Bearded Dragon Cages – What Is Needed
Bearded Dragon cages or a Bearded Dragon Vivarium can be bought ready made or you could make your own. Vivariums usually are glass enclosures or wood on three sides with a glass front. A lot of people just use large fish tanks with a cover but I don’t really like them because as they are glass all the way around. bearded dragons don’t reel secure if too exposed, that’s why a proper vivarium will have three sides enclosed.
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To create a Bearded Dragon Vivarium you must choose something with enough room for the dragon to climb, bask and shelter. Vivariums can be made out of old cupboards with front doors. It would be good to find one with glass doors but if not replace the wood doors with glass.
The most important elements to choose besides size is substrate, landscape, lighting and heating.
Substrate is what goes on the floor of the vivarium. Some people are happy with artificial grass or newspaper but the best substrate is sand. Bearded Dragons live in Australia and are found in temperate to tropical arid to semi arid woodland, shrublands and grasslands. Their natural environment is sand so that’s the best in an enclosure.
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The landscape is also important in Bearded Dragon cages. You want to create the natural environment that they are from. Wild Bearded Dragons enjoy climbing and basking in the sun on rocks, tree trunks, branches and fence posts. When creating a vivarium include secure rocks and branches. Bearded dragons will need a raised area under a spotlight to bask in.
Plants can be included but they will need to be tough to withstand the abuse from Bearded Dragons. The Pony Tail Palm, Dracaena Marginata and Snake plant (Sansevieria) do well in vivariums. In outside enclosures yuccas, dracaenas and large jade plants do well. Atrificial plants are readily available from most pet shops.
Lighting in a Bearded Dragon vivarium is very important. Bearded Dragon pets love good lighting and without it will become less active. In addition to spotlights which are used for heat and light it is recommended to provide full spectrum or high UVB reptile bulbs or tubes that should run the length of the vivarium.
UVB light give the bearded dragon vitamin D3 which they need to absorb calcium. Without vitamin D3 bearded dragons will become calcium deficient. When given UVB light bearded dragons will eat more, grow faster and are generally healthier. However if your bearded dragon is regularly exposed to natural sunlight he will not require UVB bulbs but will still need heating. Just as a Bearded Dragon diet is very important, so is the lighting.
Heating a Bearded Dragon Vivarium is crucial. The heat light should be a white (not Red) incandescent bulb or spotlight. This should be placed on or above a basking site such as a rock or wood. The day time air temperature should be between 24 – 30 degrees celcius (75 – 86 degrees farenheit), night time should be no lower than 16 degrees celcius or 60 degrees farenheit. The heat light should be about 100-150 mm above the basking spot and positioned at one end of the vivarium. This is so the bearded dragon can have a cool spot to go to when he has had enough heat.
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So the main thing to remember is heating and lighting. The actual enclosure can be made of anything really, it’s up to you. They can be bought ready made or you could make one. We actually converted an old glass display cabinet into an enclosure. Of course we had to add lights and all the sand and wood for our beardie to climb on but it turned out pretty good. If you’re handy at making things you could have a go at making your own enclosure.
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Either way it’s a lot of fun setting your beardie’s home up. Adding all the stuff and making it look like natural terrain is what kids love the best. Oh, and one more thing, just like with any pet it’s really important to clean out the cage regularly. We use a sieve to scoop out our lizard poop and regularly replace all sand and clean out the cage.
I hope this has helped you gain a bit more knowledge into Bearded Dragon cages.
