Bearded Dragons

[CarolM]

Hi,

I am taking over a bearded Dragon who is male and his name is Phoenix.

But I know very little about them even though I have always wanted one. I have been doing my research on the internet and as usual there is always a lot of information, but which information do you trust and follow. So can you give me some decent and good advice on how to care for a bearded dragon. But here is the kicker - I like bio-active enclosures and feel that they are much healthier for your pet in the long run. But there is so uch contraversion about the substrate, can anybody give me decent advice on what substrate I can use for a bio-active enclosure whithout worrying about impaction. Would it be the same as what we use for our tortoises?

@Tom since you are so experienced with so many animals if you have any experience with Bearded Dragons I would love to get some of your care advice.

Thanks

 

[Pastel Tortie]

Hi,

I am taking over a bearded Dragon who is male and his name is Phoenix.

But I know very little about them even though I have always wanted one. I have been doing my research on the internet and as usual there is always a lot of information, but which information do you trust and follow. So can you give me some decent and good advice on how to care for a bearded dragon. But here is the kicker - I like bio-active enclosures and feel that they are much healthier for your pet in the long run. But there is so uch contraversion about the substrate, can anybody give me decent advice on what substrate I can use for a bio-active enclosure whithout worrying about impaction. Would it be the same as what we use for our tortoises?

@Tom since you are so experienced with so many animals if you have any experience with Bearded Dragons I would love to get some of your care advice.

Thanks

I've never tried a bioactive enclosure in my bearded dragon tanks. I'm interested to see if anyone else has.

@CarolM I will tell you that neither of my beardies poops in their enclosure unless I've missed a cue and didn't get them out for a shower when they needed to go. I had to clean up plenty of baby beardie poops when they were little, but now that they've both pretty much hit full size, I rarely have to clean it out of their enclosures.

 

[CarolM]

I've never tried a bioactive enclosure in my bearded dragon tanks. I'm interested to see if anyone else has.

@CarolM I will tell you that neither of my beardies poops in their enclosure unless I've missed a cue and didn't get them out for a shower when they needed to go. I had to clean up plenty of baby beardie poops when they were little, but now that they've both pretty much hit full size, I rarely have to clean it out of their enclosures.

Well hopefully I do get some who have bio-active enclosures for their bearded dragons?

 

[Tom]

Hi Carole!

This is an area I have not experimented with much. I've kept beardies on reptile carpet, paper towels, rabbit pellets, compressed grass pellets and Sani-chips, which is fine aspen bedding, and also dirt from outside.

I wholly support your idea and I do not think beardies need to be kept ultra dry, as I used to keep them in the past. Without exception, I have had nothing but success and excellent results when keeping "desert" type animals with damp substrate and moderate humidity. I raised a bunch of SA black throat monitors, savanna monitors, red ackie monitors, blue tongue skinks, and a whole bunch of other traditionally "dry" species with damp coco coir, coco chips, orchid bark, humid hides, and all of them thrived, grew exceptionally well, had zero respiratory issues. All of them had perfect molts every time. I experienced no problems of any kind.

My ackies and BTS are both on lightly dampened coco chips as I type this:



While I don't have first hand experience doing this with beardies, I suspect that the result will be the same. I would caution against using any sand at all. They are prone to sand impaction, just as our tortoises are, and for the same reasons. Bought in a bag soil is a risk I won't take since we can't know what composted material it is made of. Peat can be too acidic and damage tortoise carapaces and lizard skin. So what does this leave? I think I would try suitable yard dirt, or possibly coco coir, but the yard dirt might have too much sand, and to coir won't support plant growth very well.

To make sure the beardie isn't on damp/wet soil too much, I would be sure to include several basking/lounging platforms, as seen in my pics but more of those, and several branches for them to perch/bask on as well.

I have, in the past, given baby beardies a humid hide while keeping them on the aforementioned dry substrates, and this worked well. I used a rectangular plastic container with a lid, cut out a door hole on a side, put damp coco coir and long fibered sphagnum moss in it. They did use it and always molted perfectly. I also like to give the babies a large shallow water bowl, but that can get messy quickly on dry substrate. Worked great for me on the reptile carpet.

Part of my success with all these things that generate more humidity than the norm might be due to my living in an exceptionally dry area. I don't know if these things would be more of a problem in "normal" areas that aren't so dry. If you are close to the coast, (I have such fond memories of Hout Bay...) then your humidity might already be high enough without all these measures.

Over all, I've found beardies to be easy keepers and highly adaptable. Nothing I've done has ever caused any problem. The only problem I've seen other people encounter is metabolic bone disease due to lack of UV and poor diet, which you already know how to avoid. One friend burned her dragon's eyes when the pet store sold her a cfl UV bulb, but he recovered after a couple of weeks once she turned the bulb off.

Some recommendations:

• I prefer roaches to crickets, but crickets can still work. I just HATE dealing with crickets.
• I don't care for mealworms as a lizard food source. Too much chitin for my liking. Super worms aren't as bad once the beardie is bigger, but I tend to avoid all meal worms.
• Beardies have high UV requirements. Much more than tortoises. Don't take this lightly. Use a secure sunning cage when possible in warm weather, and use top-o-the-line UV tubes when indoors. I recommend and use the Arcadia 12% HO tubes with a reflector hood. The 22" one should be plenty when mounted next to a basking bulb for heat. Use a Solarmeter 6.5 to check your bulbs efficacy over time.
• Everyone here in the states uses typical grocery store salad fixin's like romaine to meet their veggie requirements. Just like tortoises, I find this unacceptable. It took time because breeders won't do this with babies, but I always switched mine on to more natural, high fiber greens. Admittedly, lettuce does work for them with proper supplements, but I just don't feel right about it.

Let me know what you choose to do. I'd like to learn from your example and experience.

 

[CarolM]

Hi Carole!

This is an area I have not experimented with much. I've kept beardies on reptile carpet, paper towels, rabbit pellets, compressed grass pellets and Sani-chips, which is fine aspen bedding, and also dirt from outside.

I wholly support your idea and I do not think beardies need to be kept ultra dry, as I used to keep them in the past. Without exception, I have had nothing but success and excellent results when keeping "desert" type animals with damp substrate and moderate humidity. I raised a bunch of SA black throat monitors, savanna monitors, red ackie monitors, blue tongue skinks, and a whole bunch of other traditionally "dry" species with damp coco coir, coco chips, orchid bark, humid hides, and all of them thrived, grew exceptionally well, had zero respiratory issues. All of them had perfect molts every time. I experienced no problems of any kind.

My ackies and BTS are both on lightly dampened coco chips as I type this:
View attachment 300220
View attachment 300221

While I don't have first hand experience doing this with beardies, I suspect that the result will be the same. I would caution against using any sand at all. They are prone to sand impaction, just as our tortoises are, and for the same reasons. Bought in a bag soil is a risk I won't take since we can't know what composted material it is made of. Peat can be too acidic and damage tortoise carapaces and lizard skin. So what does this leave? I think I would try suitable yard dirt, or possibly coco coir, but the yard dirt might have too much sand, and to coir won't support plant growth very well.

To make sure the beardie isn't on damp/wet soil too much, I would be sure to include several basking/lounging platforms, as seen in my pics but more of those, and several branches for them to perch/bask on as well.

I have, in the past, given baby beardies a humid hide while keeping them on the aforementioned dry substrates, and this worked well. I used a rectangular plastic container with a lid, cut out a door hole on a side, put damp coco coir and long fibered sphagnum moss in it. They did use it and always molted perfectly. I also like to give the babies a large shallow water bowl, but that can get messy quickly on dry substrate. Worked great for me on the reptile carpet.

Part of my success with all these things that generate more humidity than the norm might be due to my living in an exceptionally dry area. I don't know if these things would be more of a problem in "normal" areas that aren't so dry. If you are close to the coast, (I have such fond memories of Hout Bay...) then your humidity might already be high enough without all these measures.

Over all, I've found beardies to be easy keepers and highly adaptable. Nothing I've done has ever caused any problem. The only problem I've seen other people encounter is metabolic bone disease due to lack of UV and poor diet, which you already know how to avoid. One friend burned her dragon's eyes when the pet store sold her a cfl UV bulb, but he recovered after a couple of weeks once she turned the bulb off.

Some recommendations:

• I prefer roaches to crickets, but crickets can still work. I just HATE dealing with crickets.
• I don't care for mealworms as a lizard food source. Too much chitin for my liking. Super worms aren't as bad once the beardie is bigger, but I tend to avoid all meal worms.
• Beardies have high UV requirements. Much more than tortoises. Don't take this lightly. Use a secure sunning cage when possible in warm weather, and use top-o-the-line UV tubes when indoors. I recommend and use the Arcadia 12% HO tubes with a reflector hood. The 22" one should be plenty when mounted next to a basking bulb for heat. Use a Solarmeter 6.5 to check your bulbs efficacy over time.
• Everyone here in the states uses typical grocery store salad fixin's like romaine to meet their veggie requirements. Just like tortoises, I find this unacceptable. It took time because breeders won't do this with babies, but I always switched mine on to more natural, high fiber greens. Admittedly, lettuce does work for them with proper supplements, but I just don't feel right about it.

Let me know what you choose to do. I'd like to learn from your example and experience.

I am already liking what you have put in here. And my gut feel is more or less on the same wave length.

I was thinking along the lines of the roaches as well. Mainly because of the following:
They don't make as much noise a crickets (or so I have read)
They don't give your lizard parasites like crickets supposedly do. (Or that is what I have picked up so far in the reading that I have been doing,) I would rather avoid any parasites if possible.
They are more nutritious than crickets (although they do say that you should feed a variety of feeder insects. But I was also told by someone that grey crickets don't give your beardie parasites.

Okay noted on the UV requirements. Was planning to make sure that he goes out into the sun as much as possible and will have to see what lighting he currently has. Will need to change it, if it is not up to scratch.

LOL was thinking along the lines of dandelion greens, bok choi, etc already for feeding him. Want to plant a cactus and some spekboom in his enclosure as well for him to munch on when he wants to )As I have both of those growing in my garden and I know that there are no pesticides on them already and maybe some parsley as well (also in my garden).

Would he be able to eat plantain as well?

He currently has a astro turf carpet inside. I could always put that over the substrate and plant the plants into holes in the carpet. Then the clean up crew can hide uner the carpet......mmmm maybe not because then the roaches etc might hide under there as well. Need to give this some further thought.

And this is what I have also found with regards to their feeding according to age:



This is Phoenix:



And his current enclosure: I will need to line it with plastic and a piece of glass or a plastic border (like I had in my tort enclosure in the beginning - silicone it securely so that I can put the substrate in without it falling out.



I could maybe use a mix of coco coir, yard dirt, orchid bark and then on top of that the coco chips which will remain dry. I would also put leave litter in and on the top. I want to make some nice shelve like rocks for him so that he will have a second level to ly on as well as climbing opportunities to keep him entertained.

Thanks for the photo's nice to use for ideas.

 

[Tom]

I am already liking what you have put in here. And my gut feel is more or less on the same wave length.

I was thinking along the lines of the roaches as well. Mainly because of the following:
They don't make as much noise a crickets (or so I have read)
They don't give your lizard parasites like crickets supposedly do. (Or that is what I have picked up so far in the reading that I have been doing,) I would rather avoid any parasites if possible.
They are more nutritious than crickets (although they do say that you should feed a variety of feeder insects. But I was also told by someone that grey crickets don't give your beardie parasites.

Okay noted on the UV requirements. Was planning to make sure that he goes out into the sun as much as possible and will have to see what lighting he currently has. Will need to change it, if it is not up to scratch.

LOL was thinking along the lines of dandelion greens, bok choi, etc already for feeding him. Want to plant a cactus and some spekboom in his enclosure as well for him to munch on when he wants to )As I have both of those growing in my garden and I know that there are no pesticides on them already and maybe some parsley as well (also in my garden).

Would he be able to eat plantain as well?

He currently has a astro turf carpet inside. I could always put that over the substrate and plant the plants into holes in the carpet. Then the clean up crew can hide uner the carpet......mmmm maybe not because then the roaches etc might hide under there as well. Need to give this some further thought.

And this is what I have also found with regards to their feeding according to age:

View attachment 300222

This is Phoenix:

View attachment 300223

And his current enclosure: I will need to line it with plastic and a piece of glass or a plastic border (like I had in my tort enclosure in the beginning - silicone it securely so that I can put the substrate in without it falling out.

View attachment 300224

I could maybe use a mix of coco coir, yard dirt, orchid bark and then on top of that the coco chips which will remain dry. I would also put leave litter in and on the top. I want to make some nice shelve like rocks for him so that he will have a second level to ly on as well as climbing opportunities to keep him entertained.

Thanks for the photo's nice to use for ideas.

He looks great. Very handsome. Enclosure looks suitable too.

Never heard of parasites from domestically raised crickets. I hate them because they are noisy, stinky, they die off suddenly for no reason, and because they will chew on your reptiles at night. Roaches have none of these drawbacks and are super easy to propagate.

 

[Pastel Tortie]

Plan for gradients throughout the enclosure, especially in regard to temperature.

You're used to dealing with tortoises. One of the biggest differences in mindset between terrestrial turtles/tortoises and lizards is that the lizards can take better advantage of vertical space. Three dimensions instead of two. Additional levels or long branches that stick up at one end (placed at an angle) are likely to be appreciated.

 

[Chubbs the tegu]

I agree with everything said above.. no need for high humidity but low humidity will not hurt. . I do soak them a couple days a week and never had a prob with shedding at all. Much easier feeding dubias than crickets ( much more expensive.. but less annoying) just compliment with super worms, earthworms, wax worms, horn worms etc. ive fed mine on a staple of dubias and collards, kale, mustards, dandy greens etc. as babies they need more protein but once they reach about 12-18 months i start feeding greens in the morning and insects in the evening( that way theyre hungry and eat their greens) good luck!

 

[Pastel Tortie]

If you don't have a secure outside enclosure for him to bask (wait until it gets warm enough), you may want to take him outside with you to just hang out for a while.

You may want to keep an eye out for a harness/leash if he doesn't already have one. I use a "hip harness" with mine. It's basically just a loop that goes around their hips and through a cord stop to loosen and tighten it. It's easy to make your own with parachute cord and a cord stop. Unfortunately, the cord stops are harder to find In some places now (indirectly due to COVID) because they can be used as no-tie options with face masks. The main advantage to the hip harness is that you don't have to worry about fitting the beardie's chest or trying to get it around their arms.

While Indominus (Indy) is content to lounge on or with the humans, Red Lady is more of an explorer... and jumper. According to their breeder, once a beardie realizes it can jump, they don't usually forget it.

 

[Chubbs the tegu]

They all have their own personalities.. some will just sit on ur shoulder for hrs and some will wanna explore( all will wanna explore eventually) just like a kid. They dont wanna be held all day

 

[CarolM]

He looks great. Very handsome. Enclosure looks suitable too.

Never heard of parasites from domestically raised crickets. I hate them because they are noisy, stinky, they die off suddenly for no reason, and because they will chew on your reptiles at night. Roaches have none of these drawbacks and are super easy to propagate.

All more reasons not feed them I think and to feed the roaches. The parasite issue might not be true but why take the chance.
Okay so far what I have been reading does not seem to be far off the mark. However your choices on the lights are more detailed which is why I like getting the information from here. Better details.

Do you need to put food in for them when they are brumating?

 

[CarolM]

They all have their own personalities.. some will just sit on ur shoulder for hrs and some will wanna explore( all will wanna explore eventually) just like a kid. They dont wanna be held all day

Are they same as torts and you should not let them roam around on the floor? He is going into Jarrod's room and he wanted to know if he could let him explore his room? I wasn't sure because of the same reasons as you have with your tortoise on the floor.

 

[Chubbs the tegu]

Are they same as torts and you should not let them roam around on the floor? He is going into Jarrod's room and he wanted to know if he could let him explore his room? I wasn't sure because of the same reasons as you have with your tortoise on the floor.

Ive always let my lizards roam around.. never a problem. Just make sure to lizard proof the room( u dont want him finding a hole to get into and u cant get him out)

 

[CarolM]

I agree with everything said above.. no need for high humidity but low humidity will not hurt. . I do soak them a couple days a week and never had a prob with shedding at all. Much easier feeding dubias than crickets ( much more expensive.. but less annoying) just compliment with super worms, earthworms, wax worms, horn worms etc. ive fed mine on a staple of dubias and collards, kale, mustards, dandy greens etc. as babies they need more protein but once they reach about 12-18 months i start feeding greens in the morning and insects in the evening( that way theyre hungry and eat their greens) good luck!

Good to know. I presume once he comes out of brumation and since he is supposed to be 12 months if I put out greens and insects and see which one he goes for the most I will know which side of the spectrum he is on.

 

[Tom]

All more reasons not feed them I think and to feed the roaches. The parasite issue might not be true but why take the chance.
Okay so far what I have been reading does not seem to be far off the mark. However your choices on the lights are more detailed which is why I like getting the information from here. Better details.

Do you need to put food in for them when they are brumating?

They don't really brumate, so yes. Even when temps are cooler in winter, the basking light will still allow them to warm up and function.

There are more bulb options with these guys than tortoises, since high levels of IR-A and the more concentrated beams of a spot bulb aren't going to desiccate their carapace. The main thing is to get their basking temp correct regardless of the bulb type. There is a wide margin of error, so this is not a difficult task. Anything between 95-130 at the basking site will work. Even if it gets a little hotter in the heat of a summer day when ambient rises, its not a problem. They can just move out of it at any time. I try to create a basking area under the bulb large enough for the whole lizard, or at least the whole body of an adult. Again, this isn't critical, so no need to over think it.

 

[CarolM]

If you don't have a secure outside enclosure for him to bask (wait until it gets warm enough), you may want to take him outside with you to just hang out for a while.

You may want to keep an eye out for a harness/leash if he doesn't already have one. I use a "hip harness" with mine. It's basically just a loop that goes around their hips and through a cord stop to loosen and tighten it. It's easy to make your own with parachute cord and a cord stop. Unfortunately, the cord stops are harder to find In some places now (indirectly due to COVID) because they can be used as no-tie options with face masks. The main advantage to the hip harness is that you don't have to worry about fitting the beardie's chest or trying to get it around their arms.

While Indominus (Indy) is content to lounge on or with the humans, Red Lady is more of an explorer... and jumper. According to their breeder, once a beardie realizes it can jump, they don't usually forget it.

Jarrod was saying that we should get a harness.

 

[Chubbs the tegu]

Good to know. I presume once he comes out of brumation and since he is supposed to be 12 months if I put out greens and insects and see which one he goes for the most I will know which side of the spectrum he is on.

If u put out both.. he’ll defin go for the insects.

 

[CarolM]

Ive always let my lizards roam around.. never a problem. Just make sure to lizard proof the room( u dont want him finding a hole to get into and u cant get him out)

I will tell Jarrod.

 

[Tom]

Are they same as torts and you should not let them roam around on the floor? He is going into Jarrod's room and he wanted to know if he could let him explore his room? I wasn't sure because of the same reasons as you have with your tortoise on the floor.

I never let them roam for the same reasons as tortoises. Too many things can and do go wrong. I've seen lots of roaming lizard X-rays with broken limbs and weird items ingested. Even more than tortoises.

 

[CarolM]

I never let them roam for the same reasons as tortoises. Too many things can and do go wrong. I've seen lots of roaming lizard X-rays with broken limbs and weird items ingested. Even more than tortoises.

Ok. I think I would rather then let him roam outside in the garden with a harness or in an outside enclosure. Better to be safe than sorry.