Setting up UVB questions

[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.