Heat lamp substitute?

[eyespy]

J-Man, for chams it's still ideal to have heat and light together, "dark" heat sources don't give off the wavelengths of radiant energy they need for proper thermoregulation. Unless you are using a mercury vapor bulb, you still need a fluorscent and an incandescant light combo to get all the wavelengths you need.

[J-Man]

oh ok I get it... I think. Sounds good to me... just a thought.

J-meister

P.S. I'm just about to post another un orthodox idea if you wanna comment on that.

[Big AL]

I use the Mercury Vapor Bulbs for all my reptiles. Everything they need is in one bulb. Just keep it simple

[LISA127]

UV lamps provide both UVB and UVA.

[eyespy]

Fluorescent UVB lamps produce such a miniscule amount of UVA that they tend to confuse basking animals. UVA is the "hot" component of UV light that helps to raise body temperature, and chams and other animals will often try to bask under the tubes thinking they can heat up as it looks much hotter than it is. Fluorescents barely even get warm.

I've seen plenty of heliotherm lizards like chameleons, agamids and iguanids have digestion problems because of this confusion. They see heat more than they feel it and have a very tough time keeping their core body temperature high enough when there is a bulb that emits "visual heat" but not actual heat.