Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi I am going to get a beardie dragon and I would like someone to tell me what exactally I need for my dragon to live a long and healthy life . A picture of eny experinced herpers bearded dragon cage would be helpfull thanks.

Here is a pic of my enclosure. You wil need to ahve a large enough area that there are diferent temp zones......I use an old store display case.

I keep the basking light in the middle and it keeps the basking temps at about 95 F. The ends of the tank stay arround 70 F.

This allows the dragons to self regulate their body temp.

Remember, Draggons get anywhere from 12 to 20 inches in length and need plenty of room to grow.

Good luck

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Ken
If you kill it, You better be willing to eat it!

2 Bearded Dragons
1 Iguana
4 Oscars
2 Dogs
2 Children

Cage: the bigger, the better. Nothing smaller than a 40 breeder...36"x18"x16"I think). Enough to have a basking area at 110F to 120F, but a cooler side in the 80's or so...at night it can be around 70F. The temp difference allows them to regulate their body temp...while the heat allows them to digest their food. You can put a perch under the basking light. Use a top...my beardie jumps.

Substrate: I use playsand. You can buy it at Home Depot for around $2.50-$3.00, or much less if the bad is busted (around a $). Just keep the substrate clean by shifting any fecal matter or food out.

Lighting: I use a 150 watt light (tight beam) for basking. 12 to 18 in. above basking area. Allows for good heat, with a good temp gradient. The beardie must have a UV light to get the UVB rays (helps with D3 and Calcium digestion)and/or get as much sun light as you can...don't put the tank into direct sun light...it gets too hot very quickly...get a wire cage that he can't get out of or get hurt in (legs and arms, etc)to use for sun basking outside or maybe a deep rubber-maid tub. Some people use...as I soon will...the MVB bulbs. They are little more expensive, but they supposedly give both great heat and great UVA (for appatiete and activity) and UVB. Some say their breadies do better on them than other bulbs. One bulb for everything I guess.

Food/Suppliments/Other: dark grees: turnip, mustard, collard greens, etc. all types of squash, razberries (bad spelling, I know) and some other limited fruits. I give greens with squash every day...fruit a couple of times or so a week. Daily feeding of insects: crickets(cheap if you get them shipped on web)(I get mine at the bait shop), mealworms and superworms (limit, too much phosphorous and exoskeleton isn't good for them), they say that the best thing is silkworms (shipped from web). Some say that too many worms can get beardies hooked where they don't want to eat anything else. Everything should be dusted, especially when they are young. Always give greens and veggies. Socialize each other often as you can...they will be jumpy at first but just work with it. Don't tease, ever.

READ, READ, AND READ MORE. THESE ARE MY OPINIONS...YOU SHOULD RESEARCH MORE FOR BOTH YOURSELF AND YOUR BEARDIE. BEARDIES ARE INDIVIDUALS...IN TERMS OF LIZARDS...THEY HAVE THEIR OWN PERSONALITIES AND PREFERENCES. KEEP IN TOUCH...ASK OR GIVE OPINIONS ON HERE ABOUT ANYTHING...AND START BY GOING TO www.beautifuldragons.com

Other: always dust with Calcium dust and frequently with a multi-vitamin dust. I use Rep-Cal and their multi-vitamin.

Oh, don't use lettuce...its useless. It doesn't have any nutrients, etc. except for water. Use dark greens, but limit kale and spinach. Give water in small, shallow dish. Mist every so often...and a little on sides of tank...give them a warm bath every so often.

. Enough to have a basking area at 110F to 120F

Wow is that right? I always read about 90F to 95F, I used to keep my euro's that hot.

>>. Enough to have a basking area at 110F to 120F
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>>Wow is that right? I always read about 90F to 95F, I used to keep my euro's that hot.

Yes it is right.

Ideally for young dragons you want a basking spot of 105 - 115

Adults like it about 100 - 105
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Lisa
Cricket free babies!
LIVE hatchling web cam 8 - 8 EST
www.beginnersbasics.com

I built this cage myself with birch-laminated plywood left over from another project. Because of this the dimensions are a bit odd... 49.5" x 20" x 27.5"

It has a mahogany stain and really looks great in person. This picture does not do it justice.

I use a false-ceiling design that allows for a lot of ventialtion but also conserves some heat. Into this false ceiling design I stuff as many lights as I can and currently use a ceramice heat emitter for the basking area. In addition to the CHE I also have a 4' shop light (twin tubed) and one of the combo hoods with three self-ballasted flourescent bulbs.

When I built this cage I was led to believe that certain mercury vapor bulbs can be installed horizontally. That turned out to be somewhat false... what I did not know at the time was that this dramatically shortens the life of the bulbs. I'm back to florescents. In a perfect world I would have left room for the vertical installation of mercury vapor bulbs.

I'll post a picture of the false ceiling design next.

Sorry, this is a picture of the false ceiling in another cage.

What I do is have the back panel of the cage not run all the way to the top of the cage. In the case of the Bearded Dragon cage it stops about 6" from the top.

Then I built a frame from 1"x1" pine -- this is what you see in the picture. This frame runs from the top of the back panel to the bottom of the top upper lip of the cage. The upper lip is where the top part of the glass track runs.

The frame is covered with screen and reinforced with small metal brackets.

So along the back of the cage there is an opening that allows one to hide the lights but still have easy access to them. It also keeps animals or feeder insects from escaping. In the case of the Bearded Dragon cage the opening is 6" x 48".

Hope this makes sense.

I wish that I could build something like that. What were the materials used?...Do you have any directions?...What did it cost you?

The cage pictured in the previous post was probably near $400 when you factor in plants, etc. I'll post a picture of the completed project below. It now sits in a good friend's living room and houses a pair of Uroplatus henkeli.

That cage was constructed from a lower quality oak-laminated plywood. Interior and exterior were stained and given three coats of water-based polyurethane. The interior received an additional coat of Envirotex Epoxy (expensive).

The Bearded Dragon cage in the original post was built almost entirely from material I had laying around. I don't think I spend any money until I had to buy the stain and polyurethane.

Best guess for the Bearded Dragon cage is under $150, probably well under. I know the stain and poly were used on a few different projects so even they were not purchased exclusively for this project. That makes it hard to determine what went into this project and what went into others.

At any rate, here's the final pic of the oak cage.