Bearded Dragon Vivarium

Bearded Dragon Vivariums and what types are available on the net.

The bearded dragon lizards are sweet reptiles, but they require a great deal of care. For the most part the animals are passive in nature and most of the time they are very friendly right from a very young age. You will find that bearded dragons will recline on your stomach, rest on your shoulders, and allow you to handle them with care.

Some of the bearded dragon lizards include the agamid, which comes from the family of Pogona. Pogona lizards include seven different specices, which come from Australia. Pogona lizards include the vitticeps, Central Bearded Dragon, and so forth. Regardless of the type of bearded dragon you get as a pet, it is important to understand how these species live and survive.

This is where when you need a Bearded dragon vivarium as all lizards need to live in a reptile tank or a Vivarium. They feed on bugs such as wingless flies, morio worms, meal worms, crickets, locust and other insects. For about £2, you can buy your bearded dragon a tub of crickets or locust from your local pet store and your bearded dragon will feed on it for a couple of days.

These lizards make excellent pets for beginners. These docile reptiles breed in captivity. The best way to set up a tank for the dragon lizard is to read a little about his background, its origin, and how it functions in the wild. The bearded dragon vivarium should contain some desert-like plants some logs or bark to climb and bask on and other important items like a food and water bowl.

Bearded Dragon lizards do well in bearded dragon Vivarium habitats that closely fit its natural environment. The dragon lizard requires to live in a Bearded Dragon Vivarium tank with the temperatures set around 80F in the cool end and 95F in the hot end with a basking area of around 110F settings. Their environment needs to be this hot as bearded dragons and other reptiles often live in high temperature areas in the desert.

To keep your bearded dragon healthy and feeling comfortable you must set the tank at the appropriate temperature, this would be almost the same as what is found in their native habitat. You need to make sure that within your bearded dragon vivarium you have a reptile heat mat which is plugged into a thermostat and then the thermostat sensor is also placed inside the bearded dragon vivarium. This is the best way to regulate the heat within the bearded dragon vivarium and once you have found the right temp setting on the thermostat you can relax and know that their should never be any problems with the bearded dragon vivarium temperature. To be 100% sure you have the right tank temperatures you also need to have a duel reading thermometer so you can put one sensor at each end of the tank and then you will be able to tell the exact vivarium temeperature at both ends.

The reptile heat lamp and the UVB lighting are also key elements in your bearded dragon vivarium setup and depending on the size of your bearded dragon vivarium will depend on what strength lights you should have in your tank. Bearded dragons need the heat lamp to bask under, they do this to help their bodies digest their food.

The bearded dragon vivarium should contain plenty of flooring or substrate. You will find that whilst your bearded dragon is young (3 to 6 months old) its best to just use plain paper as the floor substrate, this is because your bearded dragon will poo quite a lot in its first 3 to 6 months of its life and apart from being easy to just replace the paper is also much more hyginic than trying to clean poo off a reptile carpet or sieve it out of the sand. Although this does not look the best for your bearded dragon vivarium you will find it is the most practical and most hyginic. Once your dragon gets to around 6 monts old you will notice that they will not each as much and therefore they will also create less mess. Once your at this stage then you can go for a number of different reptile substrate products and one of the most common within bearded dragon vivariums is reptile sand or reptile carpet. If you use substrates like, peat moss, aspen, or cedar shavings in the Vivarium, you may subject your pet to poisons if the substrate is not reptile safe, so make sure you always buy your reptile substrate from a reptile shop as they will not sell you any type of reptile substrate that will cause any harm to your pet reptile.

You should keep the lights on constantly during the day, most people will have a plug timer that controls all the lighting and heating equipment in the bearded dragon vivarium and that way you can set it up to come on for 12 hours during the day and then turn off for 12 hours in the night. You can buy the special UV lights at local pet stores or online and the plug timers from you local diy store. If you notice your dragon lizard opening his mouth for a length of time it is an indication that the lizard is hot and this is his method of cooling off. You will find that the bearded dragon will go to the cooler end of the bearded dragon vivarium to cool themselves off.

You need to make sure that your bearded dragons food contains lots of protein and you can also get supplements that will help your dragon get all the right nutrients. Crickets and locust are one of the lizard’s favorite dishes. They also feed on vegetables in which they should have plenty of green-leafy veggies. Give them some wax worms and roaches as treats when the bearded dragon gets older.

The bearded dragon lizard requires attention. Most times, they will sit idle looking around the room. Sometimes they enjoy going for a walk around the house which is fine, but make sure that you always keep an eye on your dragon and that there are no holes where your dragon could escape.

Be sure to give your dragon some attention. Again, he likes reclining on your stomach, resting on your shoulders, and just hanging around with you watching the TV.

NOTE: Too much noise may make your dragon lizard feel uncomfortable.

Bearded Dragon Setup

Knowing what materials you need for your Bearded Dragon are just as important as the actual setup of the cage. We want your pet Bearded Dragon to have the right home, so we will offer a few topics you need to consider with your Bearded Dragon vivarium setup.

The Vivarium:
When you purchase a Bearded Dragon vivarium you have two types of setups. You have a starter style kit and the vivarium on its own. If you elect to go with the starter kit you will receive food dishes, substrate, and certain heating and lighting elements. The starter kits are great if you are unsure what your pet needs. They are also highly affordable. However, if you want more choices you will want to choose each element of the Bearded Dragon vivarium setup.

Sizes and Styles of Vivariums:
Like the starter kits and individual pieces found in the Bearded Dragon vivarium setup options you can elect the size and style of the vivarium. Two of the popular styles are wood and glass vivariums. The glass vivariums have glass on all sides, top and bottom. A wooden vivarium will have glass doors and possibly a glass panel in the roof, where the rest of the tank is wood. Glass is most popular so that you can see where your reptile is at all times.
The appropriate size vivarium for Bearded Dragon pets is 48”x21”x19”. This size tank can handle two adult Bearded Dragons. It also allows one bearded dragon to have plenty of space to move around. There are also smaller sizes if you are on a budget and will only have one pet.

Part of the Vivarium Setup:
The Bearded Dragon vivarium setup requires that you have the proper lighting, substrate, heating, and temperature controls. Bearded Dragons live in Australia, which means they are used to dry heat in a desert style situation. You need to recreate the sandy rock substrate with the proper factory made substrates. The setup also requires that you have a UV lighting, as well as basking lamp. The basking lamp provides extra heat in one area of the vivarium to allow your reptile a place to digest their food while lying comfortably on a rock or substrate.

Basking rocks like heat rocks are also possible if you decide you do not like the heat lamp look. To help regulate the entire temperature of your vivarium you will need the right Bearded Dragon vivarium setup. This means you have a specific heater, whether heat mat or light that can be regulated by a thermostat. The thermostat will turn the heater on or off depending on where you have it set and what temperature is in the vivarium currently. They can also have day and night settings. With the thermostat make sure you have a thermometer in the Bearded Dragon vivarium setup.

Lastly your Bearded Dragon vivarium setup will require a food and water dish, unless you expect to feed your pet live food. In this case you may require a different food dish setup.