In research. Waitlist open.

Reptile N3rdz

Name: Reptile N3rdz Calcium with D3
Brand: Reptile N3rdz
SKU: RN-02

Insectivores and chelonians

Nearly every feeder insect delivers more phosphorus than calcium, most of them at a ratio at or below 0.28 to 1 against a target near 2 to 1. And for chelonians, Merck sets the same 2 to 1 target while the mineral blocks on the shelf add phosphorus the animal does not need. This line addresses both problems across three formats.

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Insectivorous reptiles and amphibians. Two formats: a calcium dusting powder and a calcium with D3 companion, each built for the problem its keeper actually faces.

Concept diagram, not a photograph. Adherence is the unsolved half of dusting. Powder that reaches the enclosure floor is not correcting anything.

Products

Two formats, one correction.

A calcium dusting powder for feeder insects, and a calcium with D3 companion packaged to survive the jar. The delivery format changes; the underlying measurement problem does not.

RN-01

Calcium

Calcium carbonate dusting powder for feeder insects, developed around retained dose on the insect rather than the analysis of the jar. No D3, no phosphorus.

insectivores amphibians

RN-02

Calcium with D3

Encapsulated D3, dated and packaged separately from the mineral so mineral-driven degradation does not occur in the jar. Companion to RN-01.

separate packaging companion to rn-01

RN-01 / The inversion

The insect is the problem, not the reptile.

A common theme across commercially raised feeder insects is a naturally inverse calcium to phosphorus ratio, at or below 0.28 to 1, with black soldier fly larvae the single exception at a positive 2.5. The target for reptiles sits near 2 to 1. Almost the entire feeder trade therefore delivers the mineral balance backwards, every feeding, for the animal's whole life.

target, near 2 to 1

Linear scale, calcium to phosphorus by mass. Values from the feeder insect nutrition literature and reported as typical rather than fixed, since gut loading and rearing diet both move them.

Feeder	Typical Ca:P	Against a 2:1 target
Mealworm	0.04 : 1	roughly 25 times more phosphorus than calcium
Cricket, superworm, waxworm	at or below 0.28 : 1	inverted
Dubia roach	inverted before gut loading	improvable by diet
Black soldier fly larva	about 2.5 : 1	the single exception

01 / The disease

Metabolic bone disease

The defining husbandry failure of captive insectivores, and it follows directly from the ratio above. This is not an exotic complication. It is the predictable outcome of feeding an animal something built the wrong way around.

02 / The exception

And what it does not fix

Black soldier fly larvae carry mineralized cuticle and genuinely good calcium. They have also been reported as deficient in the fat soluble vitamins A, D3 and E. Feeding them does not remove the need for supplementation, it moves it.

03 / The upstream option

Gut loading works too

Loading the insect before it is offered raises calcium from the inside rather than coating the outside, and a high calcium diet has been shown to raise the ratio in dubia roaches. It is more work and it is often the better answer.

RN-01 / The unsolved half

Dust that falls off corrects nothing.

Every calcium powder on the shelf is measured by what is in the jar. What matters to the animal is what is still on the insect at the moment it is swallowed. Powder is lost during handling, in transfer, and while the insect moves around the enclosure, and the phosphorus inside the insect does not change at all.

Reaching the target on a cricket requires calcium carbonate at 4.5% of insect mass. Spread over its cuticle that is 63.6 g/m2. A single close-packed layer of 50 um particles carries about 54 g/m2. The correction the whole category attempts therefore asks the insect to hold more than one particle layer, and only the bottom layer is touching the insect at all.

Feeder	Native Ca:P	Powder needed, % of insect mass
Mealworm	0.04	6.12%
Superworm	0.13	5.37%
Cricket	0.29	4.50%
Dubia roach	0.78	2.75%
Black soldier fly larva	2.50	none required

Insect compositions are illustrative figures from the feeder nutrition literature, not assays of insects we weighed, and should be read that way.

What retention does to the delivered ratio

Retention	Cricket	Mealworm	Dubia roach
100%	2.00:1	2.00:1	2.00:1
75%	1.57:1	1.51:1	1.69:1
50%	1.14:1	1.02:1	1.39:1
30%	0.80:1	0.63:1	1.14:1

At 50% retention no feeder reaches the target, and at 30% none exceeds 0.9:1. Nobody currently knows the real retention figure, including us.

So this is the part of the product we are actually working on

Particle size and adherence. Van der Waals adhesion scales with particle diameter. Detachment force during handling scales with mass, so with diameter cubed. The ratio holding a particle in place therefore scales as the inverse square of diameter: a 25 um grind holds sixteen times better than a 100 um grind, particle for particle.

Finer is not simply better, though. A finer grind needs more stacked layers to deliver the same mass, and only the bottom layer adheres to anything. The two effects oppose each other and the optimum sits near 25 to 50 um, fine enough to hold and coarse enough to deliver the dose in one to two layers. That is a prediction, not a measurement.

A stated method, not just a stated composition. Dusting technique changes delivered dose as much as formulation does. Whatever we learn on adherence goes into the directions, including what not to do, rather than being kept as a trade secret that only helps us.

And an honest ceiling. Heavy dusting of a badly inverted feeder cannot fully compensate for what is inside it. Mealworms as a staple are the clearest case. No powder makes a 0.04 to 1 insect into a balanced meal, and we are not going to imply otherwise.

RN-02 / Vitamin D3

Two jars, and the reason there are two.

This category already splits calcium powders into with D3 and without D3, and keepers already alternate between them. That convention exists for a good reason, and it deserves a better explanation than the labels usually give it.

Why the split exists

UVB and diet are alternate routes

An animal under adequate UVB makes its own D3 through a reaction that self limits, so it cannot be overdosed that way. An animal without UVB depends on the diet, where there is no such brake. Guidance in this hobby commonly caps supplemental D3 at 5000 IU per kg for that reason.

Our position is the same one we take across the whole line. Correct the lighting first. Supplement where light genuinely cannot reach the animal.

Why ours is separate

Minerals destroy D3 over time

Transition metals in a mineral matrix catalyze oxidation of fat soluble vitamins, and published stability data on conventional complete premixes shows retention below twenty percent after three months. A jar of calcium with D3 that has been on a shelf for a season is not delivering its label.

So the D3 is encapsulated, dated, and packaged opaque rather than tinted, and the plain calcium jar contains no D3 at all rather than a decaying figure printed on a label.

What is not in it

Things we left out on purpose.

Because the format would be wrong for them

Phosphorus. The dusting powder adds no phosphorus. The feeder insect already supplies it in excess, so adding more would work against the only thing the product exists to do. Everywhere else in our line we correct a calcium-heavy source by adding phosphorus. Here the problem runs the other way.

A large D3 load. Dusting frequency is set by the keeper and varies widely, so a high D3 figure in a powder applied at an unknown frequency is a poor combination. Low and separate beats high and convenient.

Colorants and flow agents we cannot justify. If an ingredient is in the jar to make the powder look or pour better rather than to reach the animal, it needs a reason we can defend in writing.

These products are each one input among many. They do not replace correct lighting, a varied feeder rotation or gut loading, proper forage selection for chelonians, and they are not a substitute for veterinary advice about your animal.

Development status

We publish the open questions too.

This is a research program, not a finished shelf product. Items stay flagged as open until a certificate of analysis or bench data closes them, and nothing goes on sale while a safety item is still open.

ClosedFeeder insect ratio inversion verified against the feeder nutrition literature, including the black soldier fly exception.

ClosedMineral driven degradation of fat soluble vitamins verified against published premix stability data.

OpenRetained dose as a function of grind, measured rather than modelled. This is the primary development question for the dusting powder, not the jar analysis.

OpenTarget D3 level for the RN-02 variant, set against husbandry guidance and species lighting practice rather than by category convention.

OpenHeavy metal screening for lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury on every mineral input including the Lithothamnion source. Hard quality gate.

OpenSuitability across taxa, since a bearded dragon, a chameleon and a dart frog are not one husbandry case.

OpenWhether a gut loading product serves the same keeper better, in which case we would rather build that.

OpenReal cuticle geometry across feeders, since a smooth waxy mealworm and a setose cricket are not the same surface and texture likely dominates retention more than shape does.

OpenRegistration and label format review before any unit is offered for sale.

OpenLithothamnion sourcing, certificate of analysis and trace mineral profile verification against the community-identified gaps (magnesium, boron).

Get the first run

Keepers and collections first.

Join the list and you get told when the first run opens, what the analysis showed, and what was still open on the register the day it shipped.

N3rdz beta program

We can only keep so many animals at home and in the lab, and one collection only generates so much data. The beta program extends the testing to yours.

Selected testers receive products free of charge to trial, a discount code, and coverage of their animals alongside ours across the N3rdz channels.

Registering sends you one email covering the testing rules, the format we need feedback in, and a few questions about your animals.

Your details are used for beta testing and feedback only. We do not sell them and we do not share them.

Part of a platform

One correction, many species

The same calcium system runs through companion parrot blocks, a loft pickstone for racing pigeons, a two fraction poultry amendment for small flocks, a reptile dusting powder and an aqua remineralizer. Built for small keepers, not large commercial herds. The species change, the husbandry changes, the delivery format changes, and the underlying defect does not.

See the parrot line See the poultry line See the pigeon line