Another New Article: Newbies Guide: Lighting Help!

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beardie

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Hey everyone... for the longest time, people have asked about turning one of the posts on our forums into an article. Jess had done a fantastic job of putting together a Q&A that addresses many of the most common and important questions people have about heating and lighting for our bearded dragons!

Well! Here it is! It may have taken a while, but it has now been made available as an official article on the site! Check it out!

http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/newbies-guide-lighting-help/

Thank you Jess!
 

jarich

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I wonder if it would be possible to correct just a couple points. Its overall a very helpful article and good to have easily accessible, but could use just a bit of tweeking since its for new people.

The Arcadia and Zoomed high output T5 fluorescents only need to be changed once a year, and should be mounted no closer than 12" from the dragon. These are some of the advantages of the newer high output technology. The older style normal output T8s are the ones that require changing every six months and the close mounting. Brands like Zilla and Exoterra fluorescent tube lights are not considered dangerous, merely not as good at producing as much UVB as the ZooMed or Arcadia brands.

In the section about mounting it states that you should mount the light to back wall of your enclosure, which is not good. The evolutionary adaptations of dragons (like most animals) are such that the eyes are protected from above, where the normal UV comes from. They have no protection from UV radiation coming from a source shining from the side, ie mounted to the side/back of the enclosure. Any UV light that shines directly into their eyes is potentially harmful, so lights should always be mounted directly to the top of the enclosure. (and no, a bright light next to it does not really do anything to protect their eyes from this damage other than restrict the pupil) Mounting it to the top will ensure that they receive the benefits of the light on their skin, but do not have the harmful exposure to their sensitive eyes.

I think it might also be helpful to add that a reflector mounted in the fixture will increase the UV exposure of the lizard by a significant amount (about 1/2 to 2/3 more) as it reflects the light from the back and sides of the bulb downwards. Adding this allows the light to be mounted much further away as a result.
 

beardie

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I'll have to check with the author for the article about any changes. She's currently pretty busy with real-life stuff.

Thanks for the feedback and info.
 
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