How to tell a UV light is still good?

[Ben0918]

Is there any way to tell if a florecent uv light still throws off uv rays?

 

[Ulrich]

You might get a UV meter. I think Zoomed has one.

 

[Alexl]

In my opinion, this one is nice to use at home. It costs about 200 $, but I would not use those cheap UV-radiometer due to measuring faults. Maybe you can buy it together with friends so everyone can check his setup regularly. We got some reptile vets who measure the bulbs or herp groups which buy a solarmeter and lend it to other reptile friends - might be there's something similar in your country.

Solarmeter 6.5 agrees over 95% with the curve of D3-synthesis (which has its maximum at 297 nm). Lots of other UV-radiometers don't, they measure other spectrums of UVB, too. With 6.5, you nearly only get to know if your bulb fits for your chameleon to produce D3 or not. With others, you'll never know whether your bulb emits the right UVB waves. Some bulbs even cause eye problems due to very short UVB waves. Over here it's common to use the UV-Index (result of solarmeter 6.2 divided by the result of solarmeter 6.5... 6.2/6.5) to evaluate terraristic UVB lightning. Natural sunlight has an UVI from 50 to 60. Simply said, UVI under 50 means a higher risk for your animal to get burns. And some bulbs from pet shops have an UVI about 5 to 15... they're known round here to cause conjunctivits.

Take a look at this website, it explains everything about measuring UVB very well. Hope it works with translation.

 

[camimom]

Just assume your UVB bulb has to be replaced every 6-9 months.

If you dont have a solermeter.

 

[ibdragons]

To be safe I put a peice of tape on each lamp with the date of purchase on it and after 9 months (on the powersun bulb) I change it. other brands 6-9 like camimom said .

 

[Alexl]

"Safe" seems to be the wrong word for just changing the bulbs every six or nine months (well, better than leaving the bulb and hoping for luck). There are lots of bulbs on the market which don't emit any UVB at all or not enough for a sun loving lizard, although they're called "UVB bulbs". Most owner supplement their chameleons with calcium and vitamins or bring the animals outside in summer. This can hide a non-working UVB bulb, because chameleons can even live only with vitamine D3 from supplementation. Or with UVB from the sun itself.

 

[The Biologist]

Most owner supplement their chameleons with calcium and vitamins or bring the animals outside in summer. This can hide a non-working UVB bulb, because chameleons can even live only with vitamine D3 from supplementation. Or with UVB from the sun itself.

Is this true? The supplementation part?

 

[Alexl]

Yes, you could keep a chameleon without UVB and supplementing vitamins and minerals instead (vitamine D especially). Some breeders did and unfortunately, some still do so. But it's somewhat difficult not to bring your chameleon into a hypo- or hypervitaminosis then, because noone knows the real exact vitamine demand yet.

In my opinion, it's nothing you should do. Chameleons can see some part of UV-light and UV affects well-beling, reproduction and metabolism - which means UV light is an important part of life for a chameleon. Well, why should you restrain your animal, although you have the opportunity to offer artifical UVB or natural sun light? Some decades ago, there weren't special UVB bulbs for whole day lightning and breeders made their experiences without UVB. No we got those special bulbs - let's use them .