Repti-glo Lights: Dangerous?!

[Eyal]

Just a few things i have to say.

My chameleon had a compact light 5.0 in the beginning of its life since i needed a bigger vivarium in the future. Directly , lets say after 2 weeks she was looking kinda wierd in her eyes, and closing them from time to time. I changed the light to another UV boulb, a long linear light with 5.0 UV strength

The strength is the same , right?
What caused the problem? My GUESSES and LOGIC sence it was the compact boulb.

Now i understood you in the beginning of this thread but YOU doing research without any clues or knowledge about light at all doing this to chameleon babies?

And why the **** do you talk about economics when its up having a perfect husbandry for chameleons. You will just loose some dollars but you will maybe save an expensive veterinarian check. Do not keep animals at home if you cant afford it, my guesses you can so just dont underestimate the people on this forum and follow our tips.

Thanks
David

 

[summoner12]

Reptisun 5.0 linear tube FTW!

 

[crazydart]

4 months and looking good

7/15/09, I got 6 Ambanja Panthers, all about the same size, all the same day. All have been set up on the same shelf, in the exact same type of cage. Everything was brand new. They are all on the same misting system. The only difference is the UV light. On 3 I have CF 5.0 lights. Over the other 3 is a 48" 5.0 tube UV light. Have my chameleons gone blind yet? No. There is ZERO difference in them. No eating problems. No closing eye problems.

A week ago, the tube light fixture went out on me. I was without UV lights on those 3 cages for several days. So far the only thing I can conclude is that buying 3 CF bulbs instead of 1 tube costs a lot more and using one light for 3 cages causes a single point of failure. The failure was not a big deal however. At this point I really dont care which one I use. I can say however, in my experiment I have seen ZERO problems with the CF bulbs.

I will keep updating this as time goes on. Perhaps in about 4 more months.

 

[Syn]

Key word: yet.

It's only been 4 months. But good luck in your exploits, even if they have been done various times before.. with the same results: Bad eyes to blindness.

 

[lisa h]

Six is a pretty small sample size for an "experiment".

 

[prettykttkat]

Ok so I have to comment on this. I have a pair of lizards that I have had since babies that are now almost 5 years old. Never had any health issues EVER. One day I notice their eyes are swollen and I freak out and rush them to the vet. My vet thinks possible eye infection, MBD or vit A deficiency. Does a blood draw and sends me home with antibiotics, eye drops and liquid calcium. I know for a fact there is no way they could have MBD or vit A deficiency because I am very meticulous about care and supplementing. So the next day my vet calls me and tells me the blood test results. Results showed they both had abnormally high levels of calcium in the blood. So I'm like WTF? The eye drops she gave me made their eyes worse so I stopped using them. I desperately was trying to figure out what was wrong with them and started searching the internet and found the UV guide. I read about the reptiles affected by bad UV lights and at once I knew that this was what was wrong with my lizards. The reptile rescue I had worked for had just given me a new UV light and I had put it on my lizards. They were lethargic, dehydrated, appetite loss and their eyes were just awful! I took off the lights and my lizards slowly started getting better. They also started shedding continuously, this was because they got sun burnt from the light. It took months for them to fully recover. I contacted Frances Baines, sent her my light bulb and gave her my case to use. We talked a lot about everything and she explained to me why the lights are bad. They are bad because of the way they are made. Any light could potentially be bad if it was made wrong. Long tube or coil, it does not matter. What matters is where the lights were made because certain company factories make them cheaper than others and produce bad lights. I am not sure if I can explain this because Frances is going to write everything and publish it and until then I must keep the details to myself. So what I am trying to say is when you go to the store and see the lights on the shelf, even if they are the same brand and type, one in that group sitting there could be made in a different factory than the rest(but not say it) and be bad. This is why you buy coil bulbs and they are fine but sometimes they are not and turn out hurting your reptile. This is also true with long tube lights but not as often because those companies have received reports from Frances and corrected the problem. So have a lot of other companies with coil style types and others. There is still some companies working on the issue and their lights are being tested still. This I think will all be in Frances's research with names of these companies as well as exactly what is wrong with the bulbs to make them bad. I will tell you the best lights are zoo med's reptisun(they last a year while others last 6 months or less) but everyone already knows that. I would not however, ever try to induce the symptoms of a bad UV light on any reptile! You must understand that the whole thing is very painful and can be deadly if the lights are not removed. Imagine being in the the sun, getting burnt, dehydrated, feeling weak, getting snowblindness(this is very painful, feels like sand in your eyes) and not being able to find shade or get away from it. Most symptoms occur very quickly within days or a week or so. My lizards were able to stand it longer, they were under it for a month! I believe the reason is because of their species. I was so scared they were going to die but thank goodness they didn't. I now look for symptoms every time I buy a new UV light no matter what brand or style it is. So if you want you can use a coil or use a long tube. If you see symptoms in either light you better take it off right away!

 

[summoner12]

Yes, a lot has to do with where the light is made... But it has to do with what is in the light. The phosphors. This is what determines the type of UV generated. Your linear tube is made in Germany, and the CFLs are made in China.... Who builds a better car, the Germans or the Chinese?

Check out the ReptileUV website. Bob Mac talks about the different types of UV lights on the market and if you look at one of th lamps he is holding it looks very similar to a brand you hear a lot about, a hint, they make the widely used linear tube we all love..... Listen to what he says about it in the video.

Sure I think people can use a CFL... Will I ever use one? no. I lost my second cham to a CFL. I cooked his skin and his eyes and he died of starvation. Sorry but I don't trust them. Even if the CFL produces 'OK' light similar to a linear tube I will use tubes... Yes I am stubborn but a lot of it has to do with how I do my setups and how no one produces a proper fixture for a CFL. I think the CFL hoods look silly and I don't like using a heat lamp on it's side. I like spot lamps so I can direct the light rather than just a warm bright spot.

 

[HairyScaryMark]

How is jumping to the conclusion that the compact bulb was the problem being illogical where in some cases people have used the compact bulb, it then caused a problem, then they removed the compact bulb, and the chameleon healed?

I wouldn't say it's illogical but I also wouldn't say there is hard solid evidence to link this to compact UV and especially not compact UV of all brands. The evidence is circumstantial and further research is needed before anyone can say with certainty one way or the another. None of these problems can only be as a result of UV.

http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm

"A small but increasing number of cases have been reported of pet reptiles which have developed the symptoms of photo-kerato-conjunctivitis, which is usually the result of abnormally high exposure to ultraviolet radiation."

Would it also be the case that since UV Guide is becoming more popular that more people would report cases of blindness to them? It also says 'usually' but didn't say 'always'.

"a small number developed lesions resembling burns and exfoliation of the skin of the eyelids"

Yet again, all these problems can be caused by things other than high UV exposure and not enough is known about the husbandry (more specifically the heating and lighting) or how much time the animal spent outside .

My understanding is their meant to be used on their side with a fixture/reflector.

Craig Anderson, who is highly thought of as a chameleon keeper uses compact UV tubes in his glass terrarium setups. Note this post.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/eve...chameleons-glass-31937/index3.html#post293408



http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor-cases.htm

And I only noticed one case in the research involving a Reptisun 5.0 compact and didn't see any involving exo terra products and I suspect there have been chameleons who's eyes have closed while raised under a 5.0 linear.

 

[summoner12]

That would be chris anderson

and I think that uvguide did the study some time ago and does not publish each case they hear about. I know my case isn't mentioned on the site.

I also think the decrease in cases of this issue is that those who research avoid the lights because of the reports they read about and for those who don't know and have an issue simply aren't around to report it to us as a community. If you aren't participating in the community you won't be keyed in to the issue.

The issue with cfl is how much uv comes out of them at close proximity. Since there is less surface area the snout of uv is very high near the tube, but disipates rather fast the farther away you get. Just like a linear tube.... But a cfl has several tubes side by side... Imagine a cluster of linear tubes, there would be high levels of uv.