reviews on Zilla® Deluxe XL Bearded Dragon Housing Kit

[VeggieLoven]

i was at petsmart the other day and had found this starter kit. it has a 40 gal tank three lights but im not possitive there uvb. reptile carpet a couple of bolws and some alfalfa for reptiles i was wandering if anyone had used this and if it was any good the sales rep said i would just have to add a house and some decorations but im a little worried about the lights

 

[ziggydoodles]

The lights that come with those kits are mostly useless. I personally bought one when I got my beardie, and only used about half of what it came with. If your kit comes with a basking bulb, that's the only light I'd keep. The nighttime bulbs only disrupt your beardie's sleep. You'd still need to get the correct UVB light, a reptiSUN 10.0 or arcadia 12% tube light, any compact UVB emits the wrong wavelengths & can be harmful to your beardie's eyes. The reptile carpet is a good choice for a substrate, that's what my kit came with also. Overall that kit in particular isn't a horrible choice, but you do need to get a few other things that it doesn't come with, mainly the UVB light and the proper thermometers, because if I remember correctly that kit comes with the dial kind, and those are pretty inaccurate.

 

[TeachersPetDragon]

I have the Zilla Deluxe kit (not XL). The Thermometer/Hydrometer never worked. It comes with bedding which I gave to my roaches to nest in and bought natural slate tiles for the enclosure instead (~$4 at Menards). The kit comes with a CFL UVB bulb. I do not know if the Zilla CFL bulbs have ever caused reptiles to go blind, but other brand CFLs have caused reptiles to go blind so I did not chance it. I bought an under-cabinet T8 18" fixture (~$20 at Menards) and am using it with a Zilla T8 Desert 18" tube bulb. I am using the 160 watt bulb which works great and keeps the ambient and basking temps right where they need to be. I am using the nighttime infrared bulb and it seems to be working fine because right when it goes on my little guy goes into a corner and goes to sleep for the night. I've not noticed any problems with him staying up or it disrupting his sleep as he is pretty sound asleep when I look at him at night.

When I originally bought the kit, I encountered a number of problems: the thermometer/hydrometer didn't work. Also, the 160 watt bulb exploded. It threw glass shards all over my enclosure and onto my bearded dragon. I had it clipped on the edge of the enclosure while I was feeding him crickets and I was dealing with the crickets when it just exploded. I didn't knock it or anything and it had more than enough air flow that it wasn't caused by anything I did. I emailed Zilla and they sent me replacements bulbs for the exploded one and a replacement thermometer/hydrometer. I have the new 160 watt bulb up and running fine, although I won't clip it on the edge of the cage anymore and will only use it through the screen lid. The new thermometer/hydrometer that was sent to me directly from Zilla doesn't work either. There must be some serious manufacturing defect in these things because the thermometer needle doesn't move. I took apart the first one and saw no reason for it not to work, and the second one is still in the package and the thermometer needle won't move (sits at 60 F while under a 160 watt bulb). I should note that I do like the light the 160 watt gives off. They have it tinted blue and I compared it to both a regular 60 watt household bulb and a 50 watt basking flood-style bulb from some other company and I prefer the color of the Zilla daylight blue bulb to the others. Zilla was very professional and quick in responding to my emails.

The Deluxe XL kits apparently have a reptile carpet instead of the pellet bedding, include a ceramic feeding bowl, and come with two thermometer/hydrometers to measure the temp on the cool end and on the warm end.

If I had to buy a new enclosure for a new beardie, I would probably piece out the items I need instead of buying the Zilla kits. For $200: $50 for the tank, $50 for fixtures, $40 for bulbs, $20 for a digital thermometer, $25 for digital timer switches, $10 for a bowl, and $5 for slate tiles. And then you get the items you want and avoid the CFL. Also, my breakdown includes a digital thermometer and digital timer switches.