BEARDED DRAGON ENCLOSURE DECOR IDEAS?

HI GUYS ! sorry for not posting hardly at all school is tough with it being my junior year in highschool . I can thank my beardie elliot who is my best friend for keeping me sane and getting me thru my 9th and 10th grade year and and the starting my my 11th . I am hoping to have him when i graduate and he can live with me when i am out on my own . But my question now is how can i inexpensively decorate his mansion ? he has a huge hand made enclosure with windows ( Which i will put a photo up later if anyone wants to see it ) and he has some decorations in it now . but i dont want him to be bored in there . and i was just figuring id put this out here too see what everyones ideas are .
much love
Aubree 16 yr
elliot the bearded dragon ( i think going on 3 years on april 15th)

I am SOOO good at this! I love decorating, here is a pic of my tank for reference (don't judge substrate the new one is waiting to ship): https://ibb.co/DYZwDmx

I go to Hobby Lobby, At Home Store, Walmart, My logs are from Petco/PetSmart and they were only around $12 each which is a little pricey but still affordable for logs. Etsy also has some cool stuff the shipping does make it a little expensive though. I didn't make the current hammock in his enclosure right now but back when he was in a 55 gallon I did make his hammock it's very easy, you just need to buy suction cup hooks from any hardware store and a triangle piece of felt and some twine. The fake vines I have scattered all over his enclosure were $4 from the At Home Store, the fake plants are from various craft stores ( I don't recommend Michaels it is more expensive than other craft stores) Amazon has some cute cheap decorations and if you want to splurge on a hide I would go to Chewy.com/Amazon.com/Petco/Petsmart Petsmart is my favorite local pet place for a good hide.

Hi Aubree [ and Elliot } along with the other poster's ideas, I get all my logs for free. I just find nice logs + driftwood that is clean or that any dirt can easiy be brushed off. Then I preheat the oven to 225 and put the logs in ,[ making sure they don't touch any heating coil or element ] for about an hour to sterilize it. I also collect rocks from outside, just a quick wash up in hot water with a bit of dish soap + vinegar , a good rinse and there you go, free rocks. Here are a couple of pics. I don't put greenery in my dragon's tank, my guys love greens + try to eat the fake plants, otherwise I love the look

https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/29853/full

https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/29860/full

One Petco log in the second pic, it's on the far left. The rest is driftwood I collected.

This topic gets asked a lot in the Enclosures topic; I expect a moderator will be along directly to move this thread there as well. :wink:

When I was asking this question (more like looking for ideas when planning my enclosure) I just did a lot of google image searches on bearded dragon enclosure ideas, and copied images (or links to images) to a Word document, made notes, etc. Pinterest probably has a godzillion pages of ideas.

For B&M sources, I browsed the big boxes (pet, home improvement, etc.), craft/hobby shops, teachers supply stores (sometimes they have the coolest stuff)--just about anyplace can stir/stimulate the imagination.

For economy, we found out there are... (for lack of a better term) "crafts bits & pieces" stores--kinda like goodwill for craft/hobby supplies, or a B&M box of chocolates. :wink:

Do you have a theme in mind? Some people go that way. I collected a file of pics of the Outback for both inspiration and habitat. E.G....

Hi there,

Just parroting the idea of finding your own rocks and branches/wood from outside. That's what I typically do

If there is no where near you like that, it could be a fun day trip where you drive out to a river or some nature and spend the day hunting for decor. Sounds like a fun day to me! LOL.

-Brandon

Here are some of the extras I have laying around. All nice pieces of dried logs or driftwood. The first piece is about 5 feet long, too big for the oven so I just let it dry out for a long time.

https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/29952/full

This one is really cool, it is a driftwood root system which looks like 2 pieces but it's all one piece, very old + great looking in an enclosure.

https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/30001/full

Here are a few other pieces, all from outside.
https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/30032/full

Then I collect great looking rocks that can be stacked like this. A small piece of driftwood in front is like petrified wood, very heavy and cool looking as well.

https://www.beardeddragon.org/media/29950/full