Help with beardie

[bettie]

am a bit confused as to what i need in the vivarium for beared dragons as i have looked at may sites and they all say different!

any advice is greatly welcome thank u

[Aunty_Lizard]

Really you need a dimming stat a basking light and uvb at 10%. If your buying a buy beardie then I would recommend that you use kitchen roll, newspaper, lino or tiles as some loose substrates can cause problems. What else you need is some wood and rocks these help them keep their claws down also helps to make a decent basking area.

I dont recommend hides for beardies as they tend to become very territorial over them and stay in them.


Liz

[LadySaslic]

I agree with the hides part. I put one in my tank and now he never comes out.

[RENT-A-GOAT]

My beardies have a the following set up

For day time (each light set on a digital timer plug 9am - 6pm): Running the full length of the viv they have a reptiglow 10 uvb strip light and at one end of their viv with its own thermostat (a Habistat Dimming Thermostat Day / Night) and a thermometer probe fixed in the basking are linked to a digital thermometer.

For Night time (set on digital timer plug 6pm - 9am) At the other end of the viv opposite to the basking area they have an infrared bulb (to provide nightime rays/heat) with its own thermostat (a Habistat Dimming Thermostat Day / Night).

I keep the temps between 97 - 102 F in the day time hours and between 67 - 72 F for the night time ones. There is usually between a 5 - 10 F difference from one end of the viv to the other so they can move along durign the day if they get too warm in the basking spot or move over at night if they get a bit cool.

They are both mature adult beardies and are doing very well with this set up I dont know if with younger ones you would have to have a difference in temps to what I have as I homed mine as adults.

The viv is an all wood construction (L900mm X W800mm X H800mm) with two 4mm thick toughened glass sliders at the front and a single mesh panel (approx L250mm X W150mm) in each end panel for the beardies to climb up and also allow abit of air change to happen in the viv. Habitiat wise the viv has a rock/bark effect aquarium foam panels to the back wall a large log for basking and hiding under behind etc, a large sandstone slab (takes up approx 1/3 of the floor space (helps to keep the nails down and it gets nice and warm but not hot and they love to lie out on it), a platform off the floor at the cooler end for their food bowl with their water dish underneath, there are also a couple of vines (foam covered wires that can be formed to differrent shapes) that they love to climb and grip onto and a couple of fake plastic plants to provide a bit of colour, shade and places to hide behind.

[justin fisk]

how is loose substile not good for beardedys a have got red calcium sand should a change this then cause this could be causing the problem with him not eating live food

[Brierley]

It is more of a problem when they're eating. They could swallow some sand and it could cause impaction.