Bark chips are a "no-no". Beardies will taste most anything and are prone to impaction with "particulate" substrates. Even sand is not a good idea. Calci-sand is a REALLY bad idea because it will stick together after being ingested causing a big lump. The best thing is to put ceramic tile, newspaper, non-adhesive rubbery shelf-liner (a favorite amongst most of us here), or non-looped reptile carpet. Young beardies will poop a lot and it is easiest to spot clean a flat surface (I use baby wipes). You will need a rock or heavy branch of some sort under the basking lamp . I have a terra cotta saucer for my bigger beardie since he got too big for the rock. It is nice and easy to clean. They also like rocks and/or branches to climb on but are not considered "arboreal" lizards. My guy sleeps in one of those reptile hammocks in the cool corner of his tank at night. It just sticks on with suction cups. Remember that they can come unstuck so be careful what you put underneath it (nothing pointy or sharp).
You need a probe type thermometer so you can check the basking surface temp as well as the air temp of the cool side of the tank (air temp in the low 80s is good, basking spot should be 105-115 measured with the probe on the basking rock). Your guy will need two kinds of lights. The basking one put in a clamp lamp type fixture for heat at the hot side plus a UVB fluorescent tube that spans the length OR you could shell out the cash for a MVB flood lamp which actually provides a better source of the UVB plus heat. They are pricey though. You will spend atleast $40 for the bulb alone. The fluorescent can be found for around $20. A timer is pretty much essential to make sure they stay on a light schedule. 10-14 hours a day of light is good. Timers are fairly cheap. I've seen them for as low as $5. They can tolerate temps down into the 60s at night.
You will need to provide crickets that are no longer than the space between your beardie's eyes and dust them with a calcium powder that contains vit D3. The most recommended here is Repcal pink label. You will have to dust the food once daily for babies and about 3Xweek for older beardies. They also need a multivitamin. Repcal makes one called herptivite I believe but there are others that are good too. The multivitamin only needs to be given 3xweek for a baby and maybe a coupleXweek for an older. Babies NEED their bugs atleast twice a day. I would give a fresh salad (check here for a very thorough list of veggie staples
http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html , well-chopped, in the morning first thing then offer dusted bugs at noon and then later again in the afternoon. If your schedule demands, you could offer the bugs first thing in the AM with the salad and then again when you get home from work in the afternoon. I also put juvie pellets in with the salad and add water about halfway up the dish to keep everything moist and to provide the water source. A separate water dish is a topic for debate since it may add too much humidity to the tank and some beardies like to poop in them
Also, a baby could drown in a water dish. They get plenty of water from the salad bowl and veggies and the baths. You can soak him a couple times a week in water that is warm enough for a baby's
bath (just test that it is warm but not hot with your forearm). Be forewarned that beardies like to poop in their
bath though. (this is a GOOD thing for those whose beardies will go weeks without going
) Other good staple bugs are silkworms. They will also provide a good source of moisture to his diet. The size rule doesn't apply to silkies because they don't have an exoskeleton. Mealworms are a bad choice for beardies because of how hard their exo is. Waxworms, butterworms and some other softbody worms are okay for treats but are like feeding your guy porkrinds. He will get addicted to them and they aren't so great nutritionwise. Remember that a tiny baby beardie can eat as much in $$$ in bugs as a full-grown rottweiler does in Dog Chow! I was spending up to $20/week when mine was a little guy! Thankfully he is on superworms now (he is much bigger, supers are a no-no for babies) and only needs them a few times a week. I make my own bug food. I mix infant cereal with fish flakes and reptile calcium and vitamins and put it in a shallow dish. They also need a water source but will drown in open water. I use those cotton squares you find near the cotton balls and soak them in water in a shallow dish. Egg crates and toilet paper tubes are good for them to hide in. They also like fresh veggies (you can feed the beardie's salad scraps like the husks of the greens and such). You have to feed them a good diet or they won't be nutritious for your beardie. Keep them in a rubbermaid bin with a hole cut in the top and screening glued (securely with a glue gun!) into the hole. If they get too humid from lack of ventilation, they will die off!
Your tank sounds like a good size (you said 4'X2'). For a baby, you may want to partition off a smaller area in the beginning though. You also don't want to have a "hide" for babies because they may decide to stay in there all the time and not get enough UV. You will want a secure lid (you want to prevent both escape of the beardie as well as other pets from getting HIM) that has big enough holes to let the light in (if you put the light on top). Some fine-weave mesh can block UVB so you may want to find a way to install THAT fixture INSIDE the tank. I rigged up a fluorescent fixture with a board and wire coat hangers to do this. It also makes sure that the light is close enough to do him some good. (It should be accessible to within about 6" to do what it needs to do)
PHEW!!!! Did I hit everything? Some of what I said may conflict with the "pet care books" but I think that most everyone here will agree that what I said is the safest choices and that some of those books out there have some bad info. You should also use great caution when asking pet store employees for advice. HTH
-Melissa
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