Reptile & Amphibian Forums

does ne one know where u can get a nice looking wallpaper of grasslands or some kind of picture that resembles a tegus natural habitat? im gettin a baby tegu and im trying to make the enclosure as close looking to its natural habitat as possible. since its a baby the enclosure would only be temporary, 55 gallon long tank. i have in mind wat the setup is gonna be in there im jus curious if there r ne wallpaper for the background or am i gonna have to "stitch" up my own in Photoshop.
also does ne one have ne idea if a reptisun 10.0 would be to much for a tegu or should i use two of those bulbs to be safe?

Sorry, I don't know about the backgrounds. I've seen backgrounds at pet shops that are desert and jungle themes.

A Reptisun 10.0 is a bit much for a tegu. Too much UV is not always a good thing as it can lead to skin and eye problems. However, ReptiSun products are safe and have not had the problems that other bulbs have had. Personally, I would stick with a 5.0. The animals that are designed to have a 10.0 have much thicker skin, like uros, beardies, tortoises.

I place my UV tube lights in a kitchen light fixture from Home Depot and hang it over the side of the tank so that it is on the inside. By doing it this way, the UV is 12-14 inches from the lizard and it is not being filtered out by the screen. If you just place it on the top of the lid, much of the UV will be filtered out by the screen and the rest will dissipate over distances greater than 14 inches or so.

One light should be fine if it is placed near his basking spot. Mine bask in one spot of their enclosures and one light is fine. If you find that he is all over the tank, then another light might be needed.

I have found that my tegus have a short basking time compared to my other lizards. Tegus like to burrow and hide, so they don't have a lot of UV exposure. I make sure that I use a quality vitamin/calcium supplement and I like to put my lizards outside regularly for some natural sunlight.

Good luck with your tegu!

Thanks for your in put, i was just curious because the site i go on and the brand site don't really give alot of info on the bulbs. do you know anything about mega-ray bulbs?

The mega ray serises is a great bulb but unless your going to use the 60wat with and exterior balister u'll have yo wait till you get a bigger cage. These bulbs are no joke they have to be a min hight of 12" from the animal any closer and it could give ur tegu a too high does of UV. In and adult tank they are perfect though becuase u dont have to do the Florecent light and a heat light its all one.

There is some controversy about the Mega-Ray bulbs. While they are convenient and have great UV output, more is not always better. There are some serious health risks associated with mercury vapor bulbs if they are used incorrectly. Some people feel they are too much even when used correctly. If you equate the use of MV bulbs to the sun at noon-time (max UV output), you have to remember that the sun isn't always at peak output.

That said, some people use them and enjoy them. I think they are a risk for eye and skin damage. It's really a matter of personal preference.

they are finding this to be true with almost all UV bulbs that some are made to put out way too much UV. its not limited to just Vapor Murcery bulbs but also UV bulbs. I don't remember which brand it was (i have an idea but i dont want to put a company down and be wrong later) But they recalled many florecent bulbs becuase it was cause eye problems in turtles and beardies (two species people think of when it comes to high UV tolerance). Its not the sytle of bulb but the company that dictates the UV output. ReptileUV (yes the makers of Mega Ray) have posted an independant study done of different type of UV bulbs and thier helath affects on reptiles. They found that 3 types of Florecent bulbs and two other MV bulbs caused UV issues due to too high of UV output.

Megaray was not one of them. I wasn't too interested in the florecens as they didnt work too well for my tegu. When he has little he was fine but moving him into a bigger cage even with two 48" florecents wasn't enough. I put in one megaray and i noticed his appite picked up and so did his color.

I guess my main point is, which ever style florecent or mv just check to see what other peoples experiance is with the Brand, not so much the bulb style.

Oh ya last thing... always fallow the directions that the manufactorer puts on the box. Megaray tells people it must be 12" way and that is too make sure the animal is not exposed to noon time UV constantly. Most instances of health problems come when people place this bulbs in close proxcimity to thier reptiles.

Thanks, I may have used the MegaRay name brand for the word MV bulb, if you know what I mean. It's kind of like Xerox is a brand, but people call the copy machine the Xerox machine.

Yes, I had experience with a particular brand of fluorescent that was recalled in 2007 for putting out UVC along with UVA and UVB. I rehabbed two baby beardies that had terrible eye and skin problems (PKC). Fortunately, they are doing much better now.

The debate surrounding MV bulbs is not so much that they put out UVC, they are just high output. I have heard a lot of people had a lot of success with them and their lizards. Personally, I'm on the fence.

Here's a link:
http://www.anapsid.org/maincaptive.html#lite

Ya normaly i would think a MV bulb would be way over kill. But for a large animal like a tegu or monitor that does need UV output, there really is nothing better. But for animals that are kept in anything smaller then a 55 gallon tank i would never recomend such a high strengh bulb. Really they're designed for large enclousers (not tanks).