Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been reading some of the past postings on the subject of UVB light and its importance to the health of monitors. I have a 26-27 inch savanna who lives in a large pen that has 2 light fixtures in it. I still dont know if its better for him or not, but he deffinitly preffers basking under the active UV bulb. I have a 100 wat 'capture the sun bulb' in one socket and a 150 watt flood in the other. He always goes to bask under the active uv bulb, even thought its warmewr under the 150 watt flood. I switched the 150 watt flood with a lower wattage 120 flood, and he still chooses the UVB bulb. ive tried switching the UVB to the other socket and 150 flood to the socket the UVB was originally in, but he still goes to the active uv bulb.
I still dont know if its necesary to have UVB for savanna's and other monitors but it does seem more natural with it. Either way it seems my boy Cujo likes basking under his Active UV bulb above all else. Just thought id share this.

"He always goes to bask under the active uv bulb, even thought its warmewr under the 150 watt flood. "

Wow.

If you really wanted to see if UV had ANYTHING to do with this, you would have to get bothe basking sites to be the same, with the only difference being UV.

Your two basing spots are not the same temp. If you had a temp gun you would know that.

Your experiment is inconclusive at best. Irrelivant at worst.

Alright, so there were some problems with the way things were conducted. Is there any reason that you couldnt have said things in a way that would have helped the situation instead of worsening it? Sorry everyone isnt as perfect as you think you are.

Momma

He explained the flaws with those conclusions in plain english no insults etc. Besides I read a recent test that proved UV tubes and bulbs only project UV light to 6 inches and 1 light projected an amount in the 280-310nm range of all lights on the market. Id like to see a test done using UV and none for a period of time with equal test parameters so this can be put in paper and end this debate.
Creeps knows it doesnt do anything for them because he is actually breeding monitors.
I read a quote from an interview between a famous vet and a technical representative for a manufacturer of reptile products when asked about some products that can be usless or harmful to a customers pets they said "well the customer walks in a petstore with $8 in their pocket, sees a product on the shelf that has a label mentioning benefits to this product, whether or not it does anything or is harmful that customer will spend that $8 because they want their animal to be happy, so therefore they are happy they spent the money". Its all about product sales and making money, after all I know that if I wanted those light tubes I can get them for one third of what they sell for (the coat of a normal bulb or tube) with a middleman still making a big profit.

I HATE HATE HATE sleazy pet supply manufacturers. It's like there wasn't enough money in slowly killing dogs so they had to come after us.

When I think about the very expensive and very bright UV lights that marine aquarists have to use just to penetrate a few inches of water to keep their corals alive... and then i look at the cheap florescent 'UV' lights made for reptiles... made by the same people selling woodchip bedding and hotrocks and $10 bags of sand... for animals that live in rainforests and probably never see a patch of sunlight in the wild...

We really do need scientific studies. It's the only answer to not throwing our money away on useless crap.

How many stores in your area do you know of that actually carry decent Monitor texts? I can think of....hmmmm....NONE! The studies are being conducted, oh yes. However, who is actually dispensing this knowledge to the masses. Not just via internet searching, but around the corner at your local "Pets for Less".

My new goal to acclompish by the end of the year...to persuade AT LEAST one local crappy pet store to carry AT LEAST one decent Monitor book.
Just think if we ALL did that. (I suppose it doesnt have to restricted to monitors either)

Arise and fight!!...

Best regards,

Michelle

For the purpose of reproduction, growth rates, and longetivity, UV is not needed. The only noticeable difference (inconclusive study)has been seen in coloration, or irridescence brought out by uvb, but this is not an empyrical study and should not be taken as such.

As far as aquarist UVB's go, it only costs the maker of those lights about $50 to make them, the rest goes in their pocket and you support them by paying big bucks.

Someone might come on here and say "i keep my monitors outdoors, they do awesome"

that is great, I am sure they do in the right environment because it is easier for the monitors to find proper temps, but a proper indoor cage with incandescents can have the same effect. My monitors certainly do well and they don't receive uvb.

andrew

Alright there Isaac Newton since you had to be a dick about it... If you had read more colsely you would have noticed that i changed the 150 flood to a 120 flood, which resulted in a temperature of 120-123 in both basking spots. Some one also said that the UV tubes only reach a distance of 6 in, however i have an active uv bulb which can reach distances of 3 or more feet.

Look, it comes down to who are you going to believe? The Company that is going to lose a ton of money if you do not buy their product and has millions to advertise, or those of us who have done it ourselves, have been successful and have applied what we know in the real world. Don't you think that us not having millions to spend, would use the products if they were needed or worked?
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Bawaa Herps
www.BawaaHerps.com
sales@bawaaherps.com
"Conservation through Captive Propagation"

Don't let the F---ed up attitudes here deter you from helping your monitor. Just ecstract the needed info from their derogitory replies and move on. Some people let their seccesses go to their heads and seem to forget when they were new at it. Personally, I wish they could all have the pleasant and positive attitude that Mike Stephani has but that will not happen. Have noticed Mike doesn't come here much anymore, no surprise there.