Quote Originally Posted by CJ PELCHER View Post
Ill be a bit more specific on the dusting. Dusting should be applied differently based on the diet you provide. Also what diet you apply to your insect and their calcium/phosphate/protein/uric acid levels are to benefit your herp. For instance if you feed a high protein and vitamin source food such as dubia roaches, superworm, earthworm you wont need to dust. Or if you feed gutloaded crickets you wont need to dust as often. I do not gutload my crickets because they end up getting fed off to fast. Maybe one gutload fed day which is not enough to provide nutrients to you herp. So I am required to dust daily due to the lack of nutrition the petstores and most cricket breeding farms provide. If you gutload feed 2 to 3 days before feeding you crickets should have enough vitamins and calcium in their system to dust once a week on vitamins and 3 to 4 tines a week on calcium. I go through my crickets to fast to gutload efficiently hense the fact of dusting daily. This is also a recomendation provided to me by michael novy a 20 year breeder of frogs. In addition I dont end up making a feeding everyday. Maybe 4 to 5 days out of the week they get fed. So ill also rephrase: daily being substituted with each feeding
This is not correct CJ. Horned frogs need INSANE amounts of calcium to support their growth. As a matter of fact they need far more calcium than other frogs within the hobby. This is crutial for them to develope proper bone growth and dencity. Gutloading is not enough and just offering calcium rich feeders is not enough. They will still need calcium supplements. Vitamins while important are needed less than the calcium.

Earthworms are high in protein and calcium, but if not supplemented with calcium the frog still has a greater chance of developing MBD, Hypocalcemia, or teteny. A diverse diet is always jmportant though.