Unless your pet reptile has free access to your backyard, you need to provide special lighting for the reptile in your care. And not just any kind of lighting will do. The lighting you supply must be appropriate to your pet's species.

If your reptile is a tropical or desert animal, it probably needs full-spectrum light, resembling natural sunlight. To stay healthy, it needs a full range of ultraviolet light, including both UVA and UVB rays.

Another important aspect of lighting is duration, or "photoperiod." Your pet needs to receive the correct amount of light as well as the right kind. As a responsible reptile owner, you must understand the role played by lighting factors. It's vital to your pet's health and happiness that you address this issue seriously.

UVA for Clear Eyesight

Unlike human beings, reptiles are equipped with numerous specialized visual sensors that utilize ultraviolet as well as visible light. By enhancing the colors of their surroundings, UVA-spectrum light helps reptiles see more clearly, enabling them to better identify food, threats, and other members of their own species. With practically no means of communicating audibly, reptiles must rely on numerous color receptors and UVA light to interact with the world.

In general, your reptile needs UVA lighting for:

• Color enhancement of food and prey. Enhanced colors affect your reptile's appetite - without UVA light, everything around your reptile looks bland.
• Interaction with other animals. UVA light helps your reptile sense activity in its environment. Through UV-sensitive items in its habitat, your herp can track mates, prey, and predators. Your pet requires this kind of light to interact adequately with its environment. Denied UVA lighting, your reptile may become stressed.
• Hormonal changes. Research has shown that UVA light, because it fluctuates with weather cycles, plays a major part in your reptile's biological functions, including reproduction and hibernation. If you want your reptile to heed nature's call, you must provide UVA lighting.

UVB for Healthy Bones

UVB rays, with a shorter wavelength than UVA, are even more important. In fact, they are crucial to the health of your reptile's skeletal system. Bones depend on calcium, which cannot be assimilated without vitamin D3. Your reptile cannot produce this vitamin on its own. It needs exposure to UVB light, which helps synthesize a pre-vitamin D already on the skin.

Without the benefit of UVB light, your reptile will become lethargic and sickly - even stunted or deformed. If you have a lizard, it will suffer from metabolic bone disease; if you have a turtle, its shell will become soft.

Photoperiods for Activity and Rest

For your reptile, the duration of light exposure is as important as the day-and-night cycle is to you. As much as possible, you need to simulate the light cycles that your reptile would encounter in the wild.

These cycles are crucial. If your reptile is active in the day (diurnal), it needs darkness for rest. Leaving the light on when it's supposed to be sleeping will keep your reptile awake and in distress.

If your reptile is active at night (nocturnal), darkness will stimulate the urge to hunt for food. It needs daylight for sleep. Upsetting these natural stimuli with irregular photoperiods will adversely affect your pet's metabolism.

Unique Requirements

Because reptile species come from a variety of environments and require different types of lighting, you will need to investigate the unique needs of the species your pet belongs to.

Many reptiles require 10 to 12 hours of light and 12 to 14 hours of darkness per day. If your work schedule interferes with turning the lighting on and off, automatic timers are available. These vital darkness-and-light cycles can be programmed.

Most snakes and lizards require full-spectrum light. Theoretically, sunlight is the best source, but for a tropical reptile, you'll be unable to provide adequate exposure to sunlight during the winter months. Commercially available fluorescent lamps make the best substitutes.

Installation of Lighting

Be careful when installing ambient light sources. Locate the lamps no more than a foot and a half from your reptile's exposure site. Especially for UVB rays, greater distances diminish effectiveness. In addition to full-spectrum fluorescent lamps emitting both UVA and UVB light, some manufacturers produce bulbs that emit only UVB rays. Whether you are using specialized UVB lamps or full-spectrum instruments, all UVB-emitting bulbs must be changed at least once a year. These "artificial" emitters degrade with use.

Keep in mind that not every full-spectrum light available on the market provides optimum benefit to your pet. You may need to combine conventional fluorescents and "soft" fluorescents in four-bulb banks, or use multiple full-spectrum lights.

Knowledge is Key

Be sure to thoroughly research your reptile's lighting requirements. Every species has unique environmental needs. Your reptile is too precious to live in a less-than-ideal habitat.