I believe as trough any other living thing in this planet everything needs a little light to be healthy. Sunlight is an important source of vitamin D and deficiency could result in impaired bone mineralization, and lead to bone softening diseases. Although I have seen gator farms raise their gators in complete darkness I do not know if those gators were to grow full grown would they acquire any diseases?(as “mrfisher“ mentioned earlier) Yet this would be an interesting subject to study. Even tho surrounding temperatures can reach in their high 80's to 100 in certain areas crocs and gators still do love to bask during the middle of the day for some reason, but do they actually need it? it would be interesting to know if these animals were fed with proper artificial vitamins if they should grow with any bone problems, even so being that they are low active animals I couldn’t see how one would break a leg or bone unless it fell off a cliff or something. As for now I still like to keep a basking lamp on a 12hr timer for my 2 yr old croc that I keep indoors which he seems to enjoy for most part of the day and especially after he eats in my opinion it helps him digest his food a bit better and gives him a nicer healthier color compared to other crocs I’ve seen that get little light tend to grow with darker colors.


(^Appx. a year ago^)

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