About Yexalen Expertise I am experienced with the care, lighting, heating, breeding, sexing, species identification, and general keeping of mostly aquatic turtles. I also have experience with tortoises and land turtles and can certainly research any question that I do not know the answer. I can not answer medical related questions as I am not veterinarian certified. I prefer not to answer questions on animals that you or somebody else has taken out of their natural environment unless the animal was in danger, ill, or injured.
Experience I have owned six aquatic turtles and have been researching turtles for several years. I have been on several question and answer sites under this category. I also have started up a web site focused on reptile care with a portion of it for turtles.
Education/Credentials I have been around turtles sense a very young age and always found them fascinating and because of that it has lead me to researching day after day, reading book after book, and finding endless amounts of web sites with information.
Expert: Yexalen Date: 7/15/2008 Subject: did i get the right light?
Question QUESTION: I got the UVB light you told me but I think I got the kind that you told me not to get. I bought a UVB 5.0 repti glo 26 watts and its the coiled florescent kind. should i get a different one or is this one ok?
ANSWER: Hi Carolyn, that is one of the lights that shouldn't be used although it does put off UVB there is something about it that has been known to cause medical problems such as animals going blind. I am not sure how many studies have been done, obviously not enough to take them off the shelves but many people have come to me with their turtles or lizards having eye problems and after they change their UV to a tube type the eye problems usually get better.
Answer Sorry Carolyn, those lights have the same problem. The best ones are the tube lights. If you already have a fixture the bulbs only run about $15 but this light has the bulb and fixture
