>>What kind of bulds do you use? I heard the coils are bad for their eyes. Do the GE "plant & aquarium" bulbs put off UV? I could use them in the light fixtures i already have

The plant and aquarium bulbs are full spectrum lighting but do not put off UVB.

I use PowerSun mercury vapor bulbs for my tegus and iguana. Their enclosures are tall enough to accommodate the bulbs and they have a socket type fixture. The Power Sun takes care of the heat and the UV issue for me. Living in FL, my lizards get a chance to bask in the sun quite a bit in the summer.

For the smaller enclosures and smaller lizards, I use Exo Terra's 10.0 tube florescents. It's not the most attractive, but I put them in kitchen fixtures and hang them inside the cage to bypass any filtration from aquarium screen tops.

I've heard and seen eye and skin damage from various lights, include the coiled bulbs. I had an interesting conversation going on-line with some tegus owners recently. It seems that no one had any issues with the Exo Terra coiled bulb, and testing has only been done on the Zoo Med brand. It's not that Zoo Med is making a bad bulb, it's just that Exo Terra is burning theirs in first or longer, and the intensity isn't quite as high. It also seems that the problem with coiled bulbs is not that they don't work or that they are "crap", but that they provide and intense beam of UVB directed at the animal at a close distance.

Here's a great link for lighting research that I think is OK to post. It's a group of researchers that have independent work and are not affiliated with any particular brand and are not trying to sell anything. That always comes across with more credibility in my book.

http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/

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