Substituting UVB with D3 Supplements

[BryanaE]

No, I don't do this. I'm not thinking of doing this. And I did not pull this theory out of thin air.

I was talking with someone who has been in steady contact with a pretty well known and respected Bearded Dragon breeder for a little while now. I was told that instead of giving UVB lights, they just supplement with D3 dust because UVB bulbs "muddies up their color and makes it darker" so giving the vitamin to them straight will be sufficient and not mess with their color. I personally have never experienced any negative affects from quality UVB bulbs!

Just thought I'd throw this out there for discussion as I couldn't find anything through search and it really shocked me.

 

[BryanaE]

I did some more hunting and found this thread with the same subject: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=132216&start=0

quote from RedInkAus: The process of turning Ca to usable Vit D3 is not dependant on UVB lights it is dependant on methabolism. You can give a dragon as much UVB and Ca with D3 as you like if the body is not processing it its useless. It is not a question that UVB promotes the production of D3 in dragons from calcium intake, that is fact.
What I am trying to get at is if there is already "inactive" D3 in the diet then there is no need for UVB, just add heat for methabolism and the dragon will use the consumed Ca with D3 for nutrients.

This is what some people down under do and have done so with success for decades. Before the whole mass production of the reptile husbandry industry. People here use to use ground cuttle fish bone for calcium, that is pure natural calcium supplement. Think of its as the canned stuff you get being "mass produced" and the cuttle fish bone as "organic" lol.

 

[ziggy23]

Here are my thoughts, a bit jumbled because I just woke up:

We (and I mean everyone in the world) do not know everything about bearded dragons. Shoot, we don't even know everything about people, and there's a lot more professionals dedicated to figuring us out.

We know they need uv for d3 production, but is that all they need it for? In humans,there are mental illnesses treated with vitamins and light therapy. There could be so much more that we don't know that they need it for.

We can not yet produce a uv bulb as good as the sun. We can not produce vitamin supplements as good as you can get from a varied diet, with people or with anything. And they're supplements, not replacements, because they're not as good as the real thing. There's been a liquid uv supplement out for quite a while, if it was that effective then uv bulbs would be out of the market.

IMO just like with people, you try and provide from a wide variety of sources.