Hello from the Dragonslare,
There's a lot of information out there on caring for Bearded Dragons, on the internet, along with written material. What I'm going to do here is add personal notes and care tips that have helped me bring up our Dragons, along with some DON'Ts.
Beardie's do need a decent amount of space, the enclosures I've built measure 2ft. deep x 4ft. wide x 2ft. high, plenty of space for two Dragons. 55 gal aquariums are okay, but personally, a 40 gal. Breeder tank seams better. The 2ft. high is ideal, Breardies aren't known to be tree huggers, but will climb up on driftwood, tree limbs, flat rocks, just make sure that whatever is used, that its safe.
We will not use calcium sand for their substrate; the reptile carpet is okay, but gets smelly and stains after awhile. We use plays and, it's easy to clean (sifting), easy to add more, they enjoy running and digging through it, and it hold in the heat, just be careful that your Dragon isn't able to dig under a rock, only to have it fall, and get pinned down. If your Dragon is nice and healthy, what sand they do ingest, will pass through. The play sand that I've found to be very good, comes from Home Depot, small 50 lb. bags.
Heat, we always have the hole cut through the top, well off to one side, large enough for a good quality hood, depending on the enclosure, you'll need to watch the temps closely. On our enclosures, we use 150 watt basking lamps, the temps under the lamp will range about 90-95 degrees, make sure that your Dragon can't get close enough to get burned, with the lamp off to one side, this allows a comfortable cool area of 85 degrees.
Water, the only time we have a water bowl in their enclosure, is for the hatchling, and they rarely use it. Our hatchlings, juveniles and adults get their water from the daily fresh cut veggies or the warm bath they receive. Which is at least twice a week, our adults will not drink from a bowl and it just makes an awful mess in their enclosure. There bath water temps are around 85 degrees. Note: warm water is like an instant laxative, cleans them right out, so if you've noticed that your Dragon hasn't pooped in a couple of days, warm bath.
Food, from day one, we start our Dragons on fresh cut veggies! Along with the right sized crickets, the older Beardies also get super worms, grasshoppers and pellets. The fresh cut Veggies that we use are Romaine lettuce, Green leaf lettuce, Red leaf lettuce, Endive, Escarole, lots of Collard greens !!!, Mustard greens when available, Butter squash, Spaghetti Squash, kale in small amounts and dandelion greens along with the yellow flowers, just make sure that when using these, that your yard is fertilizer free, bug spray free!!On this note, I've noticed that our males are the ones that eat the yellow dandelion flowers and the females won't touch them, odd. The veggies are cut up, medium cut for the juveniles and adults, a very fine cut for the hatchlings, for the hatchlings, they really won't eat them when placed in a bowl, to get our hatchlings to eat veggies right away, we sprinkle the veggies across the floor bottom. Three/four times a week; I'll dust their veggies with calcium w/D3. Fresh fruit is given once aweek in small amounts,thin apple slices,grapes.
Exercise, once are Dragons reach 12/14 in. in length, will start to let them run around the living room, only drawback is them pooping on the carpet, so we place are Dragons in warm water, after it cleans them out, a warm rinse, pat them dry, in the mean time we vacuum the carpet, make sure they can't get behind or under something we are unable to move, block off the hallway and kitchen area and let them run around for a couple hours, they'll climb up a sit with us while where watching TV, run up to, over or under are three dogs, Black Lab, Blue Heeler and the Rat Terrier, the Dragons could care less, the dogs will move out of their way.
Outside, just once in awhile and if we do, we hold on to them, NO harness or leash, to many bad things for them to eat!!! and if a bird flies overhead, they freak out!! Remember lightning bugs (fire flys) are FATAL!!!!!!!We found this out the BAD WAY.
DANGER!!! LIGHTNING BUGS (FIRE FLYS) ARE FATAL!!!!!!!!
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