Internal fluorescent lighting

dragonbreeder

New Member
Does anyone use bulbs such as reptisun 5.0 inside their chameleon cages? The reason I ask is that I use one inside my chondro enclosure, located in top front so you cannot see it, but the cage is illuminated excellently. This method shows your animals colors much better than when the bulb is in a hood on top of the cage. For safely, rubber end caps are used (from aquarium dealers), so humidity do not cause issues. The bulbs do not get hot either.

I have not heard of anyone trying this in their chameleon enclosure and was looking to see if anyone out there has tried this.
 
Since when do Reptisun bulbs not get hot to the touch? Have you tried using a lazer heat gun to measure contact temperature? I recall heating something very surprising and have burned myself with T5s several times.
 
Yes, my heat gun rates the bulb at about 100 -105 degrees. My chondro used to perch on it when he was younger and was never burnt. Now he is too wide to perch on the bulb as it is close to the cage wall.

Using the appropriate clamps and rubber end caps, such a bulb could be placed up in the front-upper corner of a cage. For instance, if you have a front swinging door it would go inside and above the door. As long as it is positioned behind a wood support beam, for example, and close to the cage top (the clamps are about 2 inches out), then it will not be visible to a person looking into the enclosure, and a medium size cham would not be able to climb onto it.

I am in the process of building a new cham cage now and the thought has crossed my mind, but I am not sure yet if I would actually use this configuration with chameleons.

All of my cages have always been mesh, but this one will be just a bit different. All walls with the exception of the front will still be mesh. However, the upper front wall will not have an opening door, it will be configured with sliding glass doors on the wood frame. Above the doors there will be a 5 foot X 2 inch X 4 inch beam. If I were to add an internal reptisun bulb, it would go above the glass doors, clamp-mounted on the inside of this beam. This would really illuminate the enclosure, and the glass doors will allow maximum viewing capability while the remaining 4 walls will allow 100 percent air flow.

Just a thought...
 
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