04/15/2025
The Sun is the best full-spectrum UV light that your Dragon can get!
About lighting and UVB.
Your Dragon needs UVB to get the vitamin D3 that will allow it to process things like Calcium. Without Calcium processing, your dragon's body will steal Calcium from it's own skeleton bones, causing brittle bones and deformities in its skeleton and eventually a slow, miserable death.
The best way to avoid all that, and have a healthy, happy Dragon is to give them Sunlight. Take your Dragon on a hike, to the park, or in the yard. Get a cat screen little tent and put your Dragon in there, half, shaded, and supervised. The Sun is the best full-spectrum UV light that your Dragon can get. Make sure that they have a shade spot in the Sun, so that they can self-thermo-regulate.
When it's cold outside, or they have to be in their homes, their enclosure, vivariums, etc. you need to provide UVB through the lighting.
On one side it should be about 85 degrees F.
On the basking spot, or spots, if you have a larger home for your Dragon, it should be about 100-110 degrees using a regular incandescent bulb. You can also use a special UVB Bulb, like 75-100 watts on a suitable dimmer switch. We recommend Reptii-Sun. But also a regular incandescent bulb 75W will work also. Babies and juvies need it about 110F for their basking spot. And adult Dragons need only about 100F basking spot.
So how will you ge UVB for the rest of the Dragon home? Simple, get yourself a T5 High Output (HO) kit from Arcadia. We usually use a 14% UVB Arcadia kit. And allow hiding spots and ledges so that your Dragon can escape the UVB and also cool down.
Don't use red bulbs, other colored bulbs, heat rocks, heat pads, heat emitters, or any of that useless and harmful equipment.
And as for the size of the home, it's recommended that a minimum size is 4'x2'x2' or 40-50 gallons minimum.
We also prefer front opening and stacking homes for ours, or rack-mounting.
I hope that clear up some housing and lighting questions.
