Providing The Right Heat and Light for Your Pet iguana

The number one illness that affects pet iguanas is Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD). This is a crippling disease that is usually caused by improper lighting. An iguana will only begin to show signs of MBD after it’s already fairly severe, this is why it is absolutely important to make sure you are providing your pet with the correct heat and lighting — if you don’t, they will get sick! This means providing a light source for both UVA and UVB wavelengths!

UVB light is necessary to ensure proper production of Vitamin D and optimum calcium absorption in iguanas (and other animals too, including humans). A pet iguana simply will not survive more than a few years if you do not provide the proper levels of UVB lighting!

You must make sure your pet iguana’s habitat has the correct heat and light to make sure that they stay healthy. This is not something that you can ‘upgrade later’ or ignore when you set up an iguana’s habitat or enclosure.

How Much Light Does an Iguana Need?

Iguanas need 12-14 hours of light and 10-12 hours of darkness each day. Some people suggest adjusting the light cycle with the sunrise and sunset, but if you live in a place far from the natural habitat of iguanas it will not be a very good practice to do it that way.

You should keep your lights on a timer so that you don’t forget to turn the lights on or off at the right times each day. Setting up a timer to do this is very easy to do, there are several kinds of timers and all of them are very simple to use. I suggest you get a few of them, you’ll find all sorts of uses for them.

Click here to buy a good timer from Reptile Supply.

What Type of Light Do Iguanas Need?

The best type of light for an iguana is the specially designed MegaRay bulbs. I currently use the MegaRay bulbs because they are the best I have been able to find over several years of iguana keeping. Before I found the MegaRay bulbs I used ZooMed’s Powersun UV 100 watt bulbs, but since I discovered the MegaRay I haven’t gone back. The Zoo-Med bulbs are good but they don’t last as long as the MegaRay brand and need to be changed more often.

These lights pro