Okay so im in a bit of a panic. I woke up this morning and noticed that my arcadia uvb bulb had blown. Typical right just as stores are closing for chirstmas. Anyway i did have a back up bulb but it is missing i cant find it for life of me and ive turned my flat upside down looking. Anyway long story short i have ended up buying a reptiglow 10.0 coil bulb by exoterra. Ive heard a lot of negitive things Bout them and know in the past they caused problems but it was the only one availabme on such short notice. I have ordered a new arcadia compact and a backup but obviuosly it wont be delivered until after christmas. My panther is around 6 months now and its located outside his enclosure in a dome on top. Do you guys think he will be okay until the 8th of January or do you think it will cause health problems ? Your help would be greatly appreciated.
coil bulbs
- Thread starter kiwi3333
- Start date
At one time there was a manufacturing problem with the ReptiSun CFL UVB bulbs so that they emitted unsafe levels of UVB and even UVC rays, which corresponded to health problems like eye problems and burns in reptiles. This manufacturing issue was identified and corrected by the manufacturer several years ago and thus we have not seen problems with it since then unless someone unluckily picked up an older bulb from before correction. The ReptiGlo CFL UVB bulbs were never associated with these harmful effects. The linear ReptiGlo or ReptiSun bulbs have never had any health problems associated with them either.
I doubt it will cause problems but keep an eye on your cham while using it. If he starts closing his eyes that may be an indication that it is too strong.
I doubt it will cause problems but keep an eye on your cham while using it. If he starts closing his eyes that may be an indication that it is too strong.
I belong to a tortoise forum. These coil bulbs are always under debate. The majority of us tort keepers will not take the risk. We also recommend everyone that tells us they are using them, to get rid of them ASAP. There are studies out now, that the regular house hold coil bulbs are even causing problems in humans. If it were me, I would not take the chance. This is my opinion, coming from the info I get from the tortoise forum and the experience of tort keepers. I do not have any experience with Cham keepers.
I have seen that opinion on tortoise forums as well. My torts are kept outdoors so I don't have experience with it there. I will say that the chameleon community has not seen problems linked with CFLs specifically for quite some time now and some very respected keepers of sensitive species have been using them for many years without issue. The people that claim they have had problems with them recently have either not been able to provide any evidence to support it, or there were too many other problems with their husbandry that could cause similar symptoms that the bulb could not be identified as the problem.
