Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i went on reptile direct and under cages they offer these reptariums, are they suitable for bearded dragons? they look almost screenlike. what do most of you use as cages, and is it complicated to build your own?

sydney would have a screen cage torn up in no time!

i use a 20 gallon long glass aquarium for her
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Lizards

1.4.0 leopard geckos - diego, libby, jaws, josephine, and sobe
0.1 bearded dragon - sydney
0.1 king snake & 0.0.3 corn snakes
2 red eye tree frogs, 3 green tree frogs
5 anoles
5.0 bettas & numerous tropicals
1.2 dogs (dachshund-pepper, brittany spaniel-jenni, lab-kaci)
1 hubby & 2 boys

I built quite a few cages. They were not as hard as I thought it would be. I made them out of melamine, which I bought at home depot. Home depot will even cut the pieces exactly to the sizes you need. All I had to do was jigg out the wholes for the vents, attach a ceramic fixture for a light bulb inside, put the vents on, and of course screw the whole thing together. I did save quite a few bucks doing it myself. The doors I used plastic tracks for sliding plexi glass doors. If you hit Mystical dragons below I have a pic of one of the cages I built, and If you choose this route just ask and I'll supply you with more detailed pics. The screen cages will be hard to hold in heat, and you will need high powerd lights to achive the desert temps bearded dragons need. They are great for outdoor cages in the summer though.
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Mystical Dragons

building your own cage isn't very hard
here is a link to a site that takes you through the process,
http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/cages.html
i followed it and got this, i think it works very well

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1 mali uro - oni
2 bearded dragons- Trogdor "the burninator",Strom

We have always used repartiums when our dragons go outside for the day, being in Florida that can be almost 10 months of the year.

We had planned all along when the imported dragons came to house them during the day outside in natural sunlight. Inside they would go in the glass tanks all our live in.

We were really surpised to find out the babies perfer the repartiums, they are MUCH easier to clean, and we have found that while inside, two 75 watts household bulbs in domes opposite each other, keep a PERFECT temperature of 95-108 over a 12 inch area with a basking stone/cave. This also allows the babies to move as close to the light was they want or as far as they want to more naturally let them thermo-regulate themselves. It also gives them more range area.

Babies in the wild, for safetly, climb to sleep at night and remain in that upright position through the night, the reptariums let them do this also, where glass tanks don't unless you have something in the tank they can (remember how often your dragon as a baby slept standing up the wall?)

Once they were established here, we moved them to glass tanks inside in the evening and they actually seemed bored and depressed, just laying on the basking area. It was harder to keep constant temps in the glass over a large area and the babies were less active, after 3 days we changed them back to their reptariums and they were all back to normal and much happier. A few of the larger babies have now stopped climbing to sleep and find a spot on the floor to snuggle down, usually between the side and a basking area.

Here is a picture of their set ups. Either lights opposite like this or we have changed to having one on the side and one directly overhead now. I don'tt know how UVB lights would work added to this, as they get their UVB from the sun during the day. But for groups of babies, we have found this to work perfect for them and us.

>>We have always used repartiums when our dragons go outside for the day, being in Florida that can be almost 10 months of the year.
>>
>>We had planned all along when the imported dragons came to house them during the day outside in natural sunlight. Inside they would go in the glass tanks all our live in.
>>
>>We were really surpised to find out the babies perfer the repartiums, they are MUCH easier to clean, and we have found that while inside, two 75 watts household bulbs in domes opposite each other, keep a PERFECT temperature of 95-108 over a 12 inch area with a basking stone/cave. This also allows the babies to move as close to the light was they want or as far as they want to more naturally let them thermo-regulate themselves. It also gives them more range area.
>>
>>Babies in the wild, for safetly, climb to sleep at night and remain in that upright position through the night, the reptariums let them do this also, where glass tanks don't unless you have something in the tank they can (remember how often your dragon as a baby slept standing up the wall?)
>>
>>Once they were established here, we moved them to glass tanks inside in the evening and they actually seemed bored and depressed, just laying on the basking area. It was harder to keep constant temps in the glass over a large area and the babies were less active, after 3 days we changed them back to their reptariums and they were all back to normal and much happier. A few of the larger babies have now stopped climbing to sleep and find a spot on the floor to snuggle down, usually between the side and a basking area.
>>
>>Here is a picture of their set ups. Either lights opposite like this or we have changed to having one on the side and one directly overhead now. I don'tt know how UVB lights would work added to this, as they get their UVB from the sun during the day. But for groups of babies, we have found this to work perfect for them and us.
>>

due to having the constant new air and sounds of being outside? Just curious because I am wondering if an indoor reptarium would do as well as one outside.
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Rob

and they really do seem to be happy in them. Now, not our adults, but the babies love climbing and hanging on the sides so much, it also increases their range area more than triple.

I honestly was surprised as I thought the reptariums were harder to heat and not as good as a glass tank, but I think in the future we will use these exclusively for babies. We had no problem with lights set like I described getting and keeping a good temp range. In the glass tanks they were always in one stop and rarely active, in the reptariums they are all over the place, sometimes right up by the lights, mostly basking and sometimes on the cool end hanging on the sides. We them added a piece of wood base with a fake plant on it and they just think this is great. They take turns (sometimes not such good patience) climbing on it and sliding off the big leaves. only problem is when one wants to stop and bask on the leaves, the other have no respect and they all climb on til they ALL side off!

>>and they really do seem to be happy in them. Now, not our adults, but the babies love climbing and hanging on the sides so much, it also increases their range area more than triple.
>>
>>I honestly was surprised as I thought the reptariums were harder to heat and not as good as a glass tank, but I think in the future we will use these exclusively for babies. We had no problem with lights set like I described getting and keeping a good temp range. In the glass tanks they were always in one stop and rarely active, in the reptariums they are all over the place, sometimes right up by the lights, mostly basking and sometimes on the cool end hanging on the sides. We them added a piece of wood base with a fake plant on it and they just think this is great. They take turns (sometimes not such good patience) climbing on it and sliding off the big leaves. only problem is when one wants to stop and bask on the leaves, the other have no respect and they all climb on til they ALL side off!
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Rob