First, hot rocks are useless for most diurnal lizards. They respond to heat from above, not below. Even if the hot rocks don't overheat, they can still have hot spots that can burn your dragon, unless they are controlled by a thermostat.

Again, its not worth the cost, better to just buy a large flat piece of slate, or finding a suitable rock in nature and clean it up to serve as a basking spot.

If the dragon you are buying is under 14" snout to tail tip, I suggest no sand at all. Small dragons have a higher chance of getting impacted on sand, even with the right temps for digesting. For babies, a simple setup is best.

The tank should be 20 galleons long for babies, with papertowel substrate (or newsprint, tile or other non particulate substrate) to allow for easy clean up and monitoring of bowel movements. A UVB tube that runs the length of the cage and a basking bulb. You also want to get a digital thermometer with probe and/or a temp gun to accurately measure temps both air and on top of the basking spot. A temp gun is best to measure surface temperatures but laying the probe from a digital thermometer ontop of the basking spot will do.

If you haven't done so already, read over the past 10-20 posts below for other useful husbandry information and links. Also use google to do a search on bearded dragon care sheets and read through several of them to get a good general knowledge on basic care. The more information the better, as there are always new ideals and concepts to consider in dragon care.
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PHLdyPayne

[ Hide Replies ]

• sand and hot rock - garth_905, Wed Apr 15 19:38:28 2009
• RE: sand and hot rock - ryan_m, Wed Apr 15 22:45:06 2009
• RE: sand and hot rock - faygo19, Wed Apr 15 23:37:29 2009
• RE: sand and hot rock - garth_905, Thu Apr 16 07:57:30 2009
• RE: sand and hot rock - BDlvr, Thu Apr 16 10:33:29 2009
• RE: sand and hot rock - PHLdyPayne, Thu Apr 16 18:03:52 2009
• RE: sand and hot rock - laurarfl, Sun Apr 19 21:07:25 2009