How much time should an almost 12 month old bearded dragon bask?

[ZiggyDust]

I ask as mine is either stubborn or she is going through a change. I’m sure adults don’t need to bask as long, so wanted to ask and see an average of how many hours.

Currently, she is alternating between hiding under her hammock on the warm side, spending time on the cool side and basking first thing in the morning/last thing at night. I know my temps are fine as yesterday, for example, she spent 3 hours before bed under one of her heat lamps — mouth wide open and her temp (measured with a temp gun) was 97°F.

It adult bearded dragons really don’t bask as long as babies/juveniles, then I need to reconfigure her 8 foot habitat to accommodate her with a better gradient along with reconfiguring the UVB to ensure she is still getting enough exposure.

 

[mango_the_beardie]

I ask as mine is either stubborn or she is going through a change. I’m sure adults don’t need to bask as long, so wanted to ask and see an average of how many hours.

Currently, she is alternating between hiding under her hammock on the warm side, spending time on the cool side and basking first thing in the morning/last thing at night. I know my temps are fine as yesterday, for example, she spent 3 hours before bed under one of her heat lamps — mouth wide open and her temp (measured with a temp gun) was 97°F.

It adult bearded dragons really don’t bask as long as babies/juveniles, then I need to reconfigure her 8 foot habitat to accommodate her with a better gradient along with reconfiguring the UVB to ensure she is still getting enough exposure.

I can't stress this enough LET YOUR BEARDIE DO WHAT THEY WANT let her bask for however long she wants but make sure you turn her lights off every 12 hours so pretend you wake her up and 7:30 in the morning then turn her light off at 7:30 at night

 

[ZiggyDust]

I can't stress this enough LET YOUR BEARDIE DO WHAT THEY WANT let her bask for however long she wants but make sure you turn her lights off every 12 hours so pretend you wake her up and 7:30 in the morning then turn her light off at 7:30 at night

I asked a question to see if bearded dragons, as they get older, bask less. If you are unable to answer the topic at hand, you could have just said that, or said nothing at all.

 

[mango_the_beardie]

I asked a question to see if bearded dragons, as they get older, bask less. If you are unable to answer the topic at hand, you could have just said that, or said nothing at all.

no one knows the answer to that because every dragon is different but with my dragon no she basked about the same time as when she was a baby

 

[SPandS]

Your tank is so large with so many different options for her to choose it may be different than most people with only 1 or 2 choices. For some if their dragon wants to get more uvb it also means they have to be under the basking bulb or vice versa. As long and she's basking long enough to digest her meals and get enough uvb to stay healthy I don't think it's anything to worry about. It could just be a change in her personal preference or even just a phase.

 

[Rubble1212]

Chiming in late here but yes older dragons won’t bask nearly as long as adults because they don’t eat as much and don’t need to digest constantly like a youngster. My guy is 4 and he spends more time in the mid to high 80’s than he does in his basking area he’ll bask in the highest temperatures in the morning then unless he eats will spend the rest of the day in the 85-90 range.