Bearded Dragon Essential Needs!

[Reptilover]

Bearded Dragons, like other species of reptile need special care. You may see around the forums some people giving there bearded dragons things you may never imagine would be suitable for a lizard, such as hammacks etc. These are what we call Unessential Needs, however you will also see people using special lighting and specific substrates. This is ESSENTIAL! Dont think that you can cut out on the odd £20 here and there by not giving your BD specific items.

The Essential Items are listed below and in the image underneath that;

• 4"+ Vivarium for two or more bearded dragons is a mininum, even if you have just one i recommend getting he/she a 4" as it allows for more room.

• Sufficient Air supply, make sure in the back of the vivarium you have enough air vents/holes to allow adequate air circulation.

• A 10.0 UVB Bulb at the mininum, however in winter months some people move down to 8.0 as this follow its natural pattern and encurages natural behaviour. Without UVB your bearded dragon can and will most likely die of MBD (View forums for more info).

• 75-100 Watt bulb in 4" vivarium if the basking spot is not more than 100 degrees in summer months then he/she will not bother try basking.

• I believe that a basking rock/log should be provided as this encourages natural behaviour and heats the underside of the belly allowing easer digestion.

• Added Suppliments such as Nutribol or other calcium rich powders should be used on ever 1/5 of livefood fed to your bearded dragon, you can even spinkle it over there fresh vedge. (TIP: When your bottle of nutribol or other suppliment goes low buy a cuttlefish bone which are dirt cheap and grind it up to powder and replace it, it is filld with calcium and works like a treat.

• Suitable substrate must be provided, do not be stupid, giving easyly eaten substrate is not wise, if you are to use sand make sure you use fine play sand. Other substrates include tiles, newpaper, paper towels and reptile carpet. do NOT! use cork bark or loose chippings as it causing impaction which happes often and is must easier just to not let it happen in the first place.

[loobylou211]

I regard thermostats as ESSENTIALS too!

[morerepsthanazoo]

Originally Posted by loobylou211

I regard thermostats as ESSENTIALS too!

Agree entirely. How many people out there have Beardies and other reptiles Frying or Freezing due to their owners not having stats or indeed correctly positioned probes for them? The poor sods end up dying before their time and suffering unimaginable stress and ill health .
Stats are probably the most important piece of equipment that you require when keeping reptile and the most expensive too. But an absolute must. I cannot stress this enough. After keeping,breeding and rescuing reptiles for the best part of 27 years i have seen the devastation caused by the abscense of thermostats. ALWAYS use one and keep a spare also.

[ginger curls]

i use a 10.0 repti glow uv bulb but while browsing through the internet i have seen sites saying that you should use 10.0 repti sun bulbs.

most say though that reptiglow is fine


what are your opinions ?

[loobylou211]

We use repti glo 10 bulbs in all of our vivs. There no doubt will be other beardie keepers that use other uv sources, its a matter of personal choice, in my opinion

[Reptilover]

Originally Posted by ginger curls

i use a 10.0 repti glow uv bulb but while browsing through the internet i have seen sites saying that you should use 10.0 repti sun bulbs.

most say though that reptiglow is fine


what are your opinions ?

Personally i use UVB 10.0 Reptiglow... Like most people who keep beardies. There are other sources but i entirely advise Reptiglow! The essential part of it is bearded dragons do need UV..

[ginger curls]

thanks for the advise

[TheHammocks]

You state that you must NOT use loose chipping as a substrate... We use orchid bark in both of our Beardie vivs, are you saying then that we shouldn't be using it? I'm only asking as in both Reptile Plus (well known and respected wholesaler in Bournemouth) and Tropical Fish World use orchid bark for their Beardie vivs!

Also I've read conflicting advice regarding Mealworms, some websites/forums say not to feed them to Beardies but others say its ok. I noticed in Reptile Plus over the xmas period they had a viv full of juvenile beardies with a big bowl full of mealworms in it for them to eat. What is your experience with Mealworms?

[luke123]

Originally Posted by TheHammocks

You state that you must NOT use loose chipping as a substrate... We use orchid bark in both of our Beardie vivs, are you saying then that we shouldn't be using it? I'm only asking as in both Reptile Plus (well known and respected wholesaler in Bournemouth) and Tropical Fish World use orchid bark for their Beardie vivs!

Also I've read conflicting advice regarding Mealworms, some websites/forums say not to feed them to Beardies but others say its ok. I noticed in Reptile Plus over the xmas period they had a viv full of juvenile beardies with a big bowl full of mealworms in it for them to eat. What is your experience with Mealworms?

if your beardies eat some wood chips then it can cause a blockage in their gut, which can be fatal.

[mofie86]

I was wondering.....

iv been told that floor tiles are ok to use in the viv with beardies

Is this true?

Im getting my beardies ina few days and im getting everything for them atm and just wanna make sure


what are pinhead crickets and where do i get them?