How to make Crested's Colors Vivid (?)

Hi!

Just curious--is there anything special that I can do for my crested gecko to make his colors more vivid? The dude at the pet shop mentioned something about UV lighting and the gecko's colors, but he wasn't sure about it. Is there a vitamin, a light, or anything that I can do that will improve his coloring?

Thanks!

-Mico

UV lighting will make your Cresteds look better - but only because the light is closer to that of actual sunlight. BUT - Crested Geckos are very dull and drab during the day.

To see your Crested Geckos in their most vivid color, view them late at night.

That UV lighting makes a gecko look nicer is a misconception.

The part of light that stimulates color is the CRI (color rendering index) and intensity of light. Some UV producing bulbs have a very low CRI and intensity rating. Look for high quality, full spectrum (which does not necessarily mean UV producing) lights.

Diet can also influence color production. This is widely theorized and poorly documented. I am sure more and more will begin to show up about this area of color production in the future.

Leann, do you know of any good lights by name ?

What type of "good" lights are you looking for....purpose for the lights, etc.

Originally Posted by Barbouri

That UV lighting makes a gecko look nicer is a misconception.

The part of light that stimulates color is the CRI (color rendering index) and intensity of light. Some UV producing bulbs have a very low CRI and intensity rating. Look for high quality, full spectrum (which does not necessarily mean UV producing) lights.

Anything that you are speaking of.

Diet can also influence color production. This is widely theorized and poorly documented. I am sure more and more will begin to show up about this area of color production in the future.

Could you possibly give an example of diet influencing color production in Crested Geckos? I can't think of anything that would be good for them, and enhance color.

That UV lighting makes a gecko look nicer is a misconception.

Ok - I'll rephrase. For the purpose of taking photos of your Crested Geckos, a flourescent UVB light will provide a more accurate representation of your animals (much better than using the flash on your camera). While the UVB itself may not cause the animal to "color up", the light produced from the bulb will allow your eye (or your camera's) to see more color in the animal, rather than washing the colors out.

To bring out color (which is helpful for photography, too), bulbs whose primary purpose is for UV production are not always best -- their energy is directed to producing the invisible UV rays and not visible light (which is most important for photography). I am not saying that all UV producing lights are bad for photography but that there are lights that are better to take pictures with. Why not use those lights?

For me, I use three type of lights for my photography: Daylight fluorescents, camera flash, or early morning sunlight. Daylight fluorescents have CRI 90-99 (sunlight is 100) and color temperature of cool or daylight near 5000 Kelvins, and high intensity which I get from T8 and T5 bulbs. Most other fluorescents (shop lights, kitchen fluorescents) wash out colors and are terrible in photography. I like flash photography and outdoor pictures in the morning.

For great color rendering, I use Philips F25T8/TL841. These are the bulbs I keep my day geckos under to stimulate color production, or the Philips F32T8/TL841. If you have the right set-up, you can't beat the Philips Silhouette High Output F45T5/841HO! My show display uses these lights and when I turn them out, it seems as if the whole room goes dark. I am bragging on all these lights because that was the original point of the thread. The offshoot is these bulbs work in my photography.

I am okay as a photographer. Someone else could probably do better in advising in that area. What I do know is lighting. The book is "Day Geckos In Captivity" published by Living Art Publishers. You can find it at my website, daygecko.com, or beanfarm.com or Amazon.com or other places.

The Chameleon folks have been working on diet and color for sometime - here is a link to a diet intended to help: http://www.adcham.com/html/husbandry/gutload.html