Basking Light Bulb Brands

[Dartthechameleon]

Hello everyone! I am looking for recommendations on basking lightbulbs for my female panther chameleon, dart. I’m currently on my last incandescent 50W lightbulb and am struggling to find more online and in stores.. so much LED.

I’ve seen many people mention Arcadia’s but all I see is a heat projector that does not emit an actual light to help encourage basking. Has anyone ever tried this product?

There is additional plant lighting in the cage, so I’m not worried about brightness, but I would still be worried about her not seeing that light to remind her to bask. Arcadia’s website says the product is typically paired with their halogen bulb, but that seems like it would be too much heat. I’m also not too sure if halogen bulbs are adequate for chameleons?

I appreciate any thoughts and recommendations, thank you!

 

[GrannyK]

Welcome to the forum!!!
I order the flukers 60w basking bulb from chewey or petsmart but others have luck on Amazon. Here is a link for some incandescent.
https://www.amazon.com/Mandala-Craf...8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1
I know led is a no no and some do use halogen, but I am not familiar with with use. I know they give off more heat so caution needs to be taken.
I’d love to see a pic of her. Panthers are so pretty, but I’m not quite up for the egg laying stress. Ha

 

[Dartthechameleon]

Welcome to the forum!!!
I order the flukers 60w basking bulb from chewey or petsmart but others have luck on Amazon. Here is a link for some incandescent.
https://www.amazon.com/Mandala-Crafts-Rough-Service-60-Watt/dp/B09889KKCH/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=U8XMY26450SA&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.j7vAeXGdfBLhtzXHy6w4cl__kArTykFBCctRciAldETaB_9C3NJVRcdrZWHwUAtM6eElUX5fqj_ExYfSwOV4GgQNvWRJN_aEiWN0zCePmXlNGj759f25QMkaSZfgwEGqt4X30akRvpYdXLO2ESHleEqwvbjFByGU1KpH2O93mCwLOxlfNBrsQen6DqKRxebmpJo6MvUzQhih1msWGw180W6qZLOxSi1KkG2xKoaZhaC6YtxeG6YteAarCDhphDbudHP72gub69eMmMnUUZNkwIRyHoPKDxLYsuYLmIMP3C8.9ZUboh7I0glNb8TYteEALpbnuznzRFNTfN4NhqbY3e0&dib_tag=se&keywords=incandescent+light+bulbs+60+watt&qid=1725474902&sprefix=Inca,aps,118&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1
I know led is a no no and some do use halogen, but I am not familiar with with use. I know they give off more heat so caution needs to be taken.
I’d love to see a pic of her. Panthers are so pretty, but I’m not quite up for the egg laying stress. Ha

Thank you so much for the advice!! I don’t know why, but over the years I’ve been struggling more and more to find the incandescent so this much appreciated!!

Here’s my pretty gal she’s three years old, and the friendliest little cham there ever was! The breeder we got her from sold us her premature so we thought we were getting a male… we were definitely stressed at the beginning thinking of the egg laying, but there’s so much good resources here and online to help, so it’s not too bad.

 

[GrannyK]

I did the same with lighting, I went into panic when I heard about incandescent lights being banned in places or something and bought like 8 now I’m like oh I didn’t have to do that but lol oh well now I have them.
Females are so underrated. She is just beautiful so many colors. I love the pinky purple in them. Thanks for sharing her!!!

 

[GrannyK]

Did she lay eggs for you? If so how did it go? I’m so stressed even thinking about it. That’s why I have not taken the female plunge. I know you got thrown into it haha but sounds like she’s in great hands with her people.

 

[MissSkittles]

What a beautiful little lady! To simplify my life a little, I’ve switched from buying regular incandescent bulbs to the reptile branded ones like Fluker’s, Zoo Med, etc. Usually I buy from Amazon.

 

[jamest0o0]

Some of these female Cham’s people are sleeping on, very pretty!

For the lights you could use a grow light for your plants and have a heat emitter angled where the light is. My Cham’s always basked under the grow lights anyway.

 

[Dartthechameleon]

I did the same with lighting, I went into panic when I heard about incandescent lights being banned in places or something and bought like 8 now I’m like oh I didn’t have to do that but lol oh well now I have them.
Females are so underrated. She is just beautiful so many colors. I love the pinky purple in them. Thanks for sharing he

Did she lay eggs for you? If so how did it go? I’m so stressed even thinking about it. That’s why I have not taken the female plunge. I know you got thrown into it haha but sounds like she’s in great hands with her people.

Yes she lays around every four months! She is a busy girl that’s for sure, but we have managed to reduce clutch sizes through portion control and basking temperatures. There’s a lay bin at the bottom of her cage with a stick for her to access and she does her thing! She normally checks out her bin a lot before she lays so we know when to give her more privacy, but once she’s digging it’s like a half a day process. She is our first chameleon and it was a learning process and are now obsessed with these amazing creatures

 

[Dartthechameleon]

Some of these female Cham’s people are sleeping on, very pretty!

For the lights you could use a grow light for your plants and have a heat emitter angled where the light is. My Cham’s always basked under the grow lights anyway.

Thank you so much!

 

[Dartthechameleon]

What a beautiful little lady! To simplify my life a little, I’ve switched from buying regular incandescent bulbs to the reptile branded ones like Fluker’s, Zoo Med, etc. Usually I buy from Amazo

What a beautiful little lady! To simplify my life a little, I’ve switched from buying regular incandescent bulbs to the reptile branded ones like Fluker’s, Zoo Med, etc. Usually I buy from Amazon.

Thank you so much

 

[GrannyK]

Yes she lays around every four months! She is a busy girl that’s for sure, but we have managed to reduce clutch sizes through portion control and basking temperatures. There’s a lay bin at the bottom of her cage with a stick for her to access and she does her thing! She normally checks out her bin a lot before she lays so we know when to give her more privacy, but once she’s digging it’s like a half a day process. She is our first chameleon and it was a learning process and are now obsessed with these amazing creatures

I’m so glad it’s been smooth sailing so far for her. It’s stories and information like this that make me think I can do it with a female. I too became obsessed, it’s awful lo. I got my first almost 3yrs ago and now have 4, lol. One is a female carpet chameleon and she just scatters them everywhere. No digging issues. The rest are males.

 

[Dartthechameleon]

I’m so glad it’s been smooth sailing so far for her. It’s stories and information like this that make me think I can do it with a female. I too became obsessed, it’s awful lo. I got my first almost 3yrs ago and now have 4, lol. One is a female carpet chameleon and she just scatters them everywhere. No digging issues. The rest are males.

Omg a carpet chameleon, how neat!! The scattering eggs sounds interesting lol. We will definitely be getting more chameleons in the future once we have more space for enclosures

 

[Peppered]

So halogen bulbs are generally considered safe, however there have been some concerns raised in the past regarding materials used to make the bulbs & UV-C emissions from cheap/off-brand halogen bulbs marketed for reptiles. I'll see if I can find the links to these claims that I've read and if there are more studies about them since I last looked into this. I personally haven't researched it in a good while since I usually have access to incandescent bulbs and don't need high temperatures for heating. If I wanted to try them though I'd go with trusted brands such as Arcadia and Zoo Med.

Halogen bulbs and deep heat projectors are both dimmable, so if you wanted to try one, you could get a dimming switch/lamp (there are ones that you plug the basking lamp into separately, or there are dimmable basking fixtures that come with them built into the power cord. I use Zoo Med dimmable fixtures and love them!) and that way you can adjust the temperature as needed.

There are also thermostats you can use to ensure it never gets too hot. Some are on/off (turns off when set max temperature is reached, then turns on when set minimum temp is reached) and others are dimming. I see the on/off thermostats more often than dimming ones.

I personally prefer dimming because the constant turning on and off seemed to lower the life expectancy of my ceramic heat emitters, but that could just be something specifically to do with ceramic heat emitters... I don't know enough to be sure

I've read that deep heat projectors are usually more efficient/reliable than ceramic heat emitters, but the CHE's don't give off any light at all. DHP's give off true infrared (NOT like the red-colored basking bulbs), which is mostly non-visible (though some animals/reptiles are more sensitive and can detect faint amounts).

 

[Peppered]

Regarding the halogen bulbs producing artificial UVC, I'm having trouble find the link I specifically read about it in the past, but wanted to clarify that I'm not implying all Halogen bulbs are bad, only the ones that are cheaply made without the correct materials.

Halogen bulbs do produce UVA, UVB, and UVC, but manufacturers 'filter' the wavelengths using dopants (materials used to make the bulbs, which changes the nanometers of the wavelengths emitted) to make the emissions safe to our/our animal's skin.

Hopefully I'm describing the process correctly, but basically, there were claims of many cheap/generic branded halogen bulbs that were NOT using the proper methods to manufacture the bulbs, and those bulbs were emitting harmful amounts of artificial UVC radiation. Most of all of these bulbs also claimed to be a UVB, UVA, and heat lamp all in one. I'll attach some pictures of what the bulbs look like that I can remember, though I don't know if this is still an issue with these bulbs or not. I'd personally prefer to go with trusted brands and just avoid these generic brand ones to be safe

Edit: I found a thread on Reddit referring to these claims, but I can't guarantee they are peer reviewed or otherwise proven... Just adding them for readers consideration.

https://www.reddit.com/r/turtle/com..._uvauvb_halogen_bulbs_are_producing/#lightbox