A large cage, bigger than minimum sizes recommended for one or more dragons, certainly will reduce stress level in all occupants. I know of one breeder who converted a bedroom into a bearded dragon enclosure, keeping most of his adult breeding dragons in there. It was hard packed dirt substrate, lots of rocks, logs etc, basically looking like a piece of the Australian outback in his house. Appropriately mounted heat/uvb lamps ensured their health. Unfortunately that breeder passed away not to long ago, so no clue if the bedroom 'cage' is still being used or in existance.

Anyway, more space, multiple basking/eating/hiding places, obsticals to help break line of sight (ie logs, rocks, ledges, etc) will allow the dragons to maintain their own little 'territories' within the large cage, and interact if they want too.

For the cage you are thinking of building, 6'x2'x4' would really be wasted. Though dragons do like to climb, there really isn't any need to have the cage more than 2' high, all that extra vertical space will be wasted, or more difficult to utilize. However, if you do want a tall display cage...put two large cages one on top of the other. This way your front doors/glass doesn't ahve to be as big a sheet, and you won't have the awkwardness of opening a 4' high door. So, two cages that are 6'-8' long, 2-3' wide and 2' high willgive you much more playing room (and the potential to house more than just bearded dragons or able to move groupings around to ensure all can get along). If you just don't want two cages, even if one on top of the other...build a base for the cage, and use the base as storage space for other stuff (have cupboards built into it, store the dragon food/bowls, cleaning stuff whatever in there). This way the display cage isn't right on the floor or very low. You can also have both solutions, a lower base with storage space, then the two cages one on top of the other (in the same basically frame or 2-3 sections to allow moving teh entire unit much eaier).


a 6'x2'x2' cage can easily house 2-3 dragons with lots of room for all of them. 6'x3'x2' you can have 2-4 dragons and 8'x2'x2' can handle 4-5 dragons and a whooping cage of 8'x3'x2' can hold a half dozen or so of dragons. THe more dragons housed together, the higher the risk some may not get along no matter how much space they have. Though with all that floor space you really can set up alot of hides, logs, mounds, basking spots etc...depending on how much work you want to do, both in initial setting up and cleaning. THe lighten and heating will of course be more difficult, much more area to heat to minimum air temps (about 80F warm side, 70F cool side) and having those important hot basking temps (95-115F) on numerous basking areas (at least one per dragon) the UVB has to be setup to cover all those basking areas so each dragon can get exposure to it. the smallest cage may be fine with a single or double florescent tube fixture (either two UVB bulbs in the double fixture or one UVB bulb and one full spectrum bulb (mostly for light intensity)), the largest cage you were thinking, may need two 4' fixtures (mounted staggered, so they sort of overlap in the cage center). MVB could be used, but giving they don't flood as well as the tubes..may need 2-4 per cage, depending on size.

well, I rambled on much more than you probably wanted me to....but just had alot of suggestions. Oh, also a quick note, alot of breeder pictures of multiple dragons may not be of dragons normally kept together. Some put them all in the same container or setup to make it easier to take pictures of all hteir dragons, instead of individual shots. Some may be from shows, where display cages are almost always much smaller than what the dragons are normally housed in, etc.
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PHLdyPayne

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