Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I am quite confused here !! I know Uros are desert dweling reps. I have mine for more than two months now. It is an Occelatus. I have been keeping it with a Reptisun 10 UV lamp all this period the lamp is placed in 25 cm distance and the animal has no access to it. It is on for aprox 10-12 hours daily and it has been so all this time ! Everything seemed fine till three days ago. I grabed my uro in order to clean its cage and while stragling to get away its skin started to go away as if it was shedding ! Underneath the removing skin there is other skin but it is clearly not a shed. It all seems exactly as a giant blister from sunburn ! Could this be a burn from UVB ?? I m trying not to remove the teared skin yet since in the small spots it went away dry out and creates a mild wound.

I have been treating the area with Balsamum oil and I have removed the UV source till the wound- burn will heal.

There is no moisture in the cage whatsoever and the tempratures are high as they are supposed to be.

Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Regards
John

Oh Dang, First, its not because its a UVB bulb. Its merely a heat source. Those bulbs are totally worthless in the first place.

The reason your Uro got burned is, you do not understand that that thing hanging in the cage is NOT THE SUN, its a lightbulb.

It provides heat, but not in the way the sun does.(WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT UV of any type, just HEAT)

As winter cold settles in, the base temps in the cage lower, SO, the poor lizard must spend more time under the heat source to gain its required temps.

The problem is, the dang bulb focuses its heat in a narrow area, then quickly drops off from that point. That narrow area is the burn on the back. Think magnifying glass and an ant(mean kids) It concentrates its heat in a very small area, thus frying the ant but not all things around the ant. This is what your bulb is doing. Its focusing its heat in a small area, thus burning that area, while the rest of the lizard is still cold or cool.

The cure is simple, the hot area, HAS TO BE THE SIZE OF THE LIZARD, so it can heat up evenly. Just like the sun would do. Mind you many reptiles regional heat in nature, that is, heat up only part or parts of their body. But, the sun in nature starts weak and builds up toward the afternoon. Litebulbs are full on, THERE IS NO BUILD UP. Its turned on, and its at full strenght.

The key is low body temps. You can also cure this by not allowing the night time lows to be so extreme. But most reptiles love a wide temp range. So, FIX THE HOTSPOT. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Now, UVB, read the dang warnings. DO NOT STARE INTO THOSE BULBS. WHY you ask. Because Uva and UVb is cancer causing. Why, because they penetrate the skin very deeply. It can cause blindness and skin cancer.

Lizards do not require UBa or B bulbs, THEY REQUIRE HEAT. If you give them a proper heat range, you can throw those stupid(hahahahahahaha) expensive bulbs away. Your lizard will thank you, but those insane bulb sellers will not. Cheers

Frank ,I don't mean to be ignorant and I know this is off topic, but would the same apply to Bearded Dragons? Have read your thoughts on heat vs. UVB for some time now and for the most part I agree. It's just that you hear so much about beardeds and MBD that it's a concern with me. Thanks for any input.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

I keep and breed all manner of reptiles, and have for decades, not just monitors, In fact, I do not lay claim to be a monitor guy. That included produced hundreds upon hundreds of beardies. Which also means raising many many quickly to aduldhood. I never used UVA OR B bulbs with anything yet.

That includes torts, turtles, chams, all manner of snakes and lizards. Cheers

Thanks B'wana, I guess I'll set down and rethink my enclosure.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

I agree, I never use UV bulbs, Ive had hundreds of beardies in the past (lost interest, kept one). Those who think UV bulbs stop MBD or prevent it are shooting blanks, blindfolded in the dark, this goes with any reptile.
The proof is in the pudding, pick the right flavor and give it a taste.

First of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer to my questions. However, your answer has raised a hell of more questions !!

I know that monitors do not really need UV since they get their calcium from thir food. However one has to note that all available bibliography states that herbivore lizards that live in the desert need UVB radiation !

My Uro HAS NO ACCESS TO THE LAMP AND THE LAMP I HAVE DOES NOT PRODUCE ANY HEAT !!! So I can not really understand whow it could get burned by heat ?

And then you do not mention anything about MBD ? This is definatelly not a myth !! I suppose you suggest suplements to the food ?

Regards
John

You know I have a mali uro that I got back in the fall of 2006 for free from somebody because it was on death's door. considering the condition it was in it was not in a position to overwinter outdoors as do the other uro's I keep. It has been kept in a large tub with a plain old halogen floodlight over it and an occasional incandescent bulb when a halogen blew and I had no replacements on hand. It is fed the same diet I feed to the rest of my herbivores and you know what...I never really thought about putting calcium supplements on it's food because all the other herbivores are outdoors so I don;t use them ( I mix their food accordingly to account for this.) But anyway this lizard has recovered quite well and will be going outside with the other malis in another month or so considering what the weather does. No uv no supplements just plain ol halogen bulbs that you get from wal-mart or home depot. I here this crap all the time about uv and yet I have kept lizards for years with out them and they do fine. I do supplement insects for bug-eaters day (geckos and chameleons) as a precaution and I have noticed that certain lizards do better with a light source but I don't use uv lights period. I raise day geckos both inside and out if the sun gives them uv then the outdoor ones get it but if the florescent 40 watt tubes from wal-mart don't put it out then they don't get it. My egg production out doors is only slightly better than indoor production and my indoor production is just fine. I attribute the slightly better outdoor production to the fact that my outdoor cages are bigger than the tanks I use indoors more than anything else. As far as the burning goes, perhaps you should listen to Frank and change your bulb and check the temps for your basking spot better.

UV bulbs are a money making scam to take advantage of the reptile pet market. The manufacturers designed them and market them so that you are convinced to buy one every 3-6 months, its a way to keep customers coming back as long as the animal survives. Also the bulbs produce light in a manner that makes your eyes think they are brighter and more colorful. By the way they produce lots of heat, I had monitors that used to bask on top of flourescent light assemblies, the surface of the plastic was 122 f. One of those lizards today wouldnt fit on any flourescent light assembly (well the 8ft assemblies).
Reptiles get burnt when the basking spot cannot heat them up enough in a short period of time, so they spend too much time under it burning a small spot (lower air temps throughout the cage are the culprit). Notice how dark the lizard is, if its dull and dark its cold, if its lighter, and colorful they are warm.

great source of UV info:
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/

Todd G.
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