UVB Question?

[shazz]

I have a zoo med 5.0 tube bulb above my cham's house. I want to make sure everything is ok before I get him.

The bulb is placed in a hood above the mesh on top of his house. Will the mesh cut down a lot of the UVB? is it worth having a small gap in the mesh to make sure enough of the UVB is in the enclosure?

I have a normal bulb for heat which is currently at 27.3 degrees on the basking spot and dry the humidity is 60%

 

[DGray]

not so much

the mesh does block a bit of the light, but its more important that the light be very close for the best effect. Light falls off by the square of the distance...

I don't like my animals to be able to touch the tubes or fixtures, so I like mesh in the way. As long as the lights don't get so warm that they might melt or ignite the mesh, I keep them almost right on top.

 

[Dave Weldon]

double-post...

 

[Dave Weldon]

...zoo med 5.0 tube bulb...

...in a hood above the mesh on top of his house. Will the mesh cut down a lot of the UVB?...

I have a normal bulb for heat which is currently at 27.3 degrees on the basking spot and dry the humidity is 60%

Howdy Sharron,

I am basing my answer on assuming that you have a Zoo Med linear not a compact confused...

If you place it above the screen; as you should, you will loose some UVB. So long as you place it within 6" to 12" from the basking spot, the level of UVB penetrating the screen will be neither severely over or under what is needed for reasonable levels of vitamin D3 synthesis. Notice how I hedged by bet with the word "severely" . There are studies that give us guideline ranges and there is practical experience that confirms sucess over long-term use but since we aren't monitoring each chameleon's internal function, other than its outward healthy appearance, it's still a bit of a guess as to what is optimum.

27.3C is about 81F. That is not an unreasonable body temp for a 3 month-old Panther (maybe a little on the low side...) but probably a little on the low side for a Veiled which often times keepers mention a max of 30C or 85F). More important is how that temp was measured. Digital thermometer probes are good at measuring ambient temps but not so good at understanding the actual body temp of your chameleon (that you're are eventually getting ). Until you have a low-cost infrared temp sensor (many brands and types available. Ex: www.tempgun.com) to measure his actual skin/body temp, use the back of your hand at the basking spot to to take a guess at what his body temp will be. If it feels hot, it is probably too hot. If it feels slightly warm then you probably won't accidentally burn him from excessive basking heat. By the way, if you are going to get an infrared temp sensor, post which one you are looking at and we'll let you know if it is a model that is ok the application . $10-$50 US is adequate.