Advice please for new owner!!

[alamb]

I have been looking into getting a bearded dragon for awhile now and I'm looking for some good advice for what I need. The local mom and pop shop that I was going to get one from suggested cedar bedding, a dual UVA UVB lighting system on top, a heat rock, and a small water dish. I know there are many more things and I want my beardie to be as comfortable and healthy as possible so I thought I would consult you all. Please help as I want to make sure I have what I need. Thank you in advance!!

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, you will enjoy owning a beardie but you want to start out right. Everything the store mentioned is not actually useful, esp. the cedar bedding which is actually harmful. There are articles to the right side of this page that have good info, most pet stores don't really set beardies up properly. If you read the care articles here you'll get the right idea. You can also post a few questions in the enclosure subforum and also get an idea of how other experienced owners set up their tanks. Others will be happy to help.

 

[joef]

I'm not sure about the cedar bedding, but I would trust AHBD on this, and not use it. I use coconut fiber in my dragons cage, and it works well, although is does get dusty so it would be best to spray it down lightly every so often. Don't get the heat rock either, it will burn their stomachs and will hurt them because they can't sense heat from their stomachs. When you get a uvb bulb, do NOT get one that is coiled. It can make them very sick, and can even end up killing them. Just a couple of tips to make sure your beardie is safe, have fun with it when you get it!

 

[CooperDragon]

Yeah I wouldn't use cedar bedding for the reasons mentioned. You're best off starting with something easy to clean or cheap to replace like non adhesive shelf liner or even paper towels or butcher paper as substrate. You'll want a basking platform or log and a hide (this can be made of many different things). You could go with the Mercury Vapor (UVA/UVB) bulb but I've found they can be tough to get the temperature correct when they're set at the appropriate height for UVB output. I use them instead as portable basking sites. For the main tank I would use a UVB tube and either a reptile basking bulb (ZooMed Repti Basking Spot Lamp for example) or a halogen flood light (not the super energy efficient ones because you need it to heat up). That way you can set the UVB light at appropriate distance and control the heat independently. You should pick up a couple of digital thermometers w/probes or an IR temp gun to monitor temps across the tank. I would start with at least a 40g breeder sized tank.

 

[eeaston16]

NO NO NO

they are wrong. NEVER TRUST PET STORE INFO.

heat rocks can kill them, and cedar bedding isn't good for any animals. thank you for asking here!

 

[BD99]

Hey man. Well, it seems some of the advice is iffy. I find pet shops give generalised advice, yet deeper digging always finds it wrong... and more profitable to the shop if you catch my drift.

I am not sure on all my own stuff, yet here is what I use.

Reptiglow 20w tube 10.0 UVB
1 ceramic light
1 red nightlight
- Ensure that you have a GOOD basking spot that hits 40deg Celcius beneath the heat. 38cel at the hot end. People speak about a hot and cold end, but I have found if the hot end is right the reptiles will work out their coldend fine enough. You want your basking spot about 1ft away from
Your lamps. I also advise caging them, given how my beardie has tried to grab the ceramics before. Yet that is debatable.

Substrate wise I use THE ALL NATURAL pet bedding. A www .com search will give you the stuff and logos.
The reason for this is because it does not expand with moisture and is natural. If Nox eats any, which she has a LOT just foofing around with her roaches or when a bug gets out of my grip, it will not expand in her belly and cause compaction. It passes naturally and harmlessly. My vet actually suggested this. Before that I used newspaper ((perfectly fine, just not pretty)) and thought of fake grass. Fake grass can tangle and tighten around their toes. It also makes shedding difficult. If their toes don't shed correctly the skin can tighten and lead to their nails no longer growing.

Cage measurements, I've gone 6ft long. 2ft deep. 3ft high. Mine is a pine enclosure with sliding front doors. I like front doors because when you reach down and into a cage, it is coming from above like a bird might to eat them. I've noted lots of bearded dragons are NOT ok with thinking a bird is going to get them. From flinches to blackbeards and scurrying. Plus, opening the cage doors and luring a beardie with treats is easier when they are iffy about been scooped up.

I actually have 2 water sources. 1 a waterwell, which I check daily. It is SMALL. She cannot get in it beyond drinking so she cannot poop in it. I also have a large water dish that she can completely fit her body in. That way she has the choice to soak. You should watch to make sure your bub doesn't do anything that suggests drowning is a risk. My girl is just a water baby.

For a Food bowl, I've actually used a large ceramic dog bowl and burried it into my substrate so from the outside it isn't so large. The reason for this is I supply constant greens for Nox for when she choses to munch. I drop my gutloaded Woodies ((Cockroaches)) into the bowl after putting some cooking oil around the rim. Because the roaches can't climb over the oil, I can be confident that Nox will get them when she wants. Which is always NOW and MORE... ahh scaley children.

I have multiple ways for Nox to climb to her basking spot and elevated places, using a mix of rocks and driftwood. I also have provided multiple places for her to hide and curl up comfortably. You need a nice private place that isn't too hard to enter or exit quickly, yet also isn't gaping and open so that it feels unsafe.

I've also added fake plants, a lot for my benefit, to make things look nicer. I couldn't afford the crazy prices of Reptile One plants, so I used Aqua One stuff instead. Of course I stress tested the plants first, made sure they would not break. Aqua one are more fake looking in a Beardie Enclosure due to their aquasic style, yet $30 cheaper and just as tough.


I don't know my thermo specs, as I bought the cage secondhand and just redecked the globes out. I hope this ramble helps somehow.