A few questions from a newbie

[Beardie_Lover]

Hey all am new on here have just signed up although have been reading the forum as a guest. Am new to reptiles never owning one but am thinking about getting a bearded dragon as I've read there relatively easy to look after and the fact that I think that they look quite cute lol. Anyways have got a few questions that a hope can be answered.

What size viv would a need to house one bd? And can you stick a bady/juvenille bd in a full size adult viv?

What do a need to buy for the bd?

How old do bd's live to?

Can bd's climb?

What aged bd is best to get and why? And also what sort of price tit would cost so a don't get ripped off. Am looking to buy it from a NE pet shop probably.

Can anyone reccomend any decent websites where I can get any of the stuff a would need to house a bd or the food?


Sorry for all the questions and hope you can help answer them.

Best regards Andy

[hickman2342]

Look on the equipment classifieds, grab yourself a local bargain plus buy your beardie from one of the breeders on here, will work out alot cheaper for you

[Ninjaaa23]

well a 36" would be good for younger dragons but are no use for adults so probs best to go for a 48" and go for wooden not glass cause glass changes the temps u will need best thing to do is by a 48" viv and if you go for a baby then just use a peice of wood or something to make it smaller if your a noob like i am then go for a dragon about 5 months old this will mean you wont do serious damage if you do something but if you want baby go for it they are so cute.
well it depends were you get your dragon some will be different prices pet shops can be expensive see if you can find local breeders on the web but roughly bout £30 - £70 for standard hypos are more expensive check out this site hadesdragon.com they sell excellent coloured dragons for cheap got mine at £30.
Dragons can climb and may enjoy it so buy like rocks and branches mybe climbing wall or hammock. oh and exotic-pets sell dragons several colours for about £50 including postage.

Heres a list of all the necessary equipment:
a 4x2x2 wooden vivarium
a dimming thermostat
a ceramic bulb holder and heat resistant wite
basking bulb (normal R60/R80 spotlights from asda/B&Q are fine)
Arcadia 12% UV tube and starter unit
Slate/Sandstone Tiles / Lino / Newspaper for substrate
Basking rock
Plants/branches etc for climbing
Food bowl
Water bowl (not essential but some beardies like having one)
Calcium dust
Nutrobal
you dont need to get these particular brands though oh and dont forget a timer to automatically turn the lights off/on. would reccomend going for the arcadia uvb bulb its better than the repti glo.

dimming thermostats are expensive so would reccomend using ebay for a habistat dimming thermostat. for all other equipment try using reptilekeeping.co.uk they have reasonable prices their uv bulb is only bout £20 and basking bulbs for £2 so good prices dont get uv bulbs from ebay and remember to replace uv bulb every 8/9 months. dragons can live upto 10-15 years with proper care , dont forget about calc dust and vitamins as well as crickets wouldnt reccommend meal worms for babys can cause impaction not worth risk their ok for older dragons dubai coackroaches are excellent for dragons if you can get them and dont forget to gut load yor food before giving to dragon.
whew that was a lot of writing hope it helped and give hadesdragon a look atit also has good information for noobs.

[Ninjaaa23]

can give sum useful links for cheap equipment if you want because im not long after buying my setup myself

[jools]

Hi, welcome to the forum. There are some very experienced beardie keepers / breeders on here. A good place to start is the care sheet section at the top of the lizard page. Read plenty of care sheets, they will vary slightly, everyone has differing ideas to some extent but basics will be the same. Hades dragons and Nottingham dragons are among the very well respected names.

A good list of kit from Ninjaaa above.