Posted by:
epollak
at Wed Feb 25 15:24:51 2004 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by epollak ]
The average kereper has not done the tests but scientists like Gary Ferguson at Texas Christian Univ. have!!! UVB is very necessary. As for bulb vs sunlight: Nothing is better than sunlight but lots of shade should be provided so the cham can self select. And bulbs vary dramatically: the so-called "full spectrum" bulbs are useless for UVB. The Reptisun 5.0 UVb is pretty much the industry standard but they lose potency fast after 6 months of use. MV bulbs put out a MUCH higher UVB level. Some say it's too much for 12 hours/day. I use the MVs but I make sure they only provide UVB to a small basking area by providing LOTS of shade as well as taking other precautions. Remember that while chams spend all day out doors in the wild, they do NOT spend all day in the sun. Most of the time they're in the shade.
As for natural sunlight: the amount of UVB varies depending on elevation and latitude. And there are big species differences in tolerance for high UVB. But you CAN over do UVB as was recently de,monstrated by Ferguson in a recent article in Zoo Biology.
Ed
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RE: natural sunlight vs. uv bulbs - epollak, Wed Feb 25 15:24:51 2004