New Reptile UVB Site in Develpoment...

Howdy,

The site listed below is being developed by a dedicated team of reptile keepers who have been doing extensive testing etc. around UVB related issues. Their findings are being reported in various publications. Their website is still under construction but it is already chocked full of info. This is really good stuff. This kind of work continues to lift the fog away from UVB.

http://www.uvguide.co.uk

As a side note to keeping your chameleon healthy over the long haul, many new articles have been coming out lately about UVB. For chameleons, it looks like the ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 positioned 6"-12" away from where your chameleon basks for UVB is one of the better solutions to meeting his UVB requirements artificially. But it's still hard to beat 4 to 8+ hours of direct sunlight a week! And for those of you who can keep your critter outside all day, what a difference in the electric bill!!

The numbers that seem to matter the most are the lamp's D3 Index. Right now, Mfgrs don't publish that data or much else of any use for that matter. That may change. Once you have picked out a lamp with a good D3 Index, you can then monitor its performance over its life with a UVB meter or just change it out at around 6 months to be on the safe side. There are MANY tubes that will show nice uW/cm2 output levels but because of their actual UVB spectral wavelength content, the benefit to the animal is minimal. This is because all UVB is not created equal. Depending on exactly which part of the UVB band the energy is coming from, it may either help or hinder the production of vitamin D3.

In addition to the new site listed above, here is one of the sites that I posted months ago that has research posted including the D3 Index chart that I mentioned. You may not see the brand lamp that you are using since the researcher's selection was slanted to fluorescents available in Europe at the time.

http://www.testudo.cc/

Table 4 D3 Index chart:
http://www.saunalahti.fi/toweri/Pages/Table%204.html

Critters like bearded dragons and Iguanas really benefit from higher energy sources like MV lamps. Some studies show that chameleons may not benefit from high levels of artificial UVB like those animals do. That is why many chameleon keepers still choose a Reptisun 5.0 over a higher outputting Mercury Vapor UVB source.

thanks buddy i thought i said it when i read it the other day. very informative. i passed the link on to some other chameleon ownersi know and im sure they will find it usefull. GLO dave
eric

he also you think its possible to get to much uvb? my cages have dual 4ft.
strip light across the top . one bulb i use reptisun 10.0 the other is a 5.0 repti-glow. also each cage has a uva basking. is that ok you think