Does UV light enhance coloration?

[charlesc84]

I just got a copy of The Complete Carpet Python last week. The book is great, possibly the best animal care book I've ever read. Anyway, it says there maybe a relation to reddish coloration in Bredli's and UV light. It says wild caught specimens lost red coloration and became more brown when not exposed to sunlight. I picked up a UV for mine.
Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on this and how it relates to other snakes?

[Will0W783]

I don't use UVB for any of my snakes currently, but I did have a UVB bulb on my Wagler's viper cage. If anything, she looked duller during that time. She also takes about 3-4 months to shed, from the time she loses her glossiness to the actual shed. Wags have ridiculously slow metabolic rates.

I would think a full-spectrum bulb would serve just as well as UVB, but you won't hurt the snake with UVB...it just isn't really though to be necessary for their health. Remember that carpet pythons are nocturnal in the wild, so they would not be getting that much sunlight.

[Will0W783]

Another thing to consider is that coloration can be affected by stress levels- wild caught snakes typically suffer a lot of extreme stress during the catching, storing, shipping and acclimating to captivity phases. I have noted in Morelia species that any change in environment, breeding, temperature fluctuation, etc that causes stress causes the snakes to shed scale by scale. They get a flaky, dull appearance until the source of the stress has been found and eliminated. This happened to me when I moved my snake room to the basement and had some trouble getting proper temperature gradients the first month. My carpets all stopped eating, started shedding in flaky scales, and hid constantly. Once they adjusted to the move and the heaters were fixed, they shed out and have been bright again.

I would think the dulling in wild-caught Bredlis has more to do with the stress of being caught than it does the lighting. Are there any reports of the color being affected in captive-bred Bredli?

[marvelfreak]

I believe it was Redink on here that was telling me the same thing about UV light and Bredli's.

[emmabee]

im actually really intersted in this subject and have used uv in my aussie pythons. i used it in my womas first and did think that their colours where more pronounced but that the panda mask on one actually faded? their eating habits are always on the mental side so cant commenton the effects on this!
i used it on my DJ and he actually seemed to go towards it, his basking spot was about 5 inches under the light as aposed to under the hot spot so read into that as you will, again he is a pig so no effect on feeding and his colous are stunning any way.

the most noticable uv use was on a WC royal i had, he was beautifully marked and i never had a days trouble out of him, he ate EVERYTHING you gave him!

i know that the colour side is what interests most and i am going to try the bredli but its the feeding response id like more info on! anyoneany further veiws on this?

[red ink]

im actually really intersted in this subject and have used uv in my aussie pythons. i used it in my womas first and did think that their colours where more pronounced but that the panda mask on one actually faded? their eating habits are always on the mental side so cant commenton the effects on this!
i used it on my DJ and he actually seemed to go towards it, his basking spot was about 5 inches under the light as aposed to under the hot spot so read into that as you will, again he is a pig so no effect on feeding and his colous are stunning any way.

the most noticable uv use was on a WC royal i had, he was beautifully marked and i never had a days trouble out of him, he ate EVERYTHING you gave him!

i know that the colour side is what interests most and i am going to try the bredli but its the feeding response id like more info on! anyoneany further veiws on this?

UVA is an appetite stimulant in lizards... may or may not work the same in snakes.

[shaunyboy]

a few years ago,i experiemented the effects when using uvb,on coloration,using 2 pairs of bredl as test subjects

1 pair,had NO uvb

1 pair had,uvb

within a couple of months,the pair WITH uvb,imo showed much stronger colouration,also their colours were more vibrant,and pattern more prominant

imo it made a difference with my 2.2 bredl

cheers shaun

[emmabee]

a few years ago,i experiemented the effects when using uvb,on coloration,using 2 pairs of bredl as test subjects

1 pair,had NO uvb

1 pair had,uvb

within a couple of months,the pair WITH uvb,imo showed much stronger colouration,also their colours were more vibrant,and pattern more prominant

imo it made a difference with my 2.2 bredl

cheers shaun

the bredli that had the uv, did they loose their colour again quickly? is it something that you think needs to be continually used?
the womas are back to their normal selves including the darker panda mask but they arent as richly coloured as bredli.