Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so i was reading "the tortoise and turtle feeding manual" by a.c. highfield. at the begining of the book there is a section that discusses nutritional disorders and vitamid d and ultraviolet light. it says "animals in their natural habitat are extreamly unlikely to suffer hypovitamintosis-d3. deficiencies are posible in captive animals which are deprived of access to sunlight or a sutable u.v. source of sufficent intensity, e.g. truelight, zoomed 2.0-5.0, or blacklight." now this was origanly printed in 1988 and was revised in 2000 so i am sure it is out dated and better lights are now available. but did any body ever do this or see it? do blacklights even give off any vitamins?

The black (UV) light does not transmit vitamins – but instead gets the body to synthesize vitamin D3. With out UV the Tortoise body does not have the ability to synthesize vitamin D3 – resulting in metabolic bone disease. Vitamin D3 is used in observation of calcium. As a result if you keep your Tortoise indoors – you should give it a source of UVB light.

I use self ballast mercury vapor lamp – it produces both heat and UV light. This allows proper D3 creation. I think the lamp is on for 4 hours a day.

The other way you can supply D3 is too feed food high in Vitamin D3 (Some calcium is supplied with Vitamin D3 – But be warned too much Vitamin D3 can be toxic to your Tortoise). Some people talk about feeding meat.

They do emit UVB but you have to be careful about the type of "black light" you have. This link from Melissa Kaplan's site discusses the different types of black light.

http://www.anapsid.org/blacklight.html

cool site! so there are diffrent types of blacklights bl and blb used together with vitalight (i still have one someware) thanks for the info>

>>cool site! so there are diffrent types of blacklights bl and blb used together with vitalight (i still have one someware) thanks for the info>

Yes, her site is one of the most comprehensive ones around. Just to be clear though, the BLB type black light was stated as the one that can cause retinal damage. Only the BL type is safe for providing UV

yes i guess i wasnt clear....i use vapor bulbs in the winter and in the summer they enjoy the outdoors. it just struck me weird when i read that. you think blacklights and like lazor tag or something?