Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i purchased 2 baby bearded dragons from petco yesterday that were kept in a 30 gallon tank with 4-5 other babies and im not sure if i should house them together. how often should i bring them to the vet? is the powersun 100 watt mercury vapor light a good choice? if they are two females or male female can a 48" long 13" wide 20" tall tank house them both together? thanks for reading

-Math

"i purchased 2 baby bearded dragons from petco yesterday that were kept in a 30 gallon tank with 4-5 other babies and im not sure if i should house them together."

If they were already in the same tank together that pretty much defeats any purpose of quarantining them. You can house them together temporarily but by the time they are about 4 months old they will have to be seperated until such time that you can be 100% sure of their sex. Should they both turn out to be female, you can try to introduce them again later, but keep an eye on them to make sure they get along. If both are male, or one is male and one is female, I think that you should not introduce them again at all. Males will fight for sure, and I'm afraid that since you purchased them both from the same place there is a 99% chance they are related, so you can't ever allow them the chance to breed should they be of the opposite sex.

"how often should i bring them to the vet?"

You should have a fecal check done when you first get them, to rule out any parasites. Once you are given the all clear, it's probably a good idea to have a check-up about once or twice a year, or anytime you think they might be sick.

"is the powersun 100 watt mercury vapor light a good choice?"

I don't have a lot of experience with MVBs, but I hear they are good. Be sure to follow the directions to the dot, they must be a certain distance from your lizard to be safe. You may also need additional heat lamps, I hear they sometimes don't put out quite enough heat.

"if they are two females or male female can a 48" long 13" wide 20" tall tank house them both together?"

That really isn't even big enough for one beardie, considering they usually grow to about 18-22 inches and it's only 13 inches wide, it's far too narrow to be comfortable. A good rule of thumb to follow is 6 square feet of ground space for one beardie, and 2 square feet for each additional beardie. That specific tank is only a little more than 4 square feet, so it won't do. If you want to house beardies together you need to give them a lot of space to avoid territorial issues. And again if they are male and female I really think you should give them each their own enclosure.

Hope that helped clear things up a little bit for you.

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Amanda
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)

0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
0.0.1 tarantula (Otto)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)