UV heat lamp

[doodlelou]

So I am in the process of adopting a 2 year old beardie from our local pet rescue. His foster dad contacted me and told me all about the beardie and his set up, feeding schedule, etc. One thing that I'm not sure about is that he said I would need to invest in a high quality UV heat lamp since that serves both his lighting and heat needs. I was under the impression that I would need a flourescent UVB bulb AND only a heat source on one side of the tank so the other side stays cool but still gets the UVB from the long UVB bulb. Can you enlighten me? Thanks. Dana

 

[jharris08]

this is a popular topic right now lol...check out some other posts on here, but I will tell you that yes the best thing is to have a UVB bulb and another bulb just for heat...UV bulbs dont produce enough heat for a basking temperature, and some of the MVB (mercury vapor bulbs) that produce UV rays and heat are unsafe for dragons, so I would just stay away from them. theres an article by Drache613 at the top of this forum about MVB research.
repti-sun 10.0 is the best UVB bulb to have and then use basking bulbs from the pet store or plain incandescent light bulbs to get the desired temp in the basking spot of around 100-110 F