Too much UVB?

[Carlyelaine]

Hey!

I am wondering if my beardie is getting too much UVB? He seems to hangout inside his cave a lot. (on the warm side because I use this cave as his basking spot.) He does come out and bask a lot but he probably spends 50% of his day hanging out in the cave. He's 5 months old.

His enclosure is 4x2x4. It's split in to 2 sections and he hardly goes to the bottom section. Photos attached of the enclosure. Top section is 90-95, basking spot is 100-110. Lower section stays around 75-80. Im using zoomed temp gauges and an infrared heat gun to measure temps.

The UVB is a 14% arcadia t5 bulb. It sits on top of the mesh lid instead of inside the tank since it's so strong. It is 21" from the floor of the top section to the bulb. It is 14" from the spot on his cave he generally basks on, and it is 10" from the top of the cave. It covers 75% of the top section of the enclosure.

Let me know your thoughts please!

 

[Sadie]

Hey!

I am wondering if my beardie is getting too much UVB? He seems to hangout inside his cave a lot. (on the warm side because I use this cave as his basking spot.) He does come out and bask a lot but he probably spends 50% of his day hanging out in the cave. He's 5 months old.

His enclosure is 4x2x4. It's split in to 2 sections and he hardly goes to the bottom section. Photos attached of the enclosure. Top section is 90-95, basking spot is 100-110. Lower section stays around 75-80. Im using zoomed temp gauges and an infrared heat gun to measure temps.

The UVB is a 14% arcadia t5 bulb. It sits on top of the mesh lid instead of inside the tank since it's so strong. It is 21" from the floor of the top section to the bulb. It is 14" from the spot on his cave he generally basks on, and it is 10" from the top of the cave. It covers 75% of the top section of the enclosure.

Let me know your thoughts please!

Typically dragons like floor space -- your tank looks like a Zen Habitat -- I have a 4x2x2 two of them and have used the 14 % bulb as well -- but my UVB's are inside the tank - the screen does block out 30% of the rays -- w/ that being said it should be cutting out some of the UVB so I dont think hes getting too much w/ it being on top of the screen -- a 14% bulb requires at least 17-18" from basking decor piece but that is inside the tank - w/ your bulb sitting on the screen I am not sure how much UVB hes getting- the only way to get a reading is to get a solar gun and they are very expensive so I dont know quite how to help you -- so hes sitting on the 14" distance -- I would say the 10" is to close and hes going to sit where hes most comfortable -- you could swap out the 14% for the 12% and then watch his behavior - but then I would suggest you put it inside the tank w/ a distance of 12-15 inches from basking decor- it is up to you-- 50% in his cave is not really good -- it is trial and error to find out what is going on -- my fixtures are 24" and are not in the same area as basking spot - they sit in the middle of the tank towards the front -- I am using the Reptisuns T 5 now as I tried to replace the 14's a while back and everyone was out of stock - pandemic hit-- so of course I had to move the fixture from the top of the tank down to the 10.0 T 5 distance - my dragons behavior never changed -- so you can try different things but I would say you want him out more than sitting in his cave -- also him not going to the bottom of the tank I am going to say is going to come w/ age -- my youngest went into his 4x2x2 at around 4 months old and he didnt go to the cool side of the tank till he was around 5-6 months then he was only exploring and mainly was in the middle of the tank under his UVB or on his basking decor - I can post pics of the tank if you like it might give you some ideas --- let me know