Newbie Questions

[natnat]

Hello! I’m working on getting my first beardie and as I’ve been doing my research and I had a couple of questions I wanted to see if anyone had advice on:
- Do you have to use a water conditioner for bath water/drinking water for beardies?
- Are dimming thermostats for basking lights to make sure they don’t overheat a must? Not totally sure I want one but just wanted to see what people thought of them.

[KarrieRee]

Some people use dimmers I do not --- it is up to you -- and no water conditioner unless you have really bad water -- and if you have really bad water then I would use something like spring water or drinking water
Karrie

[CooperDragon]

A dimming thermostat is nice to have in order to auto adjust temps in reaction to fluctuations in the room around the enclosure (this happens mostly around seasonal changes). They aren't necessary but are nice to have. You can hit a good temperature range by adjusting the wattage of the bulb you use, and adjusting the height above the basking area (using an adjustable lamp stand or similar). This should be done first either way. If the enclosure temps go very low overnight (lower than 60) then you can set up a heat projector or ceramic heat emitter on a pulse (on/off) thermostat that will kick in just enough to keep the overnight temps in the 65-75(ish) range, but that is also a bit of a luxury item and not needed at all if the temps in the house stay warm at night.

As mentioned, as long as the tap water is safe for you to drink, it should be fine for them too. You can offer filtered water if that's what you drink, but it's not necessary.