Advice needed!!

Evening all, ive just bought my first bearded dragon yesterday hes only a baby! He lives in a 2f viv with a uv lamp and currently has a 100w red heat lamp init, the tank feels really hot when i put my hand inside and he is constantly sat with his mouth open (heat regulating) I'm told, is his tank too hot thats why he is sat with his mouth open and is the 100w heat lamp too much for his 2ft tank, ive turned the heat lamp off over night as i feel it is too hot for him is this safe to do so? I feel he may over heat if i leave the heat lamp on 24-7, i will be off to get a smaller watt heat lamp for him tomorrow just wanting some advice what wattage to use in the 2ft tank, many thanks all

Hi, welcome to the wonderful world of beardie slaveship. err stewardship.

The red bulb is not ideal as it may provide heat but they can see the red spectrum which is unnatural to them. I don't see any mention of a UVA/UVB light, this is a very important light as they can't abosrb calcium without it.

I recommend you look at what the temps are in his basking area and cool area. You want a nice gradient so they can regulate themselves. 100F in the basking spot and a range from 80+ in the rest of the tank. I use a probe thermometer so I can verify temps in each area. You can get them on amazon for cheap https://www.amazon.com/CNZ-Thermome...43&sr=8-3&keywords=probe+thermometer+reptiles

At night they need a lower temp around the 65-80 range and shouldn't have any light present as they need the dark for proper sleep. If your house is a lower range than that I'd look into a Ceramic Heat Emitter (CHE) https://www.amazon.com/GLISTENY-Inf...1-2-spons&keywords=ceramic+heat+emitter&psc=1

Thanks for getting back to me so soon, ive wanted a bearded dragon for 10 years (persuading the wife) i have a uvb at 15w in his viv which more or less fills from one side to the other, that is on for 11hrs a day off at night, ive left him in the dark tonight my house is fairly warm given that the weather is starting to change, so basically it is safe to leave the lamp off over night given my house is at the required temperature and turn back on in the morning so he can bask in the heat, i will be going to get him a lowwer watt clear heat bulb tomorrow and a thermometer as i feel its far to hot for him in there,also what watt bulb will i need in a 20 gallon viv many thanks

Hi. A 100 watt heat bulb is definitely too much for a 20 gallon tank. You may find that you only need a 60 watt white bulb. It's hard for us to say exactly what wattage bulb will work the best as we don''t know how high the basking spot is or what your room temp is. There are so many things that affect the tank temps.

Good that you will be getting a thermometer tomorrow. Please make sure you get either a temperature gun or a digital with a long wire & probe end as the round gauge (dial) and digital strip thermometers are VERY inaccurate.

I also agree that you shouldn't need any heat at night right now. But when you do, please invest in a low wattage CHE as SpacialCoogs explained.