night light:(can someone answer this please)

[Hilde]

National Geographic Explorer (Student Magazine) - Lively Lizards

National Geographic Society


Night Vision

A gecko also can see in the dark. How did it develop this super adaptation? Scientists think that long ago, geckos were mostly active during the day. Most lizards are. Today, most geckos are nocturnal, or active at night. Being active at night led to other adaptations.

The gecko's eyes changed. The pupils, or openings in the center of the eye, became bigger to let in more light at night. Deep inside the gecko's eye, other changes slowly happened, too. The result? Nocturnal geckos can do something few living creatures can—they see colors in the dark.

A nocturnal gecko's eye structure is different from that of other lizards. Most vertebrates, or animals with backbones, have two kinds of cells in their eyes that sense light. These are called rods and cones. Rods pick up only black and white. Cones detect colors, but only when there's lots of light.

Lizards do not have rods, only cones. Geckos that come out at night have three kinds of super-size cones. These cones give nocturnal geckos their super color vision.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Thanks for the posts Hilde. So to me, that says, if they can see color at night, red light would be visible to them. And that means, it would likely be detrimental to leaving a red light on all night.

 

[Lenewen]

Thanks for the posts Hilde. So to me, that says, if they can see color at night, red light would be visible to them. And that means, it would likely be detrimental to leaving a red light on all night.

Thank you for sharing, Hilde. Based on this, I will be removing my red lights at night. I'll stick with ceramic heat lamps and UTH's to be safe. These articles were fascinating, thanks again for chipping in your research.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Kudos to Hilde, GU's future "light expert"! Many thanks for sharing your research.

All my red bulbs (nocturnal species) are/have been on timers set to power on at 9:30 AM and off at 11:30 PM for a 14 hour "on" cycle. I am wondering whether even that is too much?

 

[Lenewen]

Kudos to Hilde, GU's future "light expert"! Many thanks for sharing your research.

All my red bulbs (nocturnal species) are/have been on timers set to power on at 9:30 AM and off at 11:30 PM for a 14 hour "on" cycle. I am wondering whether even that is too much?

They need some sort of light, I think, at some times of the day. I think your timer idea is perfect. I'll probably do the same. I already have a timer for my indoor plants. I will get another one for my geckos =]

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

They need some sort of light, I think, at some times of the day. I think your timer idea is perfect. I'll probably do the same. I already have a timer for my indoor plants. I will get another one for my geckos =]

Ya know, Lenewen, tanks SHOULD be large enough to offer hiding places away from the heat/light. In my cases, all but 1 of the red lightbulbs are located on one end of the tank, so that the particular gecko/geckos can "hide" if the light is too much.

 

[Lenewen]

I only place it on the one side, and my geckos have a surplus of hides. But having the red light on at night might still annoy them, if they can indeed see the color red. I only see green and blue mentioned in those articles though. I am still researching it.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

@ Elizabeth, I would shorten the timer to go off around 9ish (or even earlier) to provide a more realistic amount of "day time". 14 hours of daylight makes for a long (unnatural) day.

 

[AeroWRX]

National Geographic Explorer (Student Magazine) - Lively Lizards

National Geographic Society


Night Vision

Great research Hilde! I think we can conclude that geckos can't see infrared but have heightened light sensitivity. A colored night bulb might not be too great of an idea, but nothing stops us from using a night bulb indirectly or even a powerful enough nightlight on some far corner of the room.

Anyone know if those moonglo or infrared bulbs work on dimmable light fixtures?

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

tweaking

@ Elizabeth, I would shorten the timer to go off around 9ish (or even earlier) to provide a more realistic amount of "day time". 14 hours of daylight makes for a long (unnatural) day.

I immediately shortened the leo's light/heat to 12 hours (9-9). Left the day geckos at 14 hours right now (8:30-10:30).

Am researching the others: O castelnaui, P kuhli, P tigrinus, L kimhowelli, and R ciliatus.

Appreciate your suggestion.

 

[kpnortiz]

ok. so can you tell me if i should get a heat light then with my uth or will the uth be enough for my mack snow stripe het tremper albino? and if i get a heat lamp does it go above where the uth is and where do you recommend i buy this heat lamp like a awebsite or something.. thanks.

 

[AeroWRX]

ok. so can you tell me if i should get a heat light then with my uth or will the uth be enough for my mack snow stripe het tremper albino? and if i get a heat lamp does it go above where the uth is and where do you recommend i buy this heat lamp like a awebsite or something.. thanks.

There should be a gradient of temperatures going from hottest to coldest. That hot to cold range should be the range of temperatures listed in your gecko species' caresheets. Depending on what that range is, and how hot your lamp and UTH combo is you'll position it accordingly. I believe most people stick the UTH outside of the tank on one of the surfaces.

Pet stuff is usually cheaper on Amazon or online pet store than at Petsmart/Petco.

I recommend getting a daily high/low temp-humidity gauge first before picking up heating elements. An Accurite humidity monitor records temperature and humidity and is a very accurate humidity gauge as I've compared it against actually accurate $1000 humidity loggers and certified+calibrated humidity gauges.
Amazon.com: Acurite Indoor Humidiy Monitor: Home & Garden They also sell this model at Home Depot cheaper right now I believe.

I bought a UTH and ended up returning it after finding out that my room gets too hot anyways. I had all my lights up and running and looked at the humidity monitor every morning to see what the highs and lows were in the previous daily cycle.

 

[shawn101]

Something that I'd like you guys to clarify regarding red lights. I keep hearing people saying geckos can't see red light. I really don't know how that is true. Red light, purple light, black light, blue moon glow light etc. are all incandescent bulbs offered by pet supply companies. Can geckos' eyes not interpret the color red? That sounds bizarre.

This is what I know: The color Red doesn't equal infrared
Not many animals can see infrared. Snakes, bats, and certain bugs see infrared. I don't know if nocturnal geckos can see in infrared. The Infrared light spectrum is not a visible light spectrum and most living things can't interpret it. A "infrared bulb" isn't purely emitting infrared. If it only emitted 100% infrared, the light would be invisible. A lot of electronics and robots use infrared sensors to sense motion or distance. If anyone has seen this kind of equipment you will remember that there is no light emitted at all. IF there is a red beam of light from IR equipment it exists mainly to assist the operator of where s/he is pointing the IR tool such as an IR heat gun.

The "black body" of an IR light bulb itself absorbs enough of the light spectrum that alot more infrared light is emitted vs. visible light. The byproduct is a red visible light that everyone/everything can see. Therefore, Zoo Med/Zilla/Exo Terra blue night bulbs, red night glo bulbs, infrared bulbs all do the same thing -they block as much visible light as possible and act as a heat source. The unblocked light is intentionally used for the customer to look at their cool reptiles.

I believe the real question is: Among these "night time viewing" blue bulbs, red bulbs, black bulbs, etc. which one emits enough visible light for you to see the reptiles and at the same time not enough visible light to disturb their nocturnal nature. By that reasoning it makes sense why companies sell night time reptile lights in all sorts of colors. Zoo Med, Exo Terra, and Petsmart's All Living Things all sell reptile bulbs labeled as infrared. At this point, I believe "infrared" in the animal keeping world is purely a marketing term. You can probably paint any bulb a dark enough color and call it an infrared bulb because infrared is in the light spectrum of any light bulb.

A true infrared light if it only emitted infrared has the potential to be seen e.g. a laser pointer with a wavelength of 750nm could be seen and is true infrared.

The infrared bulbs bought aren't like the other bulbs (blue or purple) because they are designed to give off light specifically in the IR region, some of which is visible to our eyes and some which isnt, but all of the light/heat is infrared 650nm or longer wavelength.

A blue or purple bulb, while giving off heat, which is in the infrared spectrum, the colours are not.

 

[shawn101]

I'd also like to post this link of a site a dug up that has a link to a video explaining it more. You'll find infrared light red colour would mimic a new moon with no moonlight to a gecko.

Reptile Vision: Nocturnal Geckos ? November 2013 | The Reptile Times