Light intensity is important for bearded dragons. With just a ceramic heat emitter the dragon won't know it's daytime and in the long run can cause health problems. Dragons are naturally geared towards climbing high in bright light to gain the heat they need to digest, and just a UVB light may not produce the light intensity they need.

To lower costs of bulbs for lighting and heat, don't buy the reptile basking bulbs at all. These are no more efficient than regular $.35 bulbs you can get at Walmart or any department store selling household lights. I have always used just regular household bulbs to produce heat for my bearded dragon and my other light heat needing reptiles. The really cheap household bulbs don't last very long but at $.33 Canadian (I can get four 60, 75 or 100 watt bulbs for a dollar at a Dollar store), buying 4-6 a year isn't very hard on the wallet. You can get slightly better quality bulbs at Walmart for about $.80 more and these do last longer so may be more worth it than the cheaper ones in the long run.

Halogen bulbs (or flood lights) are a bit more but do last much longer. When I still had my bearded dragon I paid about $5 for a 125 Watt halogen flood light (for outdoor use) and it lasted well over a year, most likely longer as I had to sell my dragon at that point and don't know if the person who bought her had to change it at any time since.

Unfortuntely the only big expense that occures with bearded dragon is purchasing new UVB bulbs/tubes every 6-9 months, to ensure the amount of UVB rays produced is still sufficient. Those the light from these tubes/bulbs are still fine, UVB ray production diminishes significantly after 6-9 months.
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PHLdyPayne

[ Hide Replies ]

• Lights? - chad-erin, Tue Apr 11 15:01:44 2006
• RE: Lights? - viborero, Tue Apr 11 17:05:27 2006
• RE: Lights? - -ryan-, Tue Apr 11 19:29:32 2006
• RE: Lights? - PHLdyPayne, Wed Apr 12 15:40:23 2006