Here are a few queries on our products - Calci-dust, Nutrobal and Arkvits

The photos above show metabolic bone disease in an iguana- the result of not being given enough calcium and vitamin D3

1) Can you overdose on the Calci-dust? (I'm sure you can but just to clerify)
No you can't overdose on Calci-Dust. If you overdose vastly on vitamin D then you will cause a calcium issue but Calci-Dust alone is 100% safe. Calci-Dust isn't a calcium balancer, its a calcium source only as long as there is D3 available. Nutrobal is a balancer because it has both.

2) Can you overdose on Nutrobal?
In theory yes, in practice no. ie the same comment that applies to table salt. We've sold it for 20 years now and have never had a problem. Vets routinely overdose when treating metabolic bone disease in reptiles.

3) What exactly is Nutrobal?
Nutrobal is a high calcium vitamin mineral supplement, designed to 'balance' calcium deficient diets such as insects or meat especially, it is based around a very specific particle size of calcium which sticks to crickets etc. Its use has been the main reason for the decline in cases of metabolic bone disease over the last 15 years, it has been extraordinarily effective and its recommended by every UK reptile vet that we are aware of.

4) What is is Ace-High and what is Arkvits?
ACE High is a supplement high in vitamins A, C and E but with all the other important vitamins as well. Its a fairly specialist product which really we don't encourage pet owners to use without vet/specialist advice. 
Arkvits is a mix of Nutrobal and ACE-High in the ratio 2:1, it gives a high calcium vitamin/mineral mix (lower than Nutrobal but sufficient for most purposes) especially suitable for adult reptiles and birds (or rabbits etc.  The reason for Arkvits is that adults benefit from increasing the levels of AC& E for breeding, long term health etc. Whilst youngsters need to concentrate on growing and so benefit especially from the high calcium.

5) When would you use the Arkvits on a reptile?
We generally recommend using Arkvits for adults, it will also 'dust'

6) If I dusted live foods purely in Nutrobal would I need to supplement with calci-dust?
If you dust with Nutrobal you don't need Calci-Dust, the reason for Calci-Dust comes from the increased use of better quality UV lights. When we first developed Nutrobal UV lights were either rubbish or dangerous, so we said use Nutrobal every day and just use full spectrum lighting. Now with full spectrum lighting combined with UV you could (but you would have to try quite hard) run into toxicity due to high D3 (because its also produced in the skin by the UV). Because of the theoretical risk (people also sometimes use other D3 sources as well which compound the problem) our advice is to use Nutrobal and Calci-Dust on alternate feedings if you have a quality UV source in the vivarium. Its simple and it works.

8) How often would you use (supplement diets with):
    • Calci-dust
    • Nutrobal
    • Arkvits
We recommend dusting every feed. That way crickets are always dusted in something, this is important because reptiles come to realise that if they don't eat them at all then somebody will put brown untreated ones in at the next feed day. Of course if they leave the white ones long enough.

9) How many crickets should I put in?
Enough to be eaten in 15-20 minutes as a rough guide. If you put too many in then they clean the dusting powder off - depending on a variety of factors but often an hour or so. Don't leave crickets or locusts in the vivarium for too long, they will actually nibble the skin of snakes in particular.