Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This post should be in highlights…

How very true, been posting about this elsewhere but peoples just don’t want to see this, it seems they are programmed to consume the UV bulbs and other useless gimmicks.

The pet trade is a sick puppy, even my best friend a 30 year of hole sell once looked at me and said ( I don’t care if the lizard dies, I will sell an other and accessories too)

Importation use to be a gamble thing, sometime you lose a shipment other times you get a good one, of course we the consumers have always paid for the dead animals one way or an other. However sins the arrival of the products industries, importers are thriving, they are not interested in obtaining your CBB anymore, why would they?

Doing so will make them lose profit and affect there import relation, its much more interesting for them to make large orders, this allows to save money and gives them buying power.

How silly is it? well try to supply a hole seller and see for yourself, a handful of any type of reptiles will bring you less then what they pay for imports of the same specie.

Publishers and reptile mag’s will not publish you if you don’t sell products, to say UV’s are not needed or this product is useless is a one way ticket to oblivion, forget about being published not in North America or Europe. They say this industries is flourishing because of the products, maybe! But the animals are still dieing in numbers.

In fact it seems like we have made no progress whatsoever when it comes to import quotas, this can only mean we are killing as much today as we did decades ago, this regardless of the millions$ invested in veterinarians and specialty products.

Wow this sure takes away my pride of working with animals.

Link

/agree

I've got an uncle who owns a pet store here, and I remember when he first opened it about 10 years ago, I overheard him say 'Yeah the hamster is only 10$, but I'll be making 300$ on all the accessories they'll buy for it.'

That's the common thinking of a seller, in my opinion.

I also don't use UVB lights, as I met a chameleon guru several years ago, whose fascinating collection of dozens of species of chameleons and rare lizards got me into reptiles, and he didn't use UVB and was one of the most revered chameleon breeders in North America at the time.

I have a female veiled chameleon who is seven years old now, going on eight, in perfect health, and has lived without a UVB bulb for 90% of her life. I did use one when she was a month old.

If anyone knows anything about veiled chemeleons here, the life expectancy of females is 3-5 years. The fact mine has lived for 7 without UVB tells me how much consumerism and propaganda is involved with the reptile hobby.

I also attribute her longevity to useing reverse osmosis water as opposed to tap water. I sell reverse osmosis water filtration systems, and know a heck of a lot about water quality, and there is NO tap water in the world that is good for you in any way. I know that the dart frog hobbyists are known for attributing much success to reverse osmosis water, and I'd like to think that is a major factor in my veiled chameleon's lifespan.

Okay, sorry if I'm not understandiing your message fully, but I take it you stated that Uv lights are not neccisary for good health.

I believe that. But, are you saying that indancesant bulbs are better? I use two Uv bulbs and an indancesant bulb (for a basking lamp).

Now, money is no object. I don't care if I'm making someone rich or not, as long as I am buying what I want. And since (not sins) I have quite a few living plants and I like the look of florecent lighting I figure I should use them. Plus you here the Uv is good for the reptiles themselves.

So,would you say I should not use the Uv, or are you just trying to point out the "scam" part of Uv lights. Like I said, money is (almost) no object to me.

Creative title by the way...
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Ryan

If you want to use UV lights, that's no problem at all.

I use cheap UV lights on a few of my cages for aesthetic qualities. I like the look, basically.

Here in Canada, UVB reptile flourecent bulbs are about 30$ a pop, and are recommended to be replaced every 6 months.

Compared to usual UV lights that are a dollar or less, that's a big difference, and with little to no difference in health and quality in the reptiles.

The point, in my mind, is that no artificial lights can compare to the Sun itself, not even come to a close second. I'd recommend bringing your diurnal reptiles out into the Sun once a week in the hotter months, and supplementing once a week with D3 in the other months. They'll be perfectly fine with half an hour or an hour of exposure once a week.

The best thing you can do, if you want the benefit of the Sun, is make a very cheep and practical screen cage for outdoor use only. All you do is get a desired length of screen, make it into a tube, and cover the top and bottom with screen or wood (on top for shade), add a plant in there and you're set. Make sure not to leave in 100% sun, always provide some shade for thermoregulation.

Other than that, sure, use UV lights at your own discretion. No problem with that at all.

np