- Joined
- Feb 13, 2009
- Messages
- 49
does a baby snapping turtle need a uvb light or is a uva light fine?
does it even need either uva or uvb?
thanks
does it even need either uva or uvb?
thanks
gummybearpoop said:I know people who have raised alligator snappers without uvb. I believe they get most of their UVB requirements from their diet, but I am not positive. Just feed a varied diet along with providing a warm spot to thermoregulate. Reptomin is a good food to supplement a more natural diet. Good luck! Snappers are fun, interesting, and dangerous!
Lynn DeVries said:I respectfully disagree, in hundreds of tests I personally have overseen. The baby common snappers have done markedly better on a staple diet of Reptomin. It is nearly immposible to provide a varied natural diet for a common snapping turtle as they eat such a wide variety of foods in the wild. From Mosquito larvae to minnow fry and everything inbetween. Baby common snappers fed a diet of worms, minnows, crayfish etc in the absence of UV UVA UVB are prone to develop nutritional issues. It is immpossible for an animal to get quote "most of their UVB requirements from their diet" as UVB is a light wave. Reptomin has proven time and again that it provides the proper calcium phospherous ratio as well as the proper amount of D3 to allow baby common snappers to develop normally in the absence of sunlight.
If you can provide outdoor housing to a baby common snapper then the "natural" diet is acceptable. But indoors with no UV, Reptomin is the best staple diet and if you feel the need to supplement it by all means supplement it with natural foods, but only as a supplement to the Reptomin. I have been raising snapping Turtles for 20 years and studying them for much longer than that, so I am not speculating here.
It is interesting to note that once a baby common snapper reaches about 4 inches in length they seem to be much less suseptable to nutritional disorders and the Reptomin seems to becomes a little less important than when they are smaller. I have had equal succes with the Wardleys brand.
Lynn
gummybearpoop said:I know people who have raised alligator snappers without uvb. I believe they get most of their UVB requirements from their diet, but I am not positive. Just feed a varied diet along with providing a warm spot to thermoregulate. Reptomin is a good food to supplement a more natural diet. Good luck! Snappers are fun, interesting, and dangerous!