Uvb exposure?

BubbaVeiled

Member
Hey all. Bubba's Uvb light broke two weeks ago. I JUST got him a new one today. (Ordered one that got in the mail last week and it came defective :)) it's a 36 inch T5 HO with 5.0 bulb. So basically my green lad has been without his Uvb light for 2 weeks. He looked really excited when I put the new one up and the light came on. Just stopped and looked around a lot. Now he is perched at the top of his cage sitting directly under the bulb. He's been doing it for like an hour or two. Is this to compensate for his lack of bulb over the past two weeks? Is this alright? Or should I try to get him to come down? He has a lot of spots to hide from the light, but I don't know if it's good or not for him to be sitting right under it.
 
This is him right now chilling. (I know fake plants are bad. Will be removing them when I get strand ledges)
 

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Approximately how close is he to the light? You either need to A) Raise the light a bit or B) Lower the branches under the light. Your cham getting super close to the light will not be beneficial as he won't "make up" the lost time under the uvb. He needs a UVI of 3 (or a tad higher).

When he is in close proximity to the uvb bulb and receiving high amounts of uvb, it can be damaging to the skin/scales/eyes. There is also risk for snow blindness. Too much uvb is damaging (i.e extreme uvi levels). You should have the uvb fixture at the recommended distance. If it is close enough to the recommended distance, then he should be fine. If he is only a couple of inches away, you need to somehow increase the distance between him and the light. Imagine not getting any sun for a couple of weeks. And to make up for this discrepancy, you expose yourself to uvi 50 instead of uvi 3-7, you are going to get burned. Of course, chams are biologically different to humans, but they still get damaged in a similar fashion when exposed to high uvi levels.

One day shouldn't be harmful, but you should increase the distance between him and the bulb, at the latest, at the end of the day. You don't want to forget about the distance or let him be exposed to high uvi levels for two weeks to make up for the two weeks he had without uvb.
 
He is like an inch or two away from it. He literally never used to do that when he was younger. Just started today with the new light. How would you recommend increasing distance? Is there a special thing I can get to raise the lamp fixture or is it a diy kinda thing?
 
Yeah, it's a DIY kind of thing. The easiest method might just be lowering the branches under the fixture.

You could rig up up a pvc frame that sits ontop of the cage to get some added distance. I have some other ideas on how to achieve this but I would need to create a build guide to help explain it easier.
 
Oh yeah, I forgot about that article! I agree with the concept for outdoor use. But when uvb exposure is provided via linear bulb, I think it is risky. Uvb fixtures are fundamentally different from the sun (method of uv in article). UV exposure by artificial light can change drastically within a couple inches. Whereas the sun changes very little within a large distance.

I'm not quite sure how well the panther's uv detection abilities are developed. Sure, evolution has given them this ability, but then again they didn't evolve under uvb lights where several inches can mean uvi 50.

Just my thoughts. Don't know if they are valid or not. I'll let @kinyonga be the judge.
 
Yeah, it's a DIY kind of thing. The easiest method might just be lowering the branches under the fixture.

You could rig up up a pvc frame that sits ontop of the cage to get some added distance. I have some other ideas on how to achieve this but I would need to create a build guide to help explain it easier.
 
I use curtain rods. The 24 inch ones to sit stuff on top of cage so stuff not sitting on screen keeps light inch and half off screen
 
Maybe they were thinking about mbd? To some people, mbd looks like a neurological issue if the cham gets shaky, can't hold itself up, and misfires its tongue due to a warped hyoid bone. Of course, mbd takes longer than 2 weeks to set in and cause serious issues.

@kinyonga, do you know of an article that gives an approximate time frame as to how fast mbd develops without proper uvb?

@Beman you're back?!?! :love: ;)
 
This is him right now chilling. (I know fake plants are bad. Will be removing them when I get strand ledges)
Is that a T5 or T8? Maybe it’s just the picture, or your Cham is still pretty small
It looks wider than a 5/8 inch wide T5 🤷‍♂️
T5’s are skinny little things, it just looks bigger
Just curious because it will make a fairly large difference in the UVB penetration and output into your enclosure
 
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