Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

My name's Wain, and I'm soon to be an owner of a beardie. All that I can find available to me in the area are very young (4-5 inches long), but the one's I've looked at do seem to be pretty healthy (active, not thin for their size), and I do have a vet that specializes in herps lined up. I do have one question though. I was thinking of starting off with a 15 gallon tank just for a month or two, and letting it grow a bit before putting it in the much larger tank that's on the way (50 gal. I think) so I tried to set it up sans dragon with paper towel for substrate, and I've run into a problem.

I'm not quite sure how to stop the entire tank from being basking spot temps when it's that small. Is it okay if the (relatively) non-basking site is still 100-105 degrees? I just can't get that side of the tank to cool down any further without lowering my basking temp (currently around 107, still playing with it) the tank's just too darn small. Would I be better off waiting for the larger tank and then trying to come up with some way to partition it off into something the little guy can manage?

Also, on another note, I was wondering if anyone on here knew what characteristics(physical, genus, or whatever) are needed to classify a lizard as a "dragon", or is dragon just an arbitrary name not actually designating anything.

My advice would be to wait for a bigger tank, but...... you can use the smaller tank and just hang the basking light so that it is only 1/4 way over a corner of the tank. I used to have 10 gal tanks next to eachother and they shared a basking light between them. This way only 1 corner of the tank was the actual basking site.

Hope it helps...

>>Hello,
>>
>> My name's Wain, and I'm soon to be an owner of a beardie. All that I can find available to me in the area are very young (4-5 inches long), but the one's I've looked at do seem to be pretty healthy (active, not thin for their size), and I do have a vet that specializes in herps lined up. I do have one question though. I was thinking of starting off with a 15 gallon tank just for a month or two, and letting it grow a bit before putting it in the much larger tank that's on the way (50 gal. I think) so I tried to set it up sans dragon with paper towel for substrate, and I've run into a problem.
>>
>>I'm not quite sure how to stop the entire tank from being basking spot temps when it's that small. Is it okay if the (relatively) non-basking site is still 100-105 degrees? I just can't get that side of the tank to cool down any further without lowering my basking temp (currently around 107, still playing with it) the tank's just too darn small. Would I be better off waiting for the larger tank and then trying to come up with some way to partition it off into something the little guy can manage?
>>
>>Also, on another note, I was wondering if anyone on here knew what characteristics(physical, genus, or whatever) are needed to classify a lizard as a "dragon", or is dragon just an arbitrary name not actually designating anything.
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Lisa
www.beginnersbasics.com

Thanks, I will continue to play around with it and decide what to do from there. My only concern with waiting for the larger tank was that it'd be too big and stress out a baby beardie, but I suppose a large piece of sanded wood or maybe a cut top from a large rubbermaid tub could work pretty well in making the cage temporarily smaller as necessary. Just want to make sure everything else is as close to perfect as I can get before actually having to deal with the real reptile.

If the dragon is only 4-5 inches long, depending on how long it will be for a larger tank, you can use a Tupperware tub. The large 30 gal. size. They are really cheap! Although for display purposes this is not the best choice. Your best bet is to wait, but showing even this amount of concern for your future friend shows that you want a long term relationship. I know people that have kept beardies in large tub like containers until almost Adult size. It can be done. I would just make sure to let him out daily, for mental health alone. They love to explore! A bin.......not much to explore. Get the idea. You can, but do ya want too?

And about using only putting the light partialy over the tank, be careful the light doesn't melt the plastic trim on the edge of the tank. I had that happen to me.

we have a four month old beardie and we just moved him from a 10 gallon to a 40 gallon breeder. he did quite well in the 10 gallon for the 1 & 1/2 months he was in it. i used a zoomed 75watt full spectrum bulb in a large fixture and laid it on the top of the basking area. i was able to keep the basking are at around 110 and the cool area at around 76-80. it can be done, but we went thru 3 bulbs til we got it right.

good luck and enjoy your little baby. they are wonderful!!