Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My dragon gets between 3 and 4 hours a week of unfiltered natural sunlight. Is this enough? I have a 20 watt UVB bulb on the tank to supplement.

Sure, the more natural sunlight the better. It's good you have the uvb bulb also to make up for lost time outside. I try to give my dragons all 7 of them at least 30 minutes a day on nice days. Gets tricky when you got males and females. got to have seperate outside enclosures for them so I alternate through the group of them. I also provide mercury vapor uvb lights in there inside enclosures for days I can't get them out in the sun. I heard that 30 minutes of unfiltered sunlight is like equal to 14 hours under a reptisun 5.0. Don't take that as a science though, just what I've heard.

I bought one of those mercury vapor UVB bulbs (T-Rex UV Heat) but ended up returning it. Too many warnings all over the box and in the instructions. I was afraid of burning my dragon with the amount of UV those things put out.

The natural sun gives off a hell of a lot more ultra violet light. Just got to make sure when using it you provide them with a shaded spot so if wanted they can get away from it. I've used these bulbs both the 160 and 100 watt bulbs for over a year now. Never had a problem with my dragons, or iguana. Actually saw a great improvement after using them. Just can't put these lights over a 20gal and expect to have a proper heat gradient. All my tanks are 4x2x2 have one 3x2x2 just got to make sure they have a hide, and the bulb is atleast 18 inches away. For these size tanks I use the powersun 100 watt. For my Iguana who has a 4x3x4 cage I use the 160 watt. But given that you take yours outside for a good amount of time you personally don't need such a hefty bulb. What you are doing now is plenty sufficient if you are also supplememting with calcium with vit d atleast 3 times a week for adults, daily for babies to juvis.

He is in a 20 gallon right now. But then again he is only 2 months old. LOL. I use the ReptoCal calcium and vitamin supplement. I dust his crickets and mealworms with it every other day (I'll start doing that daily now). He also eats veggies daily and Jurassi Diet BD pellets daily. Looks like I'll keep doing what I am now and just increase the amount of times he gets dusted food.
Now if I could only get him to drink from a bowl it would be great (any suggestions). So far he will only drink when I mist his head. Won't even drink if I put him in a bowl of water up to his shoulders for a dip.

yeah same with all mine won't drink from standing water either. Got to mist them too.