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Summary: UVB lighting is very important for happy and healthy sand boa constrictors. Learn how to properly light your sand boa cage with expert tips on owning snakes in this free exotic pet care video.
Cordell Jacques has worked in the pet industry for more than 10 years. He is also a reptile hobbyist in one form or another. Jacques keeps more than 20 various reptiles, frogs, fish...read more
"The next thing we're going to talk about very briefly, because some people will tell you it's unnecessary, personally, for me, I recommend it for all reptiles, is your UVB light. Now, UVB light comes in two different forms. It comes in a compact fluorescent like this, which is just like one of those energy saving bulbs that you use at home. All of these use a special coating on them to give off a special type of your light. You can also buy them in the long tube fluorescent bulbs, but those are going to be considerably more expensive. And they take up a lot of space. So I tend to stay away from those myself. Now, why are we talking about UVB light? UVB light is part of the spectrum of light. And what it does is it stimulates certain vitamins inside animals' bodies -- yours, too. Have you ever heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder? It's because you're not getting enough UVB light. Well, for reptiles, UVB light generates Vitamin D-3 in the bone in the body. That vitamin moves calcium into the bone structure. So, without Vitamin D-3, you can get problems like metabolic bone disease, sometimes called "spongy jaw" or "rubber jaw". So, it's a bone deficiency where their calcium isn't high and they start getting soft and malleable bones and their bones are also more easily broken. So, we want to stay away from that if we can. Again, some people will tell you that this is unnecessary for a snake, because they eat whole prey items, but personally, for me, I use it for all my reptiles. It doesn't hurt to be safe."
eHow Article: Sand Boa UVB Lighting
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Comments
irshad23 said
on 2/18/2009 uvb light has a vital role in the skin care industry, uvb light is used in latest treatmnet procedures and successfully being applied for the treatment vitiligo and psoriasis like diseases as mentioned by http://www.antivitiligo.com/vitiligo-treatment/uvb.html Some hazardous effects regarding health are also associated wiht uvb light such as it is the major cause of skin cancer. uvb light has the strong ability to damage human DNA. More dangerous thing regarding uvb light, it is the most imortant and major trigger of skin cancer. uvb light due to having small wave length are more energetic and hence used in various ground of science and technology.