Newbie with Dragon arriving this weekend!

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Hi everybody,

I posted some time back saying i couldn't decide to get a Beardie or a Chameleon, Thank you all for the advice and I have decided to go with a Beardie beacuse from reading through articles here, they sound GREAT!

Anwyay, I am picking up my new vivarium on Thursday. I have ordered a 4ft x 15inch x 15inch Timber Viv with glass front and narrow gauge ventilation at the sides and top. Its quite cold here in ireland so that should be adequate ventilation without losing too much heat. I think!?!?!

I will use a piece of Perpex (Plexiglass / Plastic Glass Not sure what you call it in other countries but you get the idea) to seperate the viv so that the little guy hasn't to run too far for his dinner. This means i will have to get an 18inch UVB / A bulb at first to fit in the reduced size viv. As he gets bigger I will enlarge the viv by removing the perspex divider and buy a bigger UV light.

As I'm irish, ( a bit colder than most other climes) I have been advised to use a heat mat under the viv to provide some base heat for nighttime when the basking bulb is off. Is this ok?

I'm keeping the viv fairly simple at first, maybe just one big Jungle Vine branch to serve as both hiding / basking and climbing "toy", along with a dish for water and onother for food / worms etc. Maybe a plant or two to make it look nice.

Looking forward to getting some pictures up here ASAP.

What do you all think of setup ideas?

Tank coming Thursday and I'll set it all up and leave it running for a couple days to make sure everything is ok before the dragon arrives a few days later.

By the way, I think I'm going to call him "Falkor" (The friendly dragon from the movie "The Neverending Story")

Be back soon with loads of questions im sure.

Iain.
 

DracotheDragon

Juvie Member
iainmurray":37af8 said:
Hi everybody,
As I'm irish, ( a bit colder than most other climes) I have been advised to use a heat mat under the viv to provide some base heat for nighttime when the basking bulb is off. Is this ok?

i would recomend a CHE (ceramic heat emiter) instead, dragons enjoy there heat from above much more than from below. and CHE are much safer because there is no way your dragon come in contact with it. with a heat mat if it ever malfuctions, since its right under him it could seriously burn him.

also if your temps stay above 65F at night u dont need any extra source of heat...but idk how cold your place gets at night.
 

iainmurray

Member
Original Poster
What is a ceramic heat emmitter? The temperatures here during summer time at night time could normally be about 16C or 60F. During the winter, the could reach as low as 48F - 50F on average. The guy in the shop (I dont realy trust guys in shops thats why im here) recommended putting the mat under the entire tank set up this will gentyl over time heat the tank base, then the substrate acting like a small trickle storage heater in the tank and preventing any possible contact with the Beardie. Sounded sensible but....never too sure about pet shop guys.

Still, I take your point of the heat coming from above and will look to try to find a CHE.
 

maelstrom

Hatchling Member
Ok.. Why is everyone now naming their beardie Falkor!?!?! DAMNIT haha.
Thats 3 Falkors atleast here now.. haha
 

maelstrom

Hatchling Member
actually.. my bad... haha.. I didnt realize this was posted by the same person haha.. i should probably wake up before i start ranting lol.
 
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