Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Next month I'm getting a bearded dragon from the San Jose Reptile Show. (It sucks that Northern California doesn't get any BIG shows like theydo down south! you lucky bastards! lol) Anyway, When he/she get's older I'm going to make him a HUGE naturlistic desert vivarium, but I don't know where to start! (With plants and substrates are concerned, I'm clueless) I have plans to the enclosure itself, but the rest is all a mystery.

I want to creat a hard, dusty red ground that you'd expect to see in the Australian oubtack and pretty well planted. Any help would be appreciated. thanks!

I would say your best bet would be to use a textured reddish colored tile for substrate, and be creative with your natural looking decorations.

Some people use slate and rocks to make basking spots, which looks very natural. Some people also carve their own shapes out of styrofoam and paint them realistically. Many artificial plants look very natural as well.

The problem with natural looking set ups is the beardies tend to stomp or eat any live plants you put in with them, so plants are best left fake.

Tile is one of the best substrate choices, as it looks natural and is also easy to clean and 100% safe (vs sand).

For some ideas, take a walk around your local home depot, look at the cool tiles they have and then just browse and see if you get any ideas. If you are creative you will find tons of stuff

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0.1 Bearded dragon (Hannabil)
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake (Morticia)
2.1 Leopard Gecko's (Pogo,Jeffrey Nothing, Louise)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn (Autumn)
1.0 Blood Red Corn (Virus)
0.1 Bullmastiff (Asha)
4.1 Cats (Poe, Tucker, Abhid, Felicity, Emmy)