Best brand of calcium supplement?

[ravenraskin]

I have a post in another thread about flea medicine and sneezing, but I have another question. What's the best brand of calcium supplement to give to my squirrel? How much should I give and how often? Currently I take the coating off of calcium pills, crush them up into a fine powder, and mix a very very small amount into her distilled water. But I want to stop doing that and have a more uniform way of giving her calcium. I feed her the blocks, lots of veggies but I still feel like she needs more calcium. Please help, thank you.

[HRT4SQRLS]

I have a post in another thread about flea medicine and sneezing, but I have another question. What's the best brand of calcium supplement to give to my squirrel? How much should I give and how often? Currently I take the coating off of calcium pills, crush them up into a fine powder, and mix a very very small amount into her distilled water. But I want to stop doing that and have a more uniform way of giving her calcium. I feed her the blocks, lots of veggies but I still feel like she needs more calcium. Please help, thank you.

ravenraskin
to The Squirrel Board

Be very careful supplementing with calcium. Does the calcium you're using have Vitamin D3? A lot of calcium supplements do. Of course, all mammals need Vitamin D3 but you have to be careful because VitD3 is used as a rodenticide (rat poison). When I supplement I give calcium carbonate. A little Vit D3 is OK and probably good, I just don't know how much, therefore I don't use it. They do get Vitamin D in the blocks. What brand are you using?

If your squirrel is on a healthy diet as it appears you don't need a lot of supplementing. I give an occasional sprinkle on their food. It is tasteless so they don't notice it. OR, I will dip one side of a favorite food, like avocado in the calcium carbonate powder.

I would not put the calcium in their water. Calcium carbonate is not especially dissolvable in water so it mostly falls to the bottom. I would not put anything in their water that might discourage them from drinking. I think that is risky IMO. Just curious, why do you use distilled water? It is mineral depleted and it tastes nasty. I need to look this up but I bet our water in FL has a good amount of calcium in it due to the limestone foundation. Yeah, I'm gonna look that up.

There are many places to get calcium carbonate. You can get it on eBay. Here is a link to a brand called NOW. It is quite cheap. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Calcium-Carb...item19f20198db
You can shop it and you might find it cheaper. That's just one link. You can also get calcium carbonate powder from Henrys Pets online. You can buy a smaller quantity there of you desire.

What area in FL are you from? North, Central, South. I live in central FL. We have a lot of FL members. Welcome!

[ravenraskin]

ravenraskin
to The Squirrel Board

Be very careful supplementing with calcium. Does the calcium you're using have Vitamin D3? A lot of calcium supplements do. Of course, all mammals need Vitamin D3 but you have to be careful because VitD3 is used as a rodenticide (rat poison). When I supplement I give calcium carbonate. A little Vit D3 is OK and probably good, I just don't know how much, therefore I don't use it. They do get Vitamin D in the blocks. What brand are you using?

If your squirrel is on a healthy diet as it appears you don't need a lot of supplementing. I give an occasional sprinkle on their food. It is tasteless so they don't notice it. OR, I will dip one side of a favorite food, like avocado in the calcium carbonate powder.

I would not put the calcium in their water. Calcium carbonate is not especially dissolvable in water so it mostly falls to the bottom. I would not put anything in their water that might discourage them from drinking. I think that is risky IMO. Just curious, why do you use distilled water? It is mineral depleted and it tastes nasty. I need to look this up but I bet our water in FL has a good amount of calcium in it due to the limestone foundation. Yeah, I'm gonna look that up.

There are many places to get calcium carbonate. You can get it on eBay. Here is a link to a brand called NOW. It is quite cheap. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Calcium-Carb...item19f20198db
You can shop it and you might find it cheaper. That's just one link. You can also get calcium carbonate powder from Henrys Pets online. You can buy a smaller quantity there of you desire.

What area in FL are you from? North, Central, South. I live in central FL. We have a lot of FL members. Welcome!

The calcium pills I have don't contain any D3, I made sure of that. It says they only have calcium carbonate in them. But I will order some of the powder so I don't have to crush anything up. So thank you for the link. (:
I'm always worried that she'll develop MBD for some reason even though I feed her well.
I use distilled water because I had a cat that I used to give tap water to and she developed bladder/urinary problems because of all the calcium and such in the water. I figured the same would happen to my squirrel if I gave tap water to her everyday. I live in Central FL. Thank you! (: