Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone ever done a study of how much natural sunlight time a dragon would need per day compared to all day UVB that a dragon would get from a flueroescent??? The reason I ask is that I been letting Pogo go outside quite a bit lately but it's only for about approximately 30-45 minutes because the area I live at in Ohio is wooded and not much sun gets through the thick woods that line my apartment complex...I figured 45 minutes of natural sun could make up for like 3 hours of fake UVB...I was wondering if anyone has studied this or did a experiment with there dragons...Any info would be cool to know!!
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**KILL 'EM WITH KINDNESS**

I'll go out on a limb here and say nobody had done a study on BDs. It really depends on the age of the animal from what I have learned. The UVB must be absobed through the slin and the thicker skin of an adult takes longer to penetrate. I have nothing at all to back me up on this so take it with a grain of salt, I say at least a few hours for several reasons. In the cage, they may sit and bask for prolonged periods. I have not seen this outdoors. So they may get less direct exposure. Different parts of the country at different times of year will have different amounts of UVB light as well. I have heard as little as 20 minutes is all a baby needs and I have heard they need 4-6 hours. If you look at BDs in the wild, they will generally come out when the sun is not strong and hot so therefore I would err on the side of caution.

Like I said, this is just my guess, other opinions are welcome.

BTW if you really want info on UV lighting, there is no better group than
yahoo-UVB_Meter_Owners

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Bennett

Home of the Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

No comparrison, natural sunlight puts out much more uv than any bulb that i know of. It varies though by global position reletive to the equator and time of year. I think I remember something over at beautifuldragons.com , not really a study but some raw #'s, it may give you some data that you can work with to figure out what you're after. You could always go out and get a uv meter also if you're that worried/interested.

Sean
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Heart Mountain Herps

UVB Study

It looks like it depends on what time of the year it is and where on the globe you are exposing your dragon to natural sunlight as to how beneficial it will be.

Here's some more info I found.

More UVB Info

Hope this helps!!
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Rob Talkington