Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if plexi-glass is bad or harmful to bearded dragons as far as caging goes? I would still have a screen top, for ventilation and to set the lights on, but would it harm the beardie or would the light harm the plexi-glass? Any response would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

not harmful. Sometimes you don't want to use on cages if you have a dragon that's prone to scratching at the glass because they tend to scratch it up, but as far as actually being dangerous, I'm pretty sure it's not. If you're going to use it as a top for a tank, I'd recomend just getting a piece the size of your screen top, then deciding where you want the light fixtures to set on the screen, and cutting holes in it for them to fit. Make the holes an inch or two larger than the actually fixtures though I would think. Then you can just put a hole for a vent if you want. A simple little 3" round hole cut with a hole saw should be fine. If you find that the whole cage is heating up too much because of it, you can put a couple more vents holes. I do a similar thing with my uromastyx tank, except instead of plexi, I just use tin foil. It works out pretty well in my opinion. It keeps the tank nice and hot with only a 50 watt halogen bulb (basking spot surface temp is usually over 140 degrees with ambients from low 80's to upper 90's around the tank). It also makes it so that the water in the soil doesn't evaporate quite so fast.

I have to agree the scratching makes it undesirable after a fairly short period. I think they actually make some kind of polish for clearing the scratches up but I've never used it so can't say for sure.
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My cage hasa plexi-glass front, after a year it still looks fine. I have a 8 inch board blocking the bottom 8 inches of the cage so my dragon can't scratch the plexi-glass....just because the noise drove us all crazy! Now she stands up on her hind legs and looks over the board, which is pretty cute. Since her cage is standing only 12 inches off the ground the board doens't block our view at all.
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A mans got to do what a mans got to do. A woman has to do what he can't.

Mom to:

1 little boy born 7/19/04
2 male RES, born 1999
1 ribbon snake, age unknown
3 FBT, ages unknown
1 female bearded dragon, born 5/2002
1 male lab mix, born 5/24/03
1 female calico cat, born 6/7/04