Reptile & Amphibian Forums

While talking to a friend of mine, the subject of lighting came up, I've always stuck to using lighting to make up for the vitamins that they would be getting from the sun if they were in the wild, although my friend mentioned that he uses vitamin supplements instead of lighting. The way I see it is that IF this works just as well, then it will be considerably cheaper, and I wont have to worry about bulbs losing their effectiveness. Has anyone else heard of people doing this (or done it themselves?) If so, how effective was it and would you recomend it? Also which vitamin supplements will I be looking for?

The supplements are useless without the exposer to ultra-violet lighting. I would suggest using the reptisun 5.0 by Zoomed.

There are a lot of people that try that, they buy vitamins with D3, which is the vitamin produced by laying in the sun. However, it is risky, you can give your reptile too much or too little, either way causes health problems. Nobody knows what is the right amount, because ingested D3 is not the same as absorbing it through the skin.

The only safe way to know your reptile is getting proper amount of D3 is to give them calcium and let them produce D3 themselves, in the sun or under a UVB bulb.
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A mans got to do what a mans got to do. A woman has to do what he can't.

Mom to:

1 little boy born 7/19/04
2 male RES, born 1999
1 ribbon snake, age unknown
3 FBT, ages unknown
1 female bearded dragon, born 5/2002
1 male lab mix, born 5/24/03
1 female calico cat, born 6/7/04

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sig file edited 1/29/05 [phw]

yeah, I don't remember (threw out the packaging) but I'm pretty sure that's the bulb I'm currently using, or something like it, either way, in terms of what I'm using as vitamin supplements, I have been giving him a D3 supplement mixed with a multi vitamin, roughly a mix of 75% multi vitamin and 25% D3. (not entirely sure on that mix, but it is roughly around there) Anyways, it just now occures to me, is giving him the D3 supplement combined with the light too much D3? Or is this acceptable for him, since bulbs do tend to lose their effectiveness over time.

His body won't produce any D3 if he is getting enough from his food. So, the bulb can't hurt him.
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A mans got to do what a mans got to do. A woman has to do what he can't.

Mom to:

1 little boy born 7/19/04
2 male RES, born 1999
1 ribbon snake, age unknown
3 FBT, ages unknown
1 female bearded dragon, born 5/2002
1 male lab mix, born 5/24/03
1 female calico cat, born 6/7/04

____

sig file edited 1/29/05 [phw]

I would stick with using the UV lighting, I actually use both the vitamins as well as the lighting, however they do not get vitamins every day, especially now when they are sleeping more, but here in the next month I will probably increase the calsium, usually with "pinkies" as well as use the lighting,cuz the females will need this once they start their "corting" if you wanna call it that! But my all time favorite thing to do, is come summer time I will take my beardies outside and sun bathe with them for at least 15 min. or until they let me know they have had enough, nothing beats the real thing!!
3 schnauzers-Taz, Tramp,Cassie
2 cats- JoJo, Gus
3 birds-bird, charlie,peety
1hedgehog-snickers
2 beardies-Hanzel,Gretel
1 hamster-sammy
3 hermit crabs-larry,curly,moe
9 goldfish in a pond- no names
let see who am I leaving out, oh yeah
1 husband and three kids!

I recently read an artical on reptile rooms.com, about the effects of UV lighting. A group of hatchling bearded dragons had been raised by well respected breeders without the use of UV. They were then put into an environment with UV lighting and nearly doubled in size and weight within a week!! Need I say any more? Obviously there are more benifits than just the levels of UVB, theres the intestity of light and UVA which both stimulate normal behaviour, especialy feeding. We raise hatchlings under 8% UVB tubes and suppliment with a product called Nutrobal made by Vetark, It is a high potency calcium, D3 and multi vitimin with a cah of 42:1. On consultaion with an experienced herp vet, infact the centre are avian and exotic pet specialists, we suppliment hatchlings daily with that product.

heres the problem with that. ur supposed to be using both UVB lighting and supplements. I use the T-rex bearded dragon supplements. and i also use reptocal for beadies occasionally.
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sincerely,
Jonathan D. de Kluyver
JDDK Reptiles
Quality Reptiles and Amphibianswww.jddkreptiles.com