Setting up UVB questions

[Snagrio]

For months now I've heard that PetSmart started carrying the renowned Arcadia brand of UVB bulbs, but despite there clearly being shelf slots for them I've never seen any at my local store. But as luck would have it they finally had some in so I figured now was the time to give it a try for my BP. Just need to find a mounting fixture. They had some but they came with a bulb type I didn't need (12% UVB output vs the recommended 6% that I bought) so it would've been a waste. Might have one lying around the house but it's been a long day.

But now the real question is how am I going to set it up. I presume next to the RHP, but the PVC setup he's in is only 15" tall so I'm not sure if that A) isn't far away enough from the ground and B) if I need to cage it off somehow so he doesn't touch it as I'm not about to cut a hole in the top of my expensive enclosure I waited 7 months for.

[Homebody]

But now the real question is how am I going to set it up. I presume next to the RHP, but the PVC setup he's in is only 15" tall so I'm not sure if ... I need to cage it off somehow so he doesn't touch it as I'm not about to cut a hole in the top of my expensive enclosure I waited 7 months for.

I don't have any experience with UVB bulbs, but if they don't get any hotter than your RHP, then I wouldn't think you'd need to cage it off anymore than you do your RHP.

[Erie_herps]

Usually UV bulbs are set up along the length of the enclosure. If it isn't long enough you would be best setting it up where your snake spends most of its time when the light will be on. 15" high should let plenty enough UV reach the snake. You would be best doing a test run outside of the enclosure and checking it to see how hot it gets. If it gets hot and you are worried about your snake touching it you will likely need to order a guard online, unless you can find one locally. If it doesn't get very hot then you don't need to worry about it.

[Malum Argenteum]

I strongly recommend testing UVB output with a meter (Solarmeter 6.5R), especially for animals that (a) don't actually use UVB to manufacture D3 (BPs), and (b) may not self-regulate exposure, or at least not effectively in normal captive conditions (BPs might be reasonably expected to self-regulate body temp and moisture level before UVB exposure). I was overirradiating all my animals that I was providing UVB (and causing behavior/feeding problems in my group of box turtles, and one death of a gecko) before I got a meter; those nice charts online are rough estimates of specific applications and don't take into account the efficiency of various reflectors, the power factor of various ballasts, the penetration through each kind of screen, angle of irradiance, etc. The UVI recommendation (~ 0.7) for animals like BPs is hard to hit and easy to overshoot, IME.

Lamps absolutely need to be untouchable by the snake both for burn prevention (T5HO can easily get hot enough to burn) as well as breakage prevention. Broken florescent lamps are a nightmare of glass slivers and mercury.

[Bogertophis]

I strongly recommend testing UVB output with a meter (Solarmeter 6.5R), especially for animals that (a) don't actually use UVB to manufacture D3 (BPs), and (b) may not self-regulate exposure, or at least not effectively in normal captive conditions ...............The UVI recommendation (~ 0.7) for animals like BPs is hard to hit and easy to overshoot, IME.

Lamps absolutely need to be untouchable by the snake both for burn prevention (T5HO can easily get hot enough to burn) as well as breakage prevention. Broken florescent lamps are a nightmare of glass slivers and mercury.

THIS ^ ^ ^ !!! And personally, I'd see about returning it. Then when summer comes around & the temperatures are right for it, take a few strolls outside while holding your snake- that's all.

[Caitlin]

I offer UVB to my snakes, but I'll tell you that learning how to do it correctly and safely was a learning curve for sure, at least for me. I also apologize in advance if I dump too much information on you here.

I love that you are considering offering UVB to your snake. But here's the bad news: with an enclosure that is only 15" tall, the 6% Arcadia bulb is too strong. You won't be able to set it up at a safe basking distance.

If your store offers a 'Shadedweller' arcadia UVB bulb or a T8, you could use that. The T8 would be the safer option; I'll explain that in a second, but either would work.

The Shadedweller is designed for crepuscular snakes (active at dawn and dusk) like Ball Pythons, and for those that engage in cryptic basking - they aren't likely to just sit in full-on sun, but they may expose part of their body to filtered sunlight for basking.

The Shadedweller will say it's 7% but the numbers are confusing, because the UVB output is moderated by the type of reflectors that Arcadia uses in the setup for their bulbs. The percent just refers to how much of the total output of the lamp is within the UVB portion of the spectrum. The Shadedweller is a standard output lamp running at only 8 watts and only covering 12" across compared to 24 watts across 2 feet. So while 1% more of its total output is in the UVB spectrum compared to your 6% bulb, it is putting out far less power.

You also need to take substrate depth into account along with the presence of any branches/climbing options, as you need to know how close your snake can potentially get to the UVB lamp. Long story short, if you use a 10.0 with no reflector and with a cage guard, your snake could get about 4" from the lamp without being over exposed. If you use a Shadedweller with a cage guard, your snake can't get closer than 6" away from the lamp without being overexposed. So the 10.0 (T8) would be safer. Personally I would not put UVB in a 15" tall enclosure, but if I did, I would opt for the 10.0. I can share the math on all of that if you are interested.

Also - and I am NOT AT ALL saying this in a patronizing way, because getting all of this stuff sorted out in my head was not easy at first. It definitely took awhile and I am still learning - if all of this feels overwhelming, I would hold off on setting up UVB in your enclosure until you take some time to do some reading/research and get more comfortable with all of these parameters and what they mean.

The science is crystal clear that offering UVB as an option to our snakes has real benefits. But it's not something we can just jump into, and the snake won't suffer while you take the time you need to investigate all of this.

Editing to add: Providing UVB can be challenging on the budget. You need to replace the bulbs roughly every 6-8 months. And to be safe, you need to have a solarimeter on hand to measure UVB output; solarimeters aren't cheap but they are an important tool.

[Snagrio]

Sigh... See, this is the frustrating thing about the reptile community, it's like everyone says something different about every little thing and it's impossible to tell which opinion is correct. Other places swear by UVB for all their reptiles no matter the species, others are specific with snakes in particular with giving some species UVB while others apparently don't need it, some say snakes generally benefit from UVB but don't necessarily need it but give their snakes the option anyway, and yet more still don't believe any snakes need UVB whatsoever and in fact say it can potentially do more harm than good.

I'm really trying to do the very best for my BP, and it's frustrating to have this feeling of not knowing if I've "perfected" his husbandry at this point or not. I've solved all other issues in the past like space, hides, substrate and humidity and he's as happy as could be and healthy as ever from what I can tell, but I still hear so much back and forth over this whole UVB thing that I'm constantly questioning myself if I've truly done enough by him...

[Malum Argenteum]

The science is crystal clear that offering UVB as an option to our snake has real benefits

I'm not aware of any studies that show this for Python regius, though I don't have access to academic databases. Google Scholar links to only two studies, one showing that they do not manufacture endogenous D3, and another that was a clinical discussion of severe damage caused by a faulty lamp (relevant again in light of the new wave of UVB LEDs hitting the market, most marketed by no-name foreign companies).

Could you provide links or citations to this science regarding ball pythons?

[Bogertophis]

Sigh... See, this is the frustrating thing about the reptile community, it's like everyone says something different about every little thing and it's impossible to tell which opinion is correct. Other places swear by UVB for all their reptiles no matter the species, others are specific with snakes in particular with giving some species UVB while others apparently don't need it, some say snakes generally benefit from UVB but don't necessarily need it but give their snakes the option anyway, and yet more still don't believe any snakes need UVB whatsoever and in fact say it can potentially do more harm than good.

I'm really trying to do the very best for my BP, and it's frustrating to have this feeling of not knowing if I've "perfected" his husbandry at this point or not. I've solved all other issues in the past like space, hides, substrate and humidity and he's as happy as could be and healthy as ever from what I can tell, but I still hear so much back and forth over this whole UVB thing that I'm constantly questioning myself if I've truly done enough by him...

Considering the risks of over-doing this & the miniscule chance of a bad outcome for waiting or cancelling, not to mention that spring & summer is just around the corner, I think holding off & doing more research (or reading what others have done) is the wiser approach.

[Malum Argenteum]

Sigh... See, this is the frustrating thing about the reptile community, it's like everyone says something different about every little thing and it's impossible to tell which opinion is correct. Other places swear by UVB for all their reptiles no matter the species, others are specific with snakes in particular with giving some species UVB while others apparently don't need it, some say snakes generally benefit from UVB but don't necessarily need it but give their snakes the option anyway, and yet more still don't believe any snakes need UVB whatsoever and in fact say it can potentially do more harm than good.

Think about "farm animals": chickens, goats, cows, horses, sheep. They're not lumped together for purposes of husbandry -- "all farm animals need X" would be silly, unless X is something like 'appropriate food and shelter' -- but we lump dissimilar herps together ('all herps need UVB', 'all herps do better in bioactive enclosures', even 'all herps need their diets supplemented at least occasionally') for reasons that really aren't at all clear, and in some cases are contradicted by empirical research.

If anyone says "no snakes need UVB", they're apparently unaware of the needs of insectivorous snakes, such as the North American Green snakes, which are pretty well known for being about as responsive to UVB as iguanas, which is to say, a lot. As for all snakes needing UVB, we simply don't have studies on most species; a reasonable suspicion is that providing UVB won't benefit captive fossorial snakes, and is likely to complicate their care.

The blanket statements of the sort "all these dissimilar animals have this one need in common" generally bears closer inspection.