Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is in response to an earlier post in which a keeper ask if they should use UV lighting or the method of providing dietary D3 instead. A first response to the post claimed that fluorescent UV lighting is more natural....

I am one of those top Phelsuma breeders who does not expose my day geckos to artificial UV lighting and instead provides dietary D3. I have been successful in this method for more than 11 years. I am not alone in this.

The benefits of this method is more control over the amount of D3 that a day gecko gets. Artificial UV lighting is just that, artificial -- not natural sunlight. The tubes that produce UV light waves do so with an enormous amount of energy and regretfully can begin to loose their effectiveness as early as 6 months. These bulbs are costly -- much more costly than the very high quality, high lumens, high CRI bulbs that I recommend. Alone, a UV fluorescent light is not enough good quality light to provide a day gecko. A keeper will still need to add a better quality light to stimulate color development and natural behavior to keep their day gecko healthy.

Providing better lighting better simulates what a day gecko really needs - daylight. Providing additional vitamin D3 is easier and safer than most people know. The real risk with day geckos is vitamin A overdose, not calcium or D3.

All this boils down to is a day gecko keeper has a choice. But if one chooses to use UV fluorescents, don't forget to add another high quality fluorescent to provide the lumens and CRI to provide a day gecko needs.

Leann Christenson, author
Day Geckos In Captivity
www.daygecko.com

I agree,

I keep P.m. grandis with virtually no UVB since 20 years and several generations.
To my experience you have to supplement D3 if you use commercially available UVB Bulbs or not.
An a balanced supplementation fully suffices.
Much mor eimportant is the overall ligth intensity.
IMHO every keeper of diurnal lizards should have a luxmeter and monitor light intensities in his enclosures.
For grandis I recommend 20000-40000 Lux at the basking area. To reach this, 70 W metal halides (5-6000K) with a spot reflektor suffice.

Ci@o

Ingo
(also author of a book on day gex

Thank you for the follow up. I didn't want to go into all the details of the alternative of keeping a day gecko without UV lighting or what "quality" light I was talking about but you did point out one of those qualities, which is lumen.

Light qualities day geckos need:
High quality color rendering (color temperature, CRI)
High lumens
Radiant heat
UV (for some keepers going that route)

All this is nearly impossible for one bulb to do which is why day gecko usually require two to three types of lights over their enclosures.

Where can you purchase D3 and how much do you give the geckos? one more question, what are the other bulbs you use called? THanks.

In a normal situation, using UV lighting, Repti-Cal recommends one part Repti-Cal with Vitamin D3 plus one part Herptevite. When keeping day geckos without UV lighting, I use 2 parts Repti-Cal with Vitamin D3 and 1 part Herptevite.

Double the amount of D3. Reduce the vitamin A.