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So which leo owners/breeders use UV???

579 views 16 replies 14 participants last post by  DavidStaffs 
#1 ·
Was reading PRK last night and wondering whether to set some UV up for my collection and just wondered who has UV lighting for their leos and if you do use it what bulbs do you use and what set ups as was thinking would be easy to do in my wooden vivs but couldnt see how it could be done for leos living in rubs.
 
#3 ·
i used to use it, but i dont now and my leos seem fine, BUT i think its good to have one if growing leos dont get much natural light in there vivs/rubs... IMO
 
#4 ·
I use UV in my leo viv, since I work on the basis that you should supply whatever they would have in the wild, and if they want to use it they can.

It's a very low wattage bulb (I can't remember off the top of my head since I'm away long term at the moment so my partner is in charge of the viv).
 
#5 ·
I used uv with many spieces of nocternal gecko, in the wild they still get uv exposure and some sleep in the open. They deffently seemed good for it and egg production was high even in fresh wc stuff such as the leaf tails i used to keep.
 
#7 ·
Funnily enough, I just posted about this in a different thread (about Monitors). I'm becoming convinced that UV is beneficial to all pretty much all reptiles. Since decent UV lights were widely introduced, the incidence of MBD in many lizards has plummeted (nutrobal and other similar supplements must take some of the credit as well).

I have a 5% UV lamp in my Leos viv. I normally use a 2%, but last time I replaced it, they didn't have one available. That said, the viv is quite tall and the light is on the roof, so a 5% is possibly better in this set-up anyway.
 
#8 ·
This is a great point!

Uv decreases in power massively the further from the lamp light travels! A 2% lamp is only really suitable with the all important reflector in vivs no higher than 15". If you viv is higher then a more powerful lamp must be used to compensate for the increased height versus output.

All lamps have inbuilt technicalogical limitations. This is just one of them

So here's the question, would I ever reccomend the use of D3+ 12% UVB high output T5 lamps and reflectors with leos? 100% yes! If the viv was four foot high! :)

The best way of being certain is to measure the uv. As part of our new site launching in march you will be able to type in your species and viv height and we will tell exactly what lamp you need to recreate the wild exposure as best as tech allows.

So for a Leo I would want to see 40-50uw/cm2 at the basking point, dropping
off to 10-20uw/cm2 in the low shaded point.

Join our facebook for early updates.

I hope this is helpful

John
 
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#11 ·
I have a low level UV tube (2%) in my leos viv, as recommended by the vet. Also my viv was quite gloomy in the day so this brightens it up.

In the wild they would expose themselves to low level uv at dawn and dusk (when they hunt for food) so putting in a UV would only replicate what they have in the wild. It would do no harm (unless you have an albino). Its been shown that it you put one in a leo will expose them to it so can only benefit.

No higher than 5% should be used.
 
#12 ·
I used to breed Leo's and never used uv gotta say it's clearly not necessary , maybe views have changed but I was always told it was a bad thing , I had a large collection of about 50 all decent morphs at the time I had bold striped bandits , bell albino supr snows, super giant raptors and all sorts and it was a few year ago
 
#13 ·
I don't use UV, never have, mine just get natural sunlight in the room they're in x
 
#15 · (Edited)
mine are all in viv exotic lx's and yes we use arcadia 2.0 but will soon be changing all my rep vivs to the t5's with reflecters but dont know if i will use t5 for my leos as i dont know if it will be too strong. most of my geckos come out an hour before the lights go out so they get abit of uv and would have thought they might do this in the wild.


no they dont need uv but will benifit from it. either or ither
 
#17 ·
Thanks for everyone's comments ........... Just a bit of info on me I'm a qualified veterinary nurse, currently studying for my certificate in nursing of exotic species and have a degree in zoology so I'm well aware of the pros and cons ..... I'm also aware that there are plenty of leos living perfectly healthy lives with uv and I'v kept leos for nearly 10 years now never with uv but it's something I've been pondering for a while and was just interested to see who used it really and what, if anything, they think their leos have benefited from it ............ please feel free to keep commenting people as I think it's an interesting subject to hear peoples views on.........
 
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