Vitamins and Lighting

[Bruce Wayne]

Kind of confused here. I have read conflicting reports on giving whether to give her D3 supplements in addition to the proper UVB lighting. Some have said the proper lighting will provide all the D3 the dragon needs, and others have stated you should do both. This is my setup.

Arcadia ProT5 12% UVB Bulb With Hood

She is about 4 months old , in a 40 gallon tank.

 

[Rubble1212]

I’ve also heard both sides of this as well. Just to give you my experience with it, my dragon has been on Arcadia t5’s 12%& 14% most of his life and I’ve only used sticky tongue farms calcium without D3 his whole life. He’s 4 years old and super healthy(slightly overweight lol ). Just my two cents? I don’t know any of the science technical jargon behind why or why not but it’s my understanding that D3 provided by Arcadia lighting is more naturally used by their body than supplemental D3?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I’ve also heard both sides of this as well. Just to give you my experience with it, my dragon has been on Arcadia t5’s 12%& 14% most of his life and I’ve only used sticky tongue farms calcium without D3 his whole life. He’s 4 years old and super healthy(slightly overweight lol ). Just my two cents? I don’t know any of the science technical jargon behind why or why not but it’s my understanding that D3 provided by Arcadia lighting is more naturally used by their body than supplemental D3?

Thanks!

 

[Badwolfe]

I use an Arcadia Pro T5 light but do also supplement D3 2 days a week with a multivitimin. The other 5 days I just dust with a calcium only powder.

The 2 day supplement is just used as a 'buffer' and with good UV lighting I would certainly not be using D3 every single day.

As Rubble said metabolized D3 can be much more easily utilized by your dragon than D3 supplied via supplement.