uvb

[Eridu Serpent]

It is good, in fact more than good.
Anything you do to make the animals environment more natural is good.
There are two options:

1. You can buy a heat bulb for reptiles which ALSO provides UV light, these range in price from very high to low.
Make sure you choose a 35 or a 40 wt bulb, no higher.
OR
2. You can use a normal 40 wt halogen bulb for heat and buy a separate UV bulb.
A rating of 5.0 should be sufficient.


I have found the most economical way is option 2, mainly because the conjoined ones cost more money and blow faster.
If you use option 1, the halogen bulb blows long before the more expensive UV bulb, and you can just spend a few dollars replacing that.
UV Bulbs normally work for a very long time.

In autumn/winter I use a heat mat, the halogen for heat and a UV bulb.
In spring/summer I only use the halogen for heat and a UV bulb.

I try to keep it as natural as I can.
This means NO UV on a night, keep it on a day/night timer.
At night to keep heat up add a low wattage red bulb (20 to 30wt), reptiles etc are said to not be able to see red light.
You will also be able to view them with out bothering them with bright lights.

There is definitely a difference in the animal when you use UV lighting.
When I had my monitors I could not get a UV bulb for several weeks because I live away from the city and have no car.
So I had to wait for when I could get a lift.
When I did put one in within a few days I noticed my sav was eating more, moving around more and his colours were extra bright.
So this confirmed for me that they needed UV...same with my other reptiles, frogs and toads.

I also have a friend named Bobby who is a large breeder of Tegus in the USA, he said that just giving animals Calcium & D3 is no good for animals
as they need the sun/UV to metabolise the D3 and vitamins. He says that most tegus he sees have bone problems/growth problems when not provided with
the right lighting and vitamins.

Just as we benefit from the sun, animals do also.
To say they do not need UV light is just old fashioned thinking.

So UVB is good and it does an enormous amount of good for all animals

[Lija]

your friend Bobby is right!
for UVB my preference is 5.0 exo terra reptiglo, either full spectrum or tropical.
there is another lamp bulb by exo terra that seems interesting to try based on a description, but I haven't seen it for sale yet. Exo Terra : Natural Light Ion / Deodorizing Bulb

[Eridu Serpent]

your friend Bobby is right!
for UVB my preference is 5.0 exo terra reptiglo, either full spectrum or tropical.
there is another lamp bulb by exo terra that seems interesting to try based on a description, but I haven't seen it for sale yet. Exo Terra : Natural Light Ion / Deodorizing Bulb

Lija, this is the bulb I buy costs me about 28 euros but they do last a long time.

I used to get the all in one bulbs but they fail quite rapidly, specially the 100w/125w I used for my reptiles.
I think it is better to buy separate ones.