Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

I am new to the chameleon boards on here. I recently bought a breeding pair of veiled chameleons. And they are doin great in there well ventilated and separate enclosures.

Recently i was given 4 black tube lights and was wondering if they could be used to provided a nighttime light that would allow me to view them. The black lights are like the ones you would buy a Spencers gifts or a party store. Also they came witht there own fixtures, could i put a zoo med 5.0 uvb light in the fixture.??

Thanks for your help

Reptilefreak
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www.reptilefreaks.tk
4.5.2 leopard geckos (super hypo tangs, blizzards, tremper albinos)
1.0 crested geckos
1.2 golden geckos

Chameleons can see across the visible light spectrum even more so than mammals and maybe birds, so the black lights could keep them awake. You might be able to turn the light on for a few minutes after the chams are solidly asleep without waking them up, but if the chams are aware at all the light would stress them. Chams are very inactive at night...they won't be doing anything interesting to watch anyway.

As long as the fixture is rated to support the same watt/amp bulb as your ReptiSun draws it should be OK.

Chams probably can see (like the last person said) the blacklight due to their incredible colour perception. They can see a few degrees of wavelength below and above our visible spectrum.

A bit off topic, does everyone agree with me that chameleons lack rods in the eyeball, resulting in an inability to see shapes and forms with little or no light (think of when you come home at night and there aren't lights on, you can still see the general shape of the objects in the room).
I heard this somewhere, i dont remember exactly, but I'm not sure if it's true, is it?

It might be so, maybe Petr Necas' book discusses this. It may be hard to tell, as a cham in the dark is probably cool and its brain is not working at "normal operating temperature" anyway. And, as chams are not ground dwelling they are really dependent on basking to stay active. At night only ground dwelling herps such as snakes who can absorb heat from the earth are very active. There would be no particular reason for chams to need low/night vision if they aren't active at night.