Tree Frogs and UVB: Library of Congress Edition

[Diver]

UVB might possibly help frog's bones, but nobody's sure.

I'm not sure where this information comes from Elly, but the utilisation of UVB in production of vitamin d3 (which is required by the body to process calcium) is a very long established scientific fact. There is no ambiguity. The reason vitamin d3 oral supplements are given to captive animals is to attempt to rectify hypovitaminosis d3 where correct lighting has been denied.

Tree frogs need vitamin d3, there is absolutely no doubt. They don't receive it from an insectivorous diet, it is obtained purely through exposure to sunlight.

[elly]

I was just restating what I found in the copied pages, but I think you're right and the more current information supports UVB for tree frogs.

...to be honest I made this post really late at night and now I'm not really sure why I did.

I'm still going to search for that study on milky tree frogs and UVB though.

[daybr4ke]

I think this is still a valid idea, it's just that it raises questions. I've read frogs can get sick from a "d3 overdose" somewhere(going to look it up to make sure.) I'd imagine too much d3 from uvb lighting would be negated by the frog hiding in the dark, but could there be such a thing as too much light? Do you have to buy normal calcium instead of calcium+d3? Do you need both just in case? How many lights should you use? Should it be a uvb bulb on one side with a wide grow lamp-esque bulb across the top?
Etc.
I think the real problem isnt that it isnt certain that uvb is good for frogs via providing d3, I think the problem is there is no definitive guide that tells you how exactly to utilize uvb lighting to provide d3 in frogs. It probably isn't that hard. One uvb bulb to 20g horizontal tankspace or something with accompanying number of other bulbs in daylight spectrum for planted vivariums, ran 12 hours a day, or something. Someone should do a guide after some research.

[Diver]

Similar to providing the correct temperature and humidity, lighting is provided to match the UV index of the environment where the captive animal exists in the wild. There are some lighting guides on Arcadia's website, but the current benchmark tool is the paper by Baines et al. Links below:

http://arcadia-reptile.com/lighting-guide/

http://www.jzar.org/jzar/article/view/150/89