----HEAT----LIGHTING----HEAT----LIGHTING----HEAT----LIGHTING---- Lighting- You want to make sure that you use a UVA/UVB bulb. It is suggested that mercury vapor bulbs are some of the best on the market right now as far as transferring UVB light rays. Fluorescent lights are also a good choice. There must be both kinds of light emitted from the bulb because your dragon needs this light to properly digest food and vitamins and minerals, particularly calcium. The vitamin that is most important that is produced by the animal by processing the UVB light is D3. This D3 aids in calcium absorption. Without this D3, the animal cannot absorb calcium at an efficient rate. Most 12 inch bulbs will only have an effective range of 12 inches below the light bulb. So you want to make sure that the light is not further than that from the bottom of the tank. Most 36"-48" bulbs have a higher distance they are effective from. Without proper lighting your dragon is very likely to develop metabolitic bone disease(MBD) and other problems. Heat- You want to use a heat bulb and lamp specific to your dragons needs for basking purposes. Sometimes a higher watt bulb is required to reach specified temps. Basking area should be 105-110 degrees F. Some people say that dragons can not see black or red light, but we do not believe this is the case. This may not interrupt their sleep cycle, but from our experience they can most definitely see the light. If your animal is constantly in the hot spot of the light(basking area) then you can assume that you should raise the wattage on the bulb you are using in order to bring the temps up a little. If you notice the dragon is consistantly on the cold side of the tank, the heat bulb may be too high in wattage, and you may want to lessen it. You can notice differences you need to make by observing the animals behaviors. Please contact us at contact@dragonfortress.com or 09dragonfortress@gmail.com with any questions. Thanks Dragonfortress.com CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR AVAILABLE DRAGONS PAGE Last updated 1/5/2010