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Calling Bearded Dragon Owners! Need some Input, Please!!!!

Ares2010

Ares2010

Ex Snakephobian
Ok, I know this is a corn snake forum.. but many of you that own corns, own other reptiles too.. so here it goes:

I have been thinking about getting a bearded dragon. I am pretty new to reptiles still since my first reptile ever (corn snake) was taken on last year. so...
I have been reading up on the care of bearded dragons.

I have pretty much got it on tank size, heating and substrate.. but I am a bit fuzzy on UVA and UVB lighting. I am not getting a definite answer on that.

so who can tell me how to use the UBA/B lighting and how you use it yourself. Also, I am in the deep South of MS and it's hot and humid as hell down here.. so if anyone else here lives in that kind of weather, please let me know how you control the temp for your bearded dragon.

If it's easier to include a photo showing the tank and how you have it set up.. don't hesitate to post it.

I am getting to know quiet a bit about corn snakes now.. but I have no experience on lizards...that's why I have been trying to educate myself on them.. I won't get the bearded dragon until I am confident I know how to take care of it.
 
Great! Bearded Dragons are awesome. I have two myself. I also donated one to an elementary school. I don't use UVB/UVA bulbs really.

I use a 75 watt basking light and a 60 watt night bulb on my older beardie. A 60 watt basking light, a ceramic heat emitter about 75 watts, and a 45 watt night bulb on my juvenile. The oldest bearded dragon I have is about 5 years old. I will get a photo of both tanks later and post them. Bearded Dragons are really fun and forgiving lizards. My only problem I have had so far is that my older beardie has an inner ear infection.

P.S. I am located about the middle/southern part of Arkansas. Any more questions just drop me a line.
 
I have a bearded dragon, Kraven, who is coming up on his 2nd birthday! Here he was at 5 weeks...

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And here he is now, much, much bigger!

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I have my boy set up in a 40 gallon breeder with carefully screened-out sand. He has a log on one side to cool and on the other side he has a basking spot with a 60-watt bulb and an 18'' ReptiSun 10.0 UVA/UVB bulb. I feed proper diet with supplementation of vitamins (D3 especially) and calcium, but I still use a full spectrum bulb for optimum well-being of my boy. It's technically not required if the heat is correct (100-110 for babies, 100-105 for adults) and if all vitamins and calcium and nutrients are supplied in the diet. I live in east Texas, so I have to deal with the heat and humidity, but I have not had a problem so far. I try to keep the "cool" side around 80-84 degrees with night temps around 75. I should also note that I have both the full spectrum light and the heat lamp on a timer with a 14/10 (day/night) cycle to help replicate natural day cycles for summer. Also, anytime it's nice and sunny (like today!), I put my guy in his outdoor basking area so that he can soak up as much sunny goodness as possible. As you can see in the picture above, he turns pretty colors! :D
 
Beardies are great. I have 3 of my own.

UVB is most definitely necessary for dragons. Don't ever let yourself think otherwise! The only real alternative to uvb lighting indoors is LOTS of time outdoors, in natural sunlight... The best source of d3 hands down. I keep uvb lights over my dragons year-round because I don't always have time to take them out in the sun.

For my dragons, I use mainly Mercury vapor bulbs (aka MVBs)--mostly Powersuns, but also a T-rex Active UVHeat over one. One of my dragons has a Reptisun 10.0, arguably the only really good fluorescent uvb, because her setup won't accommodate an MVB's distancve requirements. Either works. The MVB needs to be replaced every 8-12 months, mounted so it's pointed straight down, and has a minimum distance requirement of 12 inches... They're powerful enough that any closer can cause eye problems. Fluorescents need to be replaced about every 6 months, and mounted close enough that the beardie can get within 6-12 inches of the bulb. Never use the compact fluorescent bulbs. They cause more trouble than they're worth.

Anyway, on the rest of my beardies' set ups... I keep mine, all adults, in fairly large tanks. My male is in a 75 gallon, my smaller female in a 55 gal, and my larger female in a 100 gal (that's 6 ft long). They most definitely utilize the space. My male gets mopey in anything smaller than the 75 but stressed in anything larger (tried him in the 100 originally). My larger female is simply too big to live comfortably in anything under 4 feet. My smaller female handled being in a 40 gal breeder (3 ft) ok before her upgrade, but definitely is more active in larger enclosures.

I keep their basking spots between 100 and about 108 with the aim being 105. Cool end at room temp (70-80F). I use strictly non particle substrate... I don't like the idea of risking impaction. Two of mine are on non-stick shelf liner and the third on a linoleum flooring scrap. I have used slate tile in the past, with the only issue being it was kind of hard to clean because of liquid seeping under the tiles when they pooed too close to the tile edges. One of the girls has a planter of lettuces and pansiesin her tank. Comes in handy on days that I don't have time to throw together a salad... (been thinking about doing the same for the other two, except the 55 is too narrow and my male shuns greens. Lol)

On food, to get an adult that eats greens you really need to start with a baby that was raised with greens as a regular part of the diet. I learned the hard way how hard it is to get a dragon who was never fed greens as a juvie to take them as an adult. I got lucky with one of my girls, but the other two... Well, there's been days that they'd rather starve than eat their veggies. Not unlike little kids... lol! Such greens as collards, endive, turnip greens, and dandelion greens make great staples, among other things. They love squash (butternut is a BIG hit), though too much can cause diarrhea. For the protein portion of the diet, mainly, avoid mealworms (including supers). They're more trouble than they're worth... Hardly nutritional, and present an impaction risk with their tough exoskeletons. I experienced the latter once before with my male-- not fun. Crickets are ok (and very readily available unlike most other options) , Dubia roaches are good, and silkworms are GREAT-- though expensive, unfortunately.

Ok, I better get out of here. Things to do, beardie poop to clean... You know the drill. ;) Hope my post is helpful to you. Sorry if anything seems jumbled, I'm posting from my brother's phone. Not long-winded-friendly at all. I'll post pictures of my set ups when I can get to a real computer. :)

Oh, before I forget. http://beardeddragon.org is a great site for beardies. Has a caresheet, and links to several others, under Articles, as well as a very good forum. :)
 
Thank you floof for all your input. VERY informative. I appreciate it. Every one of you that has posted so far has added something useful for me. And I will look into that beardie site too. I need all the information I can get my hands on.
 
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