Necessities of keeping a Bearded Dragon?

Question

I have been researching Beardies and have found pretty much all the info. I need (I'm planning on getting one soon), but just as an extra thing, to all you ywho own a Beardie, what are the main things to make sure I do, don't do, have, don't have, etc.?

Most info. gets 10 points!!!

Thank you very much ahead of time.

Answer 1

Items you need if your going to get a bearded dragon:

- UVB lighting, repti-sun 10.0 is recommended for desert reptiles like the bearded dragon

- Basking Lamp that can keep the temperature between 90 and 110 on the warm end

- fixtures for the UVB lighting and basking lamp

- Food and water dishes (put these on the cool side, vegetables spoil faster and water evaporates faster on the warm side)

- A mist spray bottle to spray the bearded dragon once a day to ensure it doesn't get dehydrated

- a plastic container to put the bearded dragon in when you are cleaning the tank

- a tank (size of the tank varies depending on the size of your bearded dragon)

- a screen top for the tank to ensure proper ventilation and humidity

- Two thermometers, one for the cool side and one for the warm side. One of the thermometers must be able to measure humidity.

- basking rocks

- a hiding spot (be sure to put this on the warm side, it doubles another basking spot)

- objects for the lizard to climb on in the cool end

- substrate that isn't loose (tile, reptile carpet, newspaper, or paper towels)

- an enclosed container with ventilation to store crickets in (I recommend cricket keepers, they are sold at almost every pet store)

- calcium and/or multivitamin cricket balancer to dust crickets off with

- cricket food (can buy various cricket formulas at pet stores or just feed them sliced oranges and potatoes)

- cricket pillows or sponges for crickets to drink out of (sponges normally dry up at the end of the day, cricket pillows last usually a week so try getting these instead of using sponges)

- vegetables for the bearded dragon to eat

Items that aren't needed that I recommend:

- driftwood, it's an excellent climbing object for a bearded dragon

- UVA lighting, UVA isn't required but it stimulates appetite and behavior. They sell UVA/Basking lamp combinations.

- reptile tweezers, it's much easier to pick up dead cricket corpses (clean) in the cricket keeper with this, not to mention you can feed your bearded dragon with this

- desert background, it makes the tank look pretty instead of a boring lifeless wall

- digital thermometers, they are much more accurate.

Do not use loose substrate (cage liner) such as sand and bark. Bearded dragons have been known to eat it and get impacted. The humidity should be between 30 and 45, with proper temperature and a reasonable sized water dish humidity should reach this level automatically. When you mist your bearded dragon gently spray the lizard, not the tank, only the lizard; if you spray the tank humidity will sky rocket. You can spray the vegetables as well to delay the spoiling of them.

The temperature can fall down to 64 at night without worry. If it falls any lower I would get a night lamp. If you get a night lamp be sure it gives of a red light, bearded dragons can not see the color red.

For feeding you should feed your bearded dragon as many crickets as it can eat in a 15 minute period. Feed it only crickets that smaller than the size between their eyes. Bigger crickets could cause impaction. Remove uneaten crickets before you shut the lights off, the will pick at the lizard at night. Dust off each cricket with a calcium or multivitamin cricket balancer dust.

The size between the eye thing only applies to insects with hard exoskeletons though. Things like silkworms and waxworms can be a bit bigger. Crickets and mealworms have a hard exoskeleton though, therefore must be no bigger than the size between the eyes.

Some greens you can be feeding your lizard are mustard greens, dandelion greens, red peppers, and an occasional fruit as a treat. Be sure to slice them to a small size. Give it a fresh bowl of vegetables at noon too replace the vegetables after four or five hours with fresh ones as they will dry up (due to the desert heat) and become spoiled. Remove the veggies at night before you turn off the lights as they may spoil and spread bacteria.



The lights should be on about 12-14 hours a day. I normally get up and turn my lights on at 8:30 am and turn them off at 9:40 pm.

If you have any questions feel free to email me. I made that list to show you what you should get before you get your lizard.

Good luck!

Answer 2

well if you've got the basics, here are my tips of experience:

1.some dragons prefer higher basking spot temps- my dragon's preference is between 115 and 118 degrees F

2. get yourself an infrared temp gun, it allows instant reading of surface temperatures, and is extremely accurate and fast. avoid dial and stick on thermometers, they do not measure what you need and often are 20 degrees off.

3. easily cleaned substrates if your concerned about looks include ceramic rock textured floor tile. don't use loose substrates for juveniles or babies, and if they are an adult the only permissible ones are hardware store play sand and dirt mixes. avoid all other loose substrates like the plague. you can continue the adults on solid substrate if you wish

4. stay away from compact uv bulbs, as well as the new repti glo 10.0, they have been known to cause problems due to the type of uv wavelength they emit. good bulbs are the reptiSUN 5.0 or 10.0 (10.0 being preferred), reptiglo8.0, or either the t-rex active uv heat mercury vapor, or the best bulb on the market, the megaray series of mercury vapor lamps (i use these)

5. don't bother with pet store furniture, you can take rocks and branches from the outdoors and bake them or soak them in a 1:10 bleach to water solution and they are infinitely better, as well as free.

6. for fake plants avoid pet stores, go to your local craft store and look there. usually its a much better selection. i recommend ferns and grasses over vines, they make it seem much more desert like.

7. when it comes to enclosures the bigger the better. for an adult i like 75 gallons or higher. ideally they should have at least 48x18 inches of floor space, in my opinion.

8. offer the same greens from your lizard to his or her insects before you feed them to your dragon, they get much needed nutrients that they don't get in commercial gut loads.

9. stay away from lettuces, stick to dark leafy greens like collards, escarole, endive and dandelion.

10. never EVER house them together. there are subtle dominance issues that can result in one stressing the other out to the point of refusal of food. not to mention fights are very likely to occur and often devastating to the loser. even females will fight.  in the wild they are solitary.

11. stay away from meal worms, they have very little nutrition, stick to crickets, silkworms, super worms, and roaches as staples.

thats about all i can think of at the moment.

Answer 3

beardies need a UVB, probably a 10.0 but lower can be fine dependingo n the cage. you'll want the cage to have a hot spot of 100 to 110, hotter for the younger beardies. A young beardie under 7-12 months, you really don't want to put them on substrate. you should just use a paper towel or news paper. as a baby, they'll eat mainly crickets, making sure to dust them and gut load them, but also offer some dark greens like collard to get them used to veggies. This will make the transition in adulthood to mainly veggies very easy. you don't want to use calci sand at all as this will cause a impaction. good subrates are aspen bedding, repticarpet (w/out loops for their nails to not get stuck in), play sand, paper towels, news paper, etc. as babies they don't need a water dish, just mist them a few times a day. as adults they enjoy baths and being misted. A good insect food is crickets of course but i give mine a little variety w/ wax worms and super worms as they're older. silk worms are very healthy but very expensive. YOu can also give them an occasional pinkie or fuzzy. it's not necessary though. those i guess are just some basic tips.

Answer 4

Look at the caresheets here:

http://www.beardeddragon.org/

http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/

You will find all the information you need that certainly can't be all provided here. Also join the forum and ask questions as you will be able to learn more specifics as to such things like why compact/ coil UVB bulbs are bad and why only certain brands work.