Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi again!
I have B/W arg. tegu that loves his cave.
So Im a bit surprised because my baby bearded dragon does not look for a shelter (small cave or under a little log) inside his cage.
When I turn off the lights he just lay down on top of something or even direct on the paper substract and sleep.
Is this normal? Not look for a shelter?

Id suggest moving the shelter to a different place in the cage. And see if theres a difference.

I have also thought myself that it is strange that beardies do not really desire shelter. My Beardie is the same way. I turn off his lights and where he is, is where he sleeps. Personally, I think it is because they feel safe where they are. I think they realize there are no predators, and we are not going to suddenly swoop into there cages and eat them, lol.
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1.0 Bearded Dragons
0.3 Fat tailed geckos
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa

I have found most bearded dragon's don't bother looking for a shelter to sleep. It may be due to the fact when we turn off the lights, it is light, then dark...so they really don't have a transitional period between day and night to take the time to look for a shelter. Or they simply could be too lazy to bother, sleeping where ever they happen to be when the lights go out.

Some dragons will move into a hide, others won't. I think its pretty normal either way. With my new dragon, I have noticed she is moving underneath her basking log to sleep, though this may be because I have a bad habit of turning on the ceiling light at night where her cage is so the only place she is really dark, is under her log. Once I move the snakes into my bedroom and the blue tongue skinks into their adult cages, I can keep my bearded dragon out of the dining room so she won't see the kitchen light come on when I am making a night snack.
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PHLdyPayne

I do give my Dragon transitional lighting at bedtime and in the morning.

First, in the morning, before the timer clicks the basking lamp on, there is sunlight through the window. Even though the sunlight does not directly hit the tank, it does light the room, and I notice my dragon wakes up and looks around for a time before the basking lamp comes on. After about an hour, I come in and turn on the UVB lamp.

In the evening, it is after dark when the basking lamp turns off. However, the UVB lamp stays on for about half an hour until I come in to turn it off. Then the room lights (an overhead incandescent light on a ceiling fan) stay on until about an hour later, when I turn them off. My dragons get up onto their basking perch, and position themselves for sleep, but still have their eyes open and look around at the room until the UVB light goes off. THey are sleeping on the perch when I enter the room to turn off the ceiling fan light.

So... I doubt that the lack of transitional lighting has much to do with whether or not they seek a hide... because mine have every opportunity, but don't.
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KITKAT

0.0.1 Bearded Dragon
1.0 African House Snake
0.1 Albino Corn Snake
0.1 Red Sided Garter Snake
0.0.1 Oregon Red Spotted Garter Snake
0.1 Peromyscus leucopus (White-footed mouse)
2.5 Turkish Angora (show) cats

Antioch Turkish Angoras
PuRRS Rescue