Hi, Frank Indiviglio here. I’m a herpetologist, zoologist, and book author, recently retired from a career spent at several zoos, aquariums, and museums, including over 20 years with the Bronx Zoo.
We’ve long known that many reptiles need Ultra Violet B (UVB) light exposure in order to manufacture Vitamin D3. Vitamin D3, which is essential for proper calcium uptake, is also present in many foods, and some reptiles can utilize it in this form. However, there are some gray areas. It seems that reptiles long considered incapable of using dietary D3 (and which therefore need UVB light exposure), can sometimes obtain D3 from their diet (please see chameleon and day gecko articles linked below). Generalizations can be misleading – for example, the study summarized below shows that two anole species sharing the same habitat obtain D3 in very different ways. Read the rest of this article here
http://bit.ly/1ewqfrm
Please also check out my posts on Twitter
http://bitly.com/JP27Nj and Facebook
http://on.fb.me/KckP1m
My Bio, with photos of animals I’ve been lucky enough to work with:
http://bitly.com/LC8Lbp
Best Regards, Frank
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