I need urgent help - no exotic vet available until tomorrow!!

[carljr]

Thank you guys SO much for the replies, I cannot stress enough how helpful this is to me!! Sorry about the delay in my reply I’ve just put him to bed and turned everything off (besides the night heater) and am just hoping he’ll be fine for tomorrow.

And thank you for the husbandry tips, I will be visiting the pet store and changing my basking bulb for a 75 W. I have no idea about wattage and such, just grabbed whatever they told me to. They gave me a 100 W for the night heater so should I change that too? Another thing is the guy said to replace that and not use a light bulb for a bask and only rely on the uv for light in the tank, but I’m not too sure about that.

Another thing that I’m confused about is the Uv light. I have a glass enclosure that has mesh on top, but people say that it cuts the uv in half, so in that case should I get the 12%?

 

[carljr]

Question... Do you use a solarmeter to test UV output? Typically we do not recommend high UV output. While a 6% arcadia bulb in a single bulb fixture at 9 inches easily gives a 3-4 UVI range. Panthers should never have a higher UV level and with the Calcium plus supplement this can be a recipe for overdose/overexposure.

Oh... we did just give him calcium with d3 for the first time the other day so do you think he could be overdosing?? I’ve never measured the Uv, was just told the mesh cuts it in half. Not sure why they recommended me the 14%, so I will definitely have to change it.

 

[JackRipper]

Question... Do you use a solarmeter to test UV output? Typically we do not recommend high UV output. While a 6% arcadia bulb in a single bulb fixture at 9 inches easily gives a 3-4 UVI range. Panthers should never have a higher UV level and with the Calcium plus supplement this can be a recipe for overdose/overexposure.

I always go very lite on supplements and heavy on gutloads and sunshine. High altitude cloud forests species i.e. jacksoni you could use the lower output UV but in a screen enclosure with Veileds and even Panthers I go with the higher output especially Veileds Oh but I always have a retreat for them below the canopy of benjamani ficus and fig leaves with great ventilation.

 

[kinyonga]

What's on the wall behind the cage?
I would move the cage away from the window if possible. He might get a chill at night where it is.

You've had lots of other comments which hopefully will help.
Please let us know how things go.

 

[JackRipper]

Thank you guys SO much for the replies, I cannot stress enough how helpful this is to me!! Sorry about the delay in my reply I’ve just put him to bed and turned everything off (besides the night heater) and am just hoping he’ll be fine for tomorrow.

And thank you for the husbandry tips, I will be visiting the pet store and changing my basking bulb for a 75 W. I have no idea about wattage and such, just grabbed whatever they told me to. They gave me a 100 W for the night heater so should I change that too? Another thing is the guy said to replace that and not use a light bulb for a bask and only rely on the uv for light in the tank, but I’m not too sure about that.

Another thing that I’m confused about is the Uv light. I have a glass enclosure that has mesh on top, but people say that it cuts the uv in half, so in that case should I get the 12%?

The lower uv 3% or 6% because it gets cut in half from the screen mesh top but then the glass traps that half and bounces it around and around and around adding more and more radiation every second. 100w Night time bulb is too hot. 25 watt should suffice just check the temp in the middle of the night if it's dropping below 60 then move up to a 50w heat emmiter ceramic preferably cause any kind of lite may effect thier sleep and cause stress. I just use my thermostat house heater I live like a lizard lol..

 

[CamoChameleonsHuman]

Oh... we did just give him calcium with d3 for the first time the other day so do you think he could be overdosing?? I’ve never measured the Uv, was just told the mesh cuts it in half. Not sure why they recommended me the 14%, so I will definitely have to change it.

One dose of synthetic D3 is not going to cause an overdose. However you're risking it with giving synthetic D3 and running a UVB lamp for the most hottest of basking species like monitors, some tortoise, and bearded dragons. A panther chameleon is considered a tropical/canopy chameleon. Where shade and sun are just as important.

 

[JackRipper]

Thank you guys SO much for the replies, I cannot stress enough how helpful this is to me!! Sorry about the delay in my reply I’ve just put him to bed and turned everything off (besides the night heater) and am just hoping he’ll be fine for tomorrow.

And thank you for the husbandry tips, I will be visiting the pet store and changing my basking bulb for a 75 W. I have no idea about wattage and such, just grabbed whatever they told me to. They gave me a 100 W for the night heater so should I change that too? Another thing is the guy said to replace that and not use a light bulb for a bask and only rely on the uv for light in the tank, but I’m not too sure about that.

Another thing that I’m confused about is the Uv light. I have a glass enclosure that has mesh on top, but people say that it cuts the uv in half, so in that case should I get the 12%?

Night time temperature drops of 15 to 20 degrees is beneficial and helps keep their weight up justdon't go below 60°f

 

[CamoChameleonsHuman]

The lower uv 3% or 6% because it gets cut in half from the screen mesh top but then the glass traps that half and bounces it around and around and around adding more and more radiation every second. 100w Night time bulb is too hot. 25 watt should suffice just check the temp in the middle of the night if it's dropping below 60 then move up to a 50w heat emmiter ceramic preferably cause any kind of lite may effect thier sleep and cause stress. I just use my thermostat house heater I live like a lizard lol..

Your incorrect here. Normal mesh cuts about 25-30% of transfer from bulb to enclosure through mesh. Not half as you stated. As far as light waves in glass let me explain it. I'm a Ultrasonic Technician Level 2. I have over 10yrs of experience in weld inspection using ultrasound in 3 different forms. I hold certifications in Phased Array Ultrasonics, Time Of Flight Ultrasonics, Automated Ultrasonics, Longitudinal waves, and shear wave Ultrasonics. Light works a lot like sound does. Like a lot. Like sound, light reflects and refracts. The light in a glass enclosure will bounce but it's bouncing into oblivion called attenuation. It bounces until it loses energy basically. It's not a microwave for UVB.

 

[Lennoncham]

bounces it around and around and around adding more and more radiation every second

I could see how this would be true in a glass tank with nothing in it but their tank has 3 sides covered in spray foam and coco fibre. Which would absorb most of the uv would it not?

 

[CamoChameleonsHuman]

I could see how this would be true in a glass tank with nothing in it but their tank has 3 sides covered in spray foam and coco fibre. Which would absorb most of the uv would it not?

It would reflect or refract into the object correct.

 

[nightanole]

Id just pull a Todd and rap 1 layer around the bulb itself. That should cut output by half. And when they are recommending bulbs and UVB levels, they are assuming its going on top of a screen cage. It would be silly for almost every site and manufacture to assume the bulb is installed "in" the cage. So that 25-30% reduction is already assumed when the whole "you can get UVI 3.0 at 10" with 1 T5HO 6%" line gets regurgitated.

Plus if you look at the studies, "screen" does not affect T5HOs that much. Its a smaller point source and more directional since they have a parabolic reflector, VS the old T8's. On top of that the T5's do not lose as much power with distance vs the old T8's.

 

[nightanole]

Your incorrect here. Normal mesh cuts about 25-30% of transfer from bulb to enclosure through mesh. Not half as you stated. As far as light waves in glass let me explain it. I'm a Ultrasonic Technician Level 2. I have over 10yrs of experience in weld inspection using ultrasound in 3 different forms. I hold certifications in Phased Array Ultrasonics, Time Of Flight Ultrasonics, Automated Ultrasonics, Longitudinal waves, and shear wave Ultrasonics. Light works a lot like sound does. Like a lot. Like sound, light reflects and refracts. The light in a glass enclosure will bounce but it's bouncing into oblivion called attenuation. It bounces until it loses energy basically. It's not a microwave for UVB.

Hmm now you got me thinking. UVB can not travel through "normal" window or tank glass. So its going "somewhere". Im assuming glass is opaque to UVB, and its just a black body and gets absorbed. But it could also reflect uvb instead...

 

[carljr]

I’m really struggling here with the multiple opinions. :/ I’m now extremely unsure which uv light to get him. Some people say 12, others say 6.

 

[JackRipper]

Your incorrect here. Normal mesh cuts about 25-30% of transfer from bulb to enclosure through mesh. Not half as you stated. As far as light waves in glass let me explain it. I'm a Ultrasonic Technician Level 2. I have over 10yrs of experience in weld inspection using ultrasound in 3 different forms. I hold certifications in Phased Array Ultrasonics, Time Of Flight Ultrasonics, Automated Ultrasonics, Longitudinal waves, and shear wave Ultrasonics. Light works a lot like sound does. Like a lot. Like sound, light reflects and refracts. The light in a glass enclosure will bounce but it's bouncing into oblivion called attenuation. It bounces until it loses energy basically. It's not a microwave for UVB.

Remember ultrasonic foggers? I love my humidifiers. I agree with you sound and light do behave alike however the differences in their behavior may shed some light on the full spectrum of what I wrote lol. Sound is to light as a glass tank is to a microwave a-simular yet different.. Ultraviolet (UV) light falls in the range of the EM spectrum between visible light and X-rays. It has frequencies of about 8 × 1014 to 3 × 1016 cycles per second, or hertz (Hz), and wavelengths of about 380 nanometers (1.5 × 10−5 inches) to about 10 nm (4 × 10−7 a fluorescent light that produces UV falls just under that by 0.0071 so I never really worry about over cooking my lizards and 30-50% filtration at those increments are minuscule at most either way I know I will need to supply my chams with some outside time. but then I only ever really use screen enclosures.. glass creates the deadly bounce and when you have that many particles bouncing around things tend to heat up pretty quikly
.. like a microwave oven.. like wind burn on a over cast day..

 

[JackRipper]

I could see how this would be true in a glass tank with nothing in it but their tank has 3 sides covered in spray foam and coco fibre. Which would absorb most of the uv would it not?

I still wouldn't rule it out. Unfortunately I've bared witness to the power of bouncing radiation in a glass tank. Employee of mine placed a 40 gallon tank in the morning sun filled with baby corn snakes.. Smh 30 seconds was all it took. It was 65 degrees out.

 

[CamoChameleonsHuman]

Hmm now you got me thinking. UVB can not travel through "normal" window or tank glass. So its going "somewhere". Im assuming glass is opaque to UVB, and its just a black body and gets absorbed. But it could also reflect uvb instead...

I'm assuming it's been reflected since less than 1% of UVB travels through glass. If it was refracted more energy would be transmitted. In Ultrasound we call this Snells Law. Has to do with acoustic impedence. Which is why sound travels through water better than it travels through the air.

 

[Beman]

Oh... we did just give him calcium with d3 for the first time the other day so do you think he could be overdosing?? I’ve never measured the Uv, was just told the mesh cuts it in half. Not sure why they recommended me the 14%, so I will definitely have to change it.

No hun it would not be that. But please listen to those of us telling you to drop your UVB bulb back to a 6%. Anything higher then that is going to produce much too high of a UVI reading at basking. He is being over exposed with UVB.

 

[Beman]

I always go very lite on supplements and heavy on gutloads and sunshine. High altitude cloud forests species i.e. jacksoni you could use the lower output UV but in a screen enclosure with Veileds and even Panthers I go with the higher output especially Veileds Oh but I always have a retreat for them below the canopy of benjamani ficus and fig leaves with great ventilation.

Unless you are using a Solarmeter then you do not know what output your getting exactly. Please do not recommend to people to use higher strength bulbs! And it actually only cuts 30-40% of the bulb strength going through screen not a full 50%. I have tested with a solarmeter with and without screen. IT is not a 50% decrease.

 

[JackRipper]

Unless you are using a Solarmeter then you do not know what output your getting exactly. Please do not recommend to people to use higher strength bulbs! And it actually only cuts 30-40% of the bulb strength going through screen not a full 50%. I have tested with a solarmeter with and without screen. IT is not a 50% decrease.

I was quoting our new friend at 50% however 30% is still minuscule unless you are amplifying those waves in a glass tank.. I did not recommend a higher strength bulb on the contrary I recommended the lowest of anyone here that posted a recommendation. Please re-read my post at a slower rate.

 

[JackRipper]

I was quoting our new friend at 50% however 30% is still minuscule unless you are amplifying those waves in a glass tank.. I did not recommend a higher strength bulb on the contrary I recommended the lowest of anyone here that posted a recommendation. Please re-read my post at a slower rate.

Oh I see where we got crossed. You quoted me on my reply to another advisor/enthusiast please refer to my original post addressed to our new member in need of help to see what I recommend for him. Thanks