Natural Sun Bathing

[DorkiTimmy]

So I was wondering how long I should leave my dragon outside in the sun for him to bathe in it of course there is also shade for him to go to if its to hot and another question does your dragon tend to go dark when they go out to the natural sunlight? my Beardie Yoshi is around 7months old 14inch ish

 

[jiveturkey40]

I think it depends on how the sun is where you are.

I live in Arizona, and we get a blazing hot sun in the daytime. My beardie can go from cold/sleeping to wide awake and energized in just 20 minutes by laying on a basking rock in my backyard. During those 20 minutes, I watch his color drastically change - he darkens when he first gets exposed to the sun, I think the shock of the real light kind of freaks him out. Then after about 5 minutes of dealing with it, his color turns bright yellow and beautiful and he becomes very attentive and watches everything around him. After about 10 minutes of being bright and alert, he's ready to jump off the rock and sprint around in the shade.

So in my experience, I would say about 20-30 minutes if you have a bright, hot sun where you are. Maybe up to an hour if it's cool and overcast. Just BE SURE to keep an eye on him the entire time! My dragon has an uncanny ability to watch me and wait until I turn my head so he can dart off his rock and go hide somewhere. The backyard gives him a lot of courage

 

[tgolden]

watch out for birds to when your out there lol i had a hawk try to get RA one day last summer. the little wire viv i have for outside saved him..... i live in the south with high humidty so my outside trips are only about 15 minutes.

 

[DorkiTimmy]

Alright thanks I kinda keep him in a large mouse cage where he can't go out but also have half shade and sun for him if he either wants to be in the sun or not and I leave him there for 30 min since I don't have time to kinda sit there and watch him

 

[zandi202]

Beardies can be dark for two reasons:
1. stress
2. darker colors attract heat so they ate trying to gather warmth

 

[wizbee]

Boga goes out sometimes all day in her outside cage. It is in my avatar photo. She has a shallow pan of water she likes to lay in and half of the cage is always shaded. I hardly ever turn on my uvb light. she usually has around 45 minutes of fresh florida sunshine every day and longer on the weekends.