for iguanas... absolutely. The UVA stimulates appetite and moods, but the UVB is vital to allow the iguana to produce pre D-3.... that let's them absorb calcium and other nutrients from their foods. Without UVB, even on the best diet, they can not absorb the calcium they need to develop strong healthy bones and you will start to see MBD in them fairly fast. Once that is visual, you can not undo it, only improve the progress of the disease. There has been a lot of discussion about using powdered calcium with D3, but test have indicated that iguana are not able to utilize the D3 this way like some lizard species can.... they can with liquid prescription calcium, but this is hard for a layperson to dose and should only be used on a sick animal to get calcium into them fast. If your really interested in understanding UVB and iguanas, here is a link to some excellent studies and articles on MyIguana.com http://www.myiguana.com/uvbbasligand.html
Hehe Hi Hummingbird, I was roaming around looking at some of the other forums I normally do not post on but still read and happened to spot this one. UVB and iguanas is something I am a hardline believer in since we have three 5 ft ones in the back yard..... one is so sweet, her name is Annie and she spent the first two years in a school room, going to the teachers house on weekends and holiday's. She got some sun then, but not regularly and she had MBD affecting her toes and jaw. We got her here and got her on some liquid calciums and then into the Florida sun, she is just beautiful now. She has some healed broken toes and a slight mouth gap, but she does really well. We have had her for 3 years now and I hope she has a long healthy life... axe just finsihed a setting up her new, larger enclosure outside and its nice as we can walk inside and and spend time petting her at arm level, which she loves. Annies new home we are still adding things to it to decorate.
oh that cage is AMAZING! lucky lizards! wow. yeah i'm pretty adamant about proper diet, housing, and uv for ig's, too. biochic and i rescued a young ig last year and we had to nurse him back to health. here's Quincy's Story. breaks my heart. and every time i go into a pet store i see 10 little ones in a 20 gallon tank for sale for $10 each. *sigh*
