Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's a few shots of my beardie in his cage (4'x2'x2'). I know i'm not a great photographer but you get an idea of what his home is. I keep it very simple and easy to clean. I have a 75w basking light, 100w powersun, and just a 18" florescent light. I am definatly a fan of the non stick shelf liner. Oh ya his two perches are made out of my old chameleon vines, I just bent them all around till I got what I wanted.

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Lizard Smoke

1.0 Veiled Chameleon - King George 4yrs old (RIP buddy, you'll always be my first)
1.0 Bearded Dragon - Frank Beardie 2yrs old

It bugs me when someone shows a picture of a set up that they are really proud of and you can't compliment it when it looks good but is functionally bad. Always makes me want to just ignore the post since I'm sure critisism is not what you are looking for. Sorry.

Well anyway for the sake of the dragon. It looks like the whole front is screen. This is not suitable for Bearded Dragons. Your ambient is going to be pretty close to room temp. and humidity, which will cause a high risk of respiratory infections as well as general discomfort for the dragon. It will also not allow him to properly thermoregulate.

The other thing I see is that the basking spot needs to be something that is wide and fairly horizontal so that the beardie can bask without having to hold on all the time.

Ha, Funny how he's happy, healthy, never stressed, eats well, poops well, thermo regulates fine, basks fine and is in tip top shape. Just because it doesn't look like your cage doesn't mean it fails to accomplish the main goal. Oh wait you must be one of those people who r quick to point out what you think r flaws and over look what actually is good. Halarious, I don't think I'll ever post pictures here again on account of you. Oh ya hers the face of my beardie that has it so bad.

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Lizard Smoke

1.0 Veiled Chameleon - King George 4yrs old (RIP buddy, you'll always be my first)
1.0 Bearded Dragon - Frank Beardie 2yrs old

no one means to be rude here, and i dont think BDLVR did either, so you can stop the sarcasim up there lizard smoke. but BDLVR is right a screen cage is not the proper caging for a bearded dragon. it doesnt hold temps properly for a bearded dragon. your basking spots wont hold the actualy basking temp its supposed to. basically your dragon is sitting in a room temps with a little added heat from your basking lamps, but most of the heat is just escaping.

i understand your hard work in making this set up and your proud of it. but when someone sees something that isnt right they will say something. i had the same thing when i built my own cages that were only 3 feet long, and i saw the problems myself, the cool end didnt cool off enough and the ambient temps were too high.
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Beach Beardies

2.2. bearded dragons
1.1. Sugar Gliders
0.2. Felines *queen athena and missy*

hey phldypayne said a cage is fine as long as you can get the right temps, and prevent him from climbing the sides. since non of you have been in his room you have no idea on the temps are in there, I'll tell you one thing it aint 68 in his room more like 82. I'm not trying to be rude or anything and the help I have gotten over the years is great, but if I thought my dragon was uncomfrotable I would do sumthing about.
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Lizard Smoke

1.0 Veiled Chameleon - King George 4yrs old (RIP buddy, you'll always be my first)
1.0 Bearded Dragon - Frank Beardie 2yrs old

First of all I said it looks good which is a compliment and it wasn't my intent to insult.

You should be able to accept comments whether they are good or critical. Otherwise, you're right, you shouldn't post a picture.
You are welcome to make suggestions or comments about any of my enclosures. I have taken many comments and suggestions to heart from many on this forum and elsewhere in the trade in the design and building of my enclosures.

The downside to my new enclosure in my opinion is they look kinda basic and functional. But when it's all said and done basic is what works and is healthiest for the dragons.

It's your choice if you want to disregard my or others suggestions or accept them and make changes in the best interest of your pet that I am sure you care a lot for.

hey bdlvr, what is the metal container in your cages? what is it used for? do you put the food in there? just wondering, maybe i need to do that as well.... thanks

It's not a metal container. It's a 2 1/2" board laying on it's side and screwed in place from the bottom. The inside on the board and the sides of the enclosure are then covered with Aluminum Tape. Crickets, roaches, worms etc cannot climb it. The substrate is shelf liner there while the rest of the enclosure is sand. I call it the cricket corral. lol.

It's a great idea but I can't take credit for it since I stole it from Rob Dachiu. lol.

The setup is quite nice..at first I thought the vine basking spot was too narrow for your dragon till I saw the other pictures, which showed you actually made a wide inclining basking area, which does allow your dragon to rest comfortable, and not worry about falling off the sides. The only thing I could suggest, is reduce the angle...it is rather steep, in time he may find it harder to stay up on it. For now, he looks comfortable on that basking spot.

Normally I don't recommend screen cages for all the reasons BDLvr mentioned, hard to keep heated, risk of damage to toes if dragons try to climb it, crickets can eat out of it, a high humidity in the room can affect your dragon etc. But if your room temperature is 80F, loss of heat to the room would not be an issue. Most people don't have such a high room temperature, so heat loss to the room would normally be very high. Not sure what your room humidity is, but if it rarely stays at 60% humidity or higher for prolonged periods (couple days or more regularly) that should be an issue either.

Lining the bottom of the cage with I believe, linoleum, was a good ideal, especially including the sides. This certainly will help prevent leakage through the screen, and make it harder for your dragon to climb the sides (but then again, a determined dragon can still get up the sides, but not all are such determined climbers).

In summary, your setup works ok with the screen cage, mostly because you have a high room temperature in the room the cage is in. If you kept it much cooler, especially in the winter months (not sure where you are located, so don't know how much different the winters are temp wise for you), it will be much harder to keep that cage warm enough.
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PHLdyPayne

Thank you for seeing some good in my setup cause I try to give him the best I can. I more than likely will make his basking area more horizontal in time when he does get older and more sluggish. In his old aquarium though he loved to be standing when he basked so thats why I have it like that, he loves to stand right high, and for some reason it does look more steep in the picture than in real life. Oh ya it's totally wide enough too, cause sometimes he sits sideways on it at the very top and lets his one arm and leg dangle off. I live in Nova Scotia so it does gets very cold in winter but my apartment is a new building with double pane windows and the best part is heat and lights are included in my rent so that's why I always have it like summertime in my place, and the humidity is moderate not too high or too low.

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Lizard Smoke

1.0 Veiled Chameleon - King George 4yrs old (RIP buddy, you'll always be my first)
1.0 Bearded Dragon - Frank Beardie 2yrs old