We are well on our way to finishing Gonzalo's habitat. It will be a 72 in x 24 in x 26(h) footprint with sliding glass doors in front (pictures in front) for the habitat itself -- there is ~8 inches of enclosed space above for lighting -- pictures to come.
In looking at lots of pictures of habitats here and around the web, there are certainly lots of very impressive interiors with fake rocks/ramps/basking spots. It seems most habitats do not have much in the way of branches/climbing areas. My impression is that bearded dragons are semi-arboreal (and ours in fact, seems to come down from his "basking perch(s)" only to eat, poop, and sometimes sleep (he seems to rotate sleeping spots every week or so.
I'm thinking of essentially filling the floor space of habitat with a number of branches (mopani? ghostwood?) and leaving not too much floor space. With 72 inches of length to work with, I was thinking of hanging a 46" Reptisun bulb, essentially centered. Then, instead of a single basking light, I was going to use 3 basking lights, hung across the habitat, each on a different timer - so that only one would be on at any given time (well, some overlapping periods of time, something like:
far left: 6 am on, 1 pm off
center: 11 am on, 4 pm off
far right: 12:30 pm on, 6 pm off
Any plusses/minuses to doing this?
In looking at lots of pictures of habitats here and around the web, there are certainly lots of very impressive interiors with fake rocks/ramps/basking spots. It seems most habitats do not have much in the way of branches/climbing areas. My impression is that bearded dragons are semi-arboreal (and ours in fact, seems to come down from his "basking perch(s)" only to eat, poop, and sometimes sleep (he seems to rotate sleeping spots every week or so.
I'm thinking of essentially filling the floor space of habitat with a number of branches (mopani? ghostwood?) and leaving not too much floor space. With 72 inches of length to work with, I was thinking of hanging a 46" Reptisun bulb, essentially centered. Then, instead of a single basking light, I was going to use 3 basking lights, hung across the habitat, each on a different timer - so that only one would be on at any given time (well, some overlapping periods of time, something like:
far left: 6 am on, 1 pm off
center: 11 am on, 4 pm off
far right: 12:30 pm on, 6 pm off
Any plusses/minuses to doing this?