Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is a quote from oakland zoo (http://www.oaklandzoo.org/atoz/azdragon.html):

These lizards are native to Central Australia. They prefer semi-arid to arid woodland habitats. Time is spent both on the ground and in trees. They may be found perched on bush branches and even on fence posts.

It goes along with most of what I've ever read about or seen of beardies in the wild - that they are not desert reptiles as commonly believed, but prefer to live in lightly wooded shrub and brush areas, down to woodlands. I've spotted beardies in quite lush environments in Australian film clips, perched in lower tree limbs and shrubs, where its very rich and green but not wet or damp like you'd find in a tropical rainforest environment.

The reason I'm bringing it up, is some of the recent discussion on substrates, and also some of the impressions I've been given here over time, that they are a desert creature. Any comments on the differences on how they are kept in captivity, both from person to person and also how they're kept in comparison to their natural habitat?

I agree that they are semi arid lizards and here is a quote from my care sheet on my site
"Misting the habitat occasionally will help maintain proper humidity levels and allow for these semi arid lizards to intake water in a manner to which they are accustom."

I also have a higher recommendation on the humidity level
"The humidity for these lizards should be kept at or near 40%"

These are my opinions and my quotes and are not here to be taken as "fact" or to argue anyone elses way of keeping their dragons.

I have also witnessed that they do indeed like to climb and prefer to "hang out" on whichever cage decoration is highest.

As to substrate ... the only "perfect" substrate that we could use is if we went over to Australia and dug ourselves a barrel full of dirt LOL

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Lisa
Cricket free babies!
www.beginnersbasics.com

That picture is soooo sweet Lisa!!

My opinion a must have is stuff to climb ive seen cages that have nothing mine are more active becuase they have stuff to climb and room to run around my enclosure is 9ft by 7ft wide, as to misting i wouldnt do it too often becuase too much can cause resperitory problems.. a few pics of my enclosure

a diffrent angle shot of my enclosure

Yep some pogona vitticeps do live around some dry forests...

"Pogona vitticeps occupies a large range of habitats from the desert to dry forests and scrublands. It is a semiarboreal lizard that can be found basking on fallen branches, fence posts and picnic tables (Grenard 1999)."

"The first described species of the genus now known as Pogona was the Bearded Dragon Pogona barbata of the wetter parts of the east and south-east of Australia, including parts of the Murray/Darling basin. Up until recent years, many other species in the genus were incorrectly diagnosed as this species. This is particularly for specimens of a related form Pogona vitticeps. That similar species is known to occur throughout inland and drier parts of Eastern Australia, extending into the central Australian deserts." excerpt from POGONA - FROM AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE. BY RAYMOND HOSER.

There are pogona species that do require more moisture....but vitticeps seem not to according to what I've read and researched.
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Tracey
Tracey's Beardies
www.beardiecrazy.com
"Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous.
It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood" ~Maya Angelou

How many generations removed from Australia are Dragons we own? Are we changing their requirements through methods used by breeders?
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0.0.2 Bearded Dragons(Ziggy and Stardust)