How often to you feed FF dusted with the Repashy Vitamin A Plus? Do you use it everyday....or once a week? Thanks!


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## JoeKitz (Sep 18, 2017)

I do once a week, once a week with a vitamin supplement, and every other feeding with Repashy Calcium plus with D.


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## Woodswalker (Dec 26, 2014)

I feed Vitamin A Plus twice per month, and give Calcium Plus for all other feedings, with an occasional alternative thrown in for variety. My understanding of Vitamin A is that too much of it can be toxic. 

An excerpt from one paper on amphibian husbandry:



> A deficiency of vitamin A can develop in captive amphibians if they do not have a source of dietary vitamin A. Amphibians cannot synthesize carotinoids, including vitamin A (retinal) (Wright 2006). However, it is not known if vitamin A precursors are dietary essentials. Vitamin A promotes healthy skin, it is a yellow pigment in amphibian colour (Frost-Mason et al. 1994); and required for calcium metabolism. Too little Vitamin A (hypovitaminosis A) causes “short tongue syndrome” (reduced ability to capture live prey with the tongue), with lethargy, weight loss and finally death (Li et al., 2009; Pessier et al., 2005; Wright 2006). Excessive Vitamin A develops in captive amphibian animals through feed enriched with too much vitamin A; amphibians fed mammalian livers and/or whole immature rodents are at risk for developing hypervitaminosis A include NMBD, anemia, liver disease and weight loss (Crawshaw 2003). Li et al. 2009 showed that enriching crickets with fish oils and carotenoids improved growth and prevented squamous metaplasia.


Source: http://www.amphibianark.org/pdf/Husbandry/Amphibian diet nutrition.pdf


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

The emphasis on vitamin A as toxic in excess while ignoring the same risks from vitamin D3 has always puzzled me since D3 can damage multiple organs and cause calcification of soft tissues. D3 is even used as a rodenticide... The only thing I can think of goes back to the 1990s when the rumor spread that it was preformed vitamin A killing chameleons (and via rumor extended to other herps) which resulted in the manufacturers removing preformed vitamin A from the supplements and going with straight beta carotene. 

some comments 

Ed


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## jarteta97 (Jun 13, 2014)

Ed, if you were to say, what would the ideal supplementation schedule look like, at least theoretically? I'd gladly look for improvements in my supplementation schedule, as I'm sure there's at least some area in which I'm falling short. I typically supplement Repashy Vitamin A twice a month (I try to feed more flies when I do this too), and Repashy calcium plus every other day. At what scope/degree does Vitamin D3 become unhealthy/healthy, and how can it be prevented? Just curious is all.


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## Woodswalker (Dec 26, 2014)

Hypercalcemia is also a problem. Since OP was asking about vitamin A specifically, it didn't occur to me to mention it. 

This does bring up a good point. It's a delicate balance between dusting every time, which we do to avoid frogs holding out for undusted flies, and overdosing their supplements.


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## ninjazx777 (Oct 30, 2013)

I would also like to know the recomended dusting schedule. I feed my frogs every other day and I dust repashy d3 every time I feed, except 1 time every other week I dust with repashy vitamin A


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## Ibn (Aug 3, 2016)

Tagging along as well.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

jarteta97 said:


> Ed, if you were to say, what would the ideal supplementation schedule look like, at least theoretically? I'd gladly look for improvements in my supplementation schedule, as I'm sure there's at least some area in which I'm falling short. I typically supplement Repashy Vitamin A twice a month (I try to feed more flies when I do this too), and Repashy calcium plus every other day. At what scope/degree does Vitamin D3 become unhealthy/healthy, and how can it be prevented? Just curious is all.


A lot of this depends on the frequency of feeding since you have to consider total nutrition in a time period. With the fat soluble vitamins, provided that they are in the proper ratios (A to D3 to E of 10 to 1 to 0.1) you are going to be relatively safe since A and D3 surplus can be stored in the tissues for shortfalls it is real excess you want to avoid. Now there are things that can throw that off (like badly stored, old supplements or adding supplements to your fruit fly and insect cultures) or infrequent dusting schedules but the general recommendation in the herp medical literature is to dust at each feeding. This does not mean dust them so they look like little snow balls walking around.... but dust them lightly. This is more because people tend to overfeed their animals and the animals are programmed to gorge when food is plentiful as the food gods may not visit every day in the wild. 

With respect to the vitamin A, the reason the suggestion is there to use it one to four times a month is because frogs that in constant growth or in pretty much constant reproduction have been shown to deplete their vitamin A stores resulting in a lot of issues ranging from poor egg fertility and development to spindly leg tadpoles to immune issues. This is because most of the supplements (with only a few exceptions) used beta carotene in the place of preformed vitamin A and the frogs either cannot convert it or convert it so poorly that it is a problem and we get issues. Better recent data shows that tadpoles can convert beta carotene (earlier papers showed that they could convert other carotenoids such as astaxathin) so symptoms tend to show months after metamorphosis when the frogs have depleted their stores. This is why there has been so much more emphasis on their needing preformed vitamin A due to some much indication of insufficient amounts in foods. 

While there still aren't any hard studies that document it, at least for the Repashy Calcium plus it as a sole supplement doesn't seem to rapidly reverse vitamin A deficiency symptoms but (and this is important) that using it from the beginning does seem to prevent the overt symptoms of deficiency (we would need histology on long-term animals to confirm if the more subtle symptoms were still present). So as a result people on the advice of various practitioners in the vet field to add an additional supplement once to four times a month. Most hobbyists are most comfortable around once to twice a month additional vitamin A with the Repashy Calcium plus at each feeding. 

Now the hobby as a whole tends to overfeed their frogs (most are obese to grossly obese) and that is a related issue but also plays into it since the frogs are ingesting more than they need of not just the feeders but the supplements hence the suggestion to not dust the flies so they are so covered. 



Woodswalker said:


> Hypercalcemia is also a problem. Since OP was asking about vitamin A specifically, it didn't occur to me to mention it.
> 
> This does bring up a good point. It's a delicate balance between dusting every time, which we do to avoid frogs holding out for undusted flies, and overdosing their supplements.


It does surprise me that so many people aren't willing to fast frogs for a few days to get them to accept the dusted feeders.... 

some comments 

Ed


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