my water dragon has no uvb light and seem to be OK why??

Question

I only have the uva light

Answer 1

Two possibilities. It may not have been long enough for clinical symptoms to show. You didn't mention how long you have had this animal. Without D3 (either supplemental or naturally produced) your dragon will start leeching calcium from the bones to keep the blood calcium levels adequate. The results manifest slowly. He may just climb less at first and start to show thickening in the limbs which owners mistakenly interpret as "healthy". Skeleton X-rays and blood calcium levels reveal the opposite.

Having the dragon produce D3 naturally through exposure to UVB is the safer option. Vitamin D3 is fat soluble and can be over-dosed. Your dragon will produce its own D3 if the exposure is adequate.The truth is that many highly successful veteran keepers/ breeders (and this is heresy to say out loud) raise perfectly healthy animals into perfectly healthy breeding adults who produce perfectly healthly eggs and babies without ever using artificial lighting or outside exposure. The required vitamin D3 is completely provided through supplements. I'm not completely advocating that approach but it is widely and successfully done. I use both lighting and supplements.
If you have been regularly using a calcium supplement with D3 you may not see any signs of metabolic bone disease for quite a while or never.

Answer 2

whether you have an Australian or Asian water dragon they absolutely do have to have UVB lighting as do most diurnal reptiles any reptile that's is not nocturnal needs the UVB to absorb nutrients especially calcium that they consume in their diet without the UVB rays they cant absorb the calcium and over time they develop MBD metabolic bone disease where there bones dont grow properly and become very brittle they will develop deformities and will eventually die with out the problem being caught and corrected in time . And as far as snakes go they do not need the UVB because a majority are naturally nocturnal and active when it is dark.

Answer 3

Water dragons and other reptiles that require UVB will live for awhile before dying from metabolic complications. They need the full spectrum it provides in order to metabolize calcium. If you want it to survive and not die a slow painful death from metabolic bone disease, you'll get a UVB Reptiglo 8.0 or Reptisun 10.0.

Check out this website for good info:

http://www.triciaswaterdragon.com/

Answer 4

there is no reptile that absolutely needs a light of any kind but if they dont usually problems arrive sooner or later. ie. my red tail boa has no lights just a heating pad but then they are naturally slow and sometimes inactive so it dosnt matter and he is more than 25 years old. but my nile monitors and turtle have both kinds of lights each because they move around and forage more often

Answer 5

they are alright for awhile, then they start to get sluggish and may die when it gets cold