Is sunlight worth the stress?

I know how important sunlight is to any reptile. But I am starting to wonder if the stress to Linus outweighs the benefit of UVB and warmth he gets from being in his outdoor enclosure.

Simply put, he hates it. He gets stress lines, and spends the entire hour hes outside with one eye on the sky. During this time he hardly moves an inch from where I put him, and I can tell hes miserable.

What brought this up, is that the last couple of days here in NC, my patio has gotten warm enough to allow Linus to spend a bit of time in his outdoor enclosure. Since he's been alert for a couple of days, I decided to take advantage of both the weather and his being active to let him soak up some rays. Like I said, he was miserable the entire time. I know the outdoor temp wasn't the problem, my outdoor temp gauge read 85 in his cage spot.

What are your takes on the subject?

As long as you have a good source of artificial UV light for him when he's indoors (like a Reptisun 10.0 linear tube, for example), he can probably do fine without natural sunlight, especially if it stresses him out to be outside.

After reading about an owner scratched up by hawk talons when it tried to catch their beardie - I might say it is not worth it. He is probably so scared to be attacked.

Only if it's warm (better than 30oC) outside and you have a safe yard or a safe aviary style enclosure your beardies and other lizards can be in (which are predator proof).

He does have a safe cage, and I always check the outdoor temp before bringing him out. After reading the post about the member who had to fight off a hawk; I'm even more torn about letting him be out there. I know he loves the warmth, but he hates the exposure, and the sounds of the birds in our oak trees.

What to do....

I agree that the sunlight is great but if he isn't comfortable outside I'd limit his exposure. Maybe bring him outside for just a few minutes at a time and keep him with you and see how he does to ease him into it. If he is still stressed I'd just keep him indoors under good artificial lighting and let him get some UVA via sunlight through a window (he will still need UVB via artificial lighting).

All my dragons go outside and we have hawks everywhere. The hawk incident was just a very isolated but understandably terrifying case. If you build a nice outdoor cage your dragon will probably enjoy it once he gets used to it.

What is your outdoor enclosure like? If it's just a wire cage plopped in the middle of the yard it's a different situation than if you have a well designed enclosure with hides, shaders areas, perches and visual barriers.

Many keepers of various reptiles have lots of positive things to say about outdoor enclosures but it's important to replicate the habitat so the animal can feel secure.

Do you have pics of your outdoor set up ? A nice large piece of driftwood along with other branches or store-bought pieces of untreated lumber as well as a plastic or wood trellis sitting at a slant are all good outdoor cage furniture. And he should easily get used to bird sounds, they get used to all the sounds in our households. It may be good to cover about 1/3 of the cage on the top to create a visual barrier to the sky in that " safe " area.

i will post pics as soon as I get back on my feet. (i had surgery on my hand yesterday). This enclosure is temp one; the hubby is going to build a larger one this spring with hides and a place for a soaking dish based on one I saw on the wilma and fred facebook page.

The one he has now is one of the plastic and wire rabbit cages you can find at the petstore. i have a ramp in it he can get under, and put a towel over half of it for shade. I put it on the patio table right outside the patio doors on the deck, where he can see inside.

wow, its exausting typing with one finger!

No, it is not worth the stress. Last summer, we thought that our beardie would enjoy running around in the yard on the grass. We wondered why he turned black and appeared to be VERY unhappy. Well, we soon discovered that he was covered with mites! It took FOREVER to get rid of them. He was miserable. No outside ever again!