First off, I'll post an excerpt about life stages from "The Bearded Dragon Manual" by - Vosjoli, Mailloux, Donoghue, Kilngenberg & Cole:

Hatchling/Juvenile: Birth to about 8 inches in length.
Subadult: 8 inches to adult. (aprox. 12in.)
Sexual Onset/Young Adult: 12 - 16 inches. This stage lasts through the first three years of breeding.
Mature Adult: Fourth year of breeding until 6 - 7yrs old.
Old Age: Usually by by 6 - 7yrs.
Pages referrenced: pg. 13 - 15

This is a really good book that I think every beardie owner should have.

So you do have a mercury vapor UVB. I'm pretty much ignorant about 'em due to my reluctance to try new things. Yeah, I know they're not exactly new, but neither am I, (hint, hint) (old school). LOL! Just check to make sure the distance from the basking spot is within recommended range. I don't know where to tell you to find that info right off hand.

Depending on the wattage of your incandescent, you might can use a lower wattage instead of completely eliminating it. Since we've not reached the heart of summer yet I'd expect those temps to climb a tad bit more before they start to go down on their own, as far as your room's ambient temp goes. But there again, that depends on your A/C (air conditioner) settings, too.

I feel that the only place your cage should reach temps above 105 is directly in the beam of the basking site, clsoest to the light, away from any surface or low-level ambient temp. 105, maybe 107, max. I feel 109 is too high for adults. Fine for babies, juvies, like you said, but not for adults. One of the factors, or costs, of using mercury vapor UVBs can be the difficulty in achieving good basking temps without getting too high ambient temps. It's usually not a problem if the enclosure is large enough, but few are.

Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not meaning to bad-mouth mercury vapor UVBs, some people swear by them, love 'em. They just throw several wrenches in this o' hillbilly's old school of thoughts. Ha!

My setups are geared towards basking spot temps. I use one spot or flood type bulb per setup for both basking & overall heat. My basking site for my 10-month old male beardie is 105. Right now I'm using a 65-watt flood light aimed at a rock for a basking site. That puts the ambient temperature on the hot end (outside of basking beams) to about 95. The cool end is 80 - 82. That's just what works for this setup I'm using for this beardie (tank size, ambient temp of room, distance from basking light to basking surface, etc...).

There are even some setups that work well with just a single incandescent bulb placed near a basking rock or limb. Of course, this calls for the bulb to be placed inside the enclosure, which for most setups, can be an inconvenience.

Sorry about all the rambling there. I'll try to stay on course from here on out.

Water dish:
Heh, this is something that I think our beardies are scratching their heads about, wondering why we keep putting a bowl of water in their desert. Ha! Out of 4 beardies, I've only seen ONE drink from a dish. My adult male used to soak & defecate in his dish for a few months when he was younger, so I know that he benefited from it some.

Some people mist the beardies, some mist the walls for the beardies to lick, some use an eye-dropper, and some just soak their beardies for 30 minutes a few times per week and don't even bother with a water dish in their cage.

I like using an eye-dropper. By placing a few drops on the end of its nose, it lets me know if its in need or desire of water. Usually I'll sit there & slowly squeeze out a drop at a time for them to lick until they walk away.

Another thing to consider about getting a timer: Not only does it make it easier on you so that you don't have to manually do it, it turns the lights on/off at consistent times, making it better for the reptiles. The lights come on at 7:00 am day after day, not 7:00 am one day, 7:30 the next, etc...

You're sleeping in your closet in order to have more cage room? Wow! You're gonna make some reptile man a FINE wife some day. LOL! Will you talk to my wife about it? Ha! Ha! My wife told me that the best she'd do would be to put me & my reptiles out the door. I think she meant the door going to the outside, not the closet.

Take care!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

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