To keep a partner in good condition, a balanced diet is required.Depending on the needs of the animal, handlers can administer various vitamins when needed to help keep their partner in top condition.
Unfortunately mammals are gonna be kinda left out with this.
Vital to any egg-laying creature, calcium deficiency is a severe problem. Infertility, risk of becoming eggbound, soft-shelled eggs, improper muscle contraction, decrease in hatchling health (stunting, soft bones, bone deformities)... In regard to muscle discoordination, this is much more common symptoms and range from difficulty moving to seizures (severe).
How would a handler give calcium to their dino?
Ca gluconate is unable to be manufactured, the process would be too complex for the tech Zenith has. Bonemeal/cuttlebone/greenage would be more "recent" husbandry advancements.
The rest is naturally available.
Greenage is the most widely used, but I'm discounting it for now.
Limestones/Dolostones being used as supplements could be traced back to observing wild herbivores seek out deposits to scrape on. BE WARY: they may contain lead, which is why certain outcroppings are considered the best for mining this mineral.
Cuttlebones are likely harvested from the sea, from cuttlefish that is probably a common catch and food based on how vital it is. They're the second most common form of supplement.
The most common is bonemeal, derived from waste bones from meatpacking. Breeders are a huge market for it, the richer ones making their own from bulk-bought bones. Some sell their bonemeal to smaller breeders as secondary income.
And now the fun bits:
This is relatively easy for herbivorous dinos. A balanced diet of different types of greenage with making a limestone/dolostone block available. A dinosaur with a beak like a triceratops would benefit more from a block of limestone, as this helps to safely trim the beak. For non-beaked dinosaurs, sprinkling food with bone meal (such as placing it inside of cabbages, etc) would be a good way to reliably introduce calclium.
Small raptors and dinosaurs can be given cuttlebone, even without beaks they can gnaw on it. Some may not like it, so the above method of introduction into the diet could be used in a smaller format.
Large theropods offer a different challenge. Not all like to gnaw on cuttlebone or can even do that, so it is advised to introduce calcium phosphate powder into their diets by making a small orifice in a meat chunk, stuffing it with powder, then plugging it and using it as a treat would work.
Bone meal > cuttlebone/CaCO3
Purely because of phosphorus, another vital mineral.
More will be added!
Unfortunately mammals are gonna be kinda left out with this.
Calcium
Vital to any egg-laying creature, calcium deficiency is a severe problem. Infertility, risk of becoming eggbound, soft-shelled eggs, improper muscle contraction, decrease in hatchling health (stunting, soft bones, bone deformities)... In regard to muscle discoordination, this is much more common symptoms and range from difficulty moving to seizures (severe).
How would a handler give calcium to their dino?
- Calcium-rich dark greens [broccoli/spinach/kale]
- Cuttlebone [powder or whole]
- Calcium Carbonate [limestone, dolostone/ite, etc]
- Calcium Phosphate [bone meal]
- Calcium gluconate
Ca gluconate is unable to be manufactured, the process would be too complex for the tech Zenith has. Bonemeal/cuttlebone/greenage would be more "recent" husbandry advancements.
The rest is naturally available.
Greenage is the most widely used, but I'm discounting it for now.
Limestones/Dolostones being used as supplements could be traced back to observing wild herbivores seek out deposits to scrape on. BE WARY: they may contain lead, which is why certain outcroppings are considered the best for mining this mineral.
Cuttlebones are likely harvested from the sea, from cuttlefish that is probably a common catch and food based on how vital it is. They're the second most common form of supplement.
The most common is bonemeal, derived from waste bones from meatpacking. Breeders are a huge market for it, the richer ones making their own from bulk-bought bones. Some sell their bonemeal to smaller breeders as secondary income.
And now the fun bits:
Feeding Your Dinosaur Calcium
This is relatively easy for herbivorous dinos. A balanced diet of different types of greenage with making a limestone/dolostone block available. A dinosaur with a beak like a triceratops would benefit more from a block of limestone, as this helps to safely trim the beak. For non-beaked dinosaurs, sprinkling food with bone meal (such as placing it inside of cabbages, etc) would be a good way to reliably introduce calclium.
Small raptors and dinosaurs can be given cuttlebone, even without beaks they can gnaw on it. Some may not like it, so the above method of introduction into the diet could be used in a smaller format.
Large theropods offer a different challenge. Not all like to gnaw on cuttlebone or can even do that, so it is advised to introduce calcium phosphate powder into their diets by making a small orifice in a meat chunk, stuffing it with powder, then plugging it and using it as a treat would work.
Bone meal > cuttlebone/CaCO3
Purely because of phosphorus, another vital mineral.
More will be added!