Posted by:
azteclizard
at Tue Nov 4 06:15:26 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by azteclizard ]
I am posting for anyone that still has questions about or is interested in the crazy notion of raising and maintaining dragons without the use of UVB lighting. Let me start with a direct quote from the book Desert Lizards by Randall Gray,Krieger publishing 2003.
"There is no conclusive evidence as to whether full spectrum bulbs are actually beneficial to the health of captive lizards or how much ultraviolet light is necessary. Although some bulbs generate many times the uv light output as their competitors', it is not known whether this difference is significant to the lizards physiological or psychological well being. The value of artificial full spectrum bulbs is unknown, but including them in your setup is probably not harmful. However, many herpetoculturists have successfully raised and bred desert lizards without full spectrum lighting and only supplementing with vitamin d3(Montanucci 1997)."
The reference is from the Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society. Randall Grey is a wildlife biologist that has been keeping reptiles for 40 years and has been focusing on Uromastyx and Chuckwallas for the last 6 years. Not that this makes him more qualified than anyone else on the subject, just want to provide credentials for the author of the paragraph.
Moving on...I have been asked to provide a detailed feeding and supplementing regimine for dragons not raised under uvb lighting. There is no one specific way to do it. Many breeders have different schedules to provide there reptiles with dietary d3, the key is to make sure you are providing it. Rep-cal with d3 contains the highest amount of vit d3 of any supplement on the market that I'm aware of. This is not necessarily a good thing. If over-supplementation resulting in toxicity were to occur, it would likely occur with this product. Although, I know breeders that have used it quite liberally for many years without any problems.
One breeder I know uses this product with the following schedule to raise dragons:
Dust one feeding of crix (out of 3) a day with rep-cal. Salads get no supplemental calcium.
Miner-all I contains much less d3 per kilo than rep-cal, about 4400 I.U's / kilo. This seems to be a safe level for daily liberal usage. Meaning that crixs and salads can be lightly dusted daily without any worries.
When I used this product, I dusted one crix feeding(out of 2) per day and lightly dusted veggies (offered fresh in the morning and late afternoon)
I now use t-rex dragon dusts daily. They get dusted lightly on all food items offered.
All these methods work for raising dragons without artificial uv lighting.
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me
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 Raising dragons without uvb lighting continued... - azteclizard, Tue Nov 4 06:15:26 2003
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