How long is dangerous?

[symphonica]

I was just wondering how long is too long for these guys to go without a UVB bulb. My friend is house sitting right now, and the house has a "cham with horns" (I'm assuming a Jackson?). The friend has no idea about chams. Anyways, he was concerned because the chameleon's light burned out. I managed to be able to figure out that it's the UVB, not the heat. The house owners are coming home Sunday night. The light burned out this morning. So, that would be just about 2 full days without a UVB. The chameleon sounds to be young and newly acquired, maybe 3-4 months old? Should my friend go out and get him a new bulb? Or would he be okay until his owners return on Sunday. Assuming they won't be able to get a bulb until Monday at the earliest, I guess we had better call it 3 days without UVB. His only reluctance is that he knows nothing about this, so he would have to disassemble the light fixture from the set-up to bring the whole thing to the pet store with him, to make sure they help him to find the correct bulb for the fixture.

How long can they go without a UVB?

And, do babies tend to need more or less UVB than adults?

 

[fluxlizard]

They can go quite a while.

You are right- babies need more than adults.

Remember vit d is fat soluble and stored in the body. That is the big health issue with full spectrum light- vit d from the UVB.

So, if the chameleon is already loaded up, it takes a significant amount of time for levels to go down for adults.

But babies are smaller, so they store less. Also their metabolism tends to be higher and growth pulls calcium and d3 out of them faster.

Still- 2-3 days should not be a problem for a 4 month old. If it was shipped it would probably go nearly that long...

 

[symphonica]

Great, thank you. I'll let him know not to worry about it. He'll be relieved, as he was so paranoid about killing their animals while house sitting.

 

[Restricted E]

Great, thank you. I'll let him know not to worry about it. He'll be relieved, as he was so paranoid about killing their animals while house sitting.

Hopefully the UVB didn't "run out" before the bulb burned out... I'm sure the Cham will be fine until the owners get back though.

 

[misshissingroaches]

horned chams are called jacksons. u were correct.

 

[symphonica]

He just said it was a cham with horns. There are a few with horns, but figured it was the most common of them - Jackson's. Kinda doubted that they had a deremensis.