For hatchling and smaller dragons, you must keep them in an enclosure that will not only allow them to stretch their legs and gain adequate exercise, but it must also not be so large that their meals easily escape them, a 15 to 20 gal tank is good. As the animal grows, so must its enclosure. For one adult dragon, we recommend at a very minimum a 40gal breeder. This glass enclosure is 36" long X 18" wide and about 12" tall, this at least allows the animal more room to move around. We build our own cages that are 4' L X 2' W X 18" T, click here to see a very good set a plans for building your own.

 

Substrate:

Many people use sand or crushed walnut shells as a substrate and have success. If you are going to use either of these we recommend you sift them first to ensure that you remove any large pebbles or other things that could be potentially harmful to your dragon. This becomes especially important with the younger animals as they are particularly sensitive to intestinal impaction's. Many other people use shelf paper or paper towels, we use paper towels. We find it much easier and cleaner to change soiled paper towels then to sift sand everyday. We recommend never using pellets or wood chips as your animal may swallow these and cause a deadly impaction.

 

Feeding/Hydration

Bearded Dragons require a balanced diet in order to be healthy. We recommend you feed your dragon greens/vegetables/fruits in the morning as they take longer to digest and insects (mostly crickets) early evening. There is no sense in feeding your dragon iceberg lettuce as it has no nutritional value at all. Also, never ever feed your bearded dragon, or any other reptile for that matter, fireflies (aka lighting bugs), IT WILL KILL YOUR ANIMAL ALMOST INSTANTLY. Please click here to read an article about the dangers of feeding your dragons these dangerous insects. Crickets should be sprinkled with calcium and vitamin D3 powder 4 to 6 times a week, we use this (it's the stuff in the pink can), and gut loaded. Remember, what your food eats, your dragon is eating. As far as hydration, we have found that every dragon is different. Some of our dragons are spoiled and will only drink when one of us drips water onto the nose with a syringe, some like a water bowl (only fill knee high, they can drown very easily), others like to lap up the water when we spray them, and still others get all the water they need from the greens they consume. No matter what your animal likes in the way hydration, you should offer greens every day and spray the food with a misting bottle. Below is a good chart of veggies to feed your dragon. Also remember to only feed your animal between an hour after the lights come on and up to two hours before they go off. This ensures the animal has the proper body temperature to digest their food correctly.

Food Item	Notes
Alfalfa (plant, not sprouts)	Great staple
Cactus Pad/Leaf (raw)	Great staple veggie
Collard Greens	Great staple, high calcium,
Dandelion Greens	High calcium, high vit. A (140 IU/g), moderate oxalates, be cautious of pesticides in wild greens
Endive	Mod. oxalates, high calcium
Escarole	High calcium, mix with other greens
Mustard Greens	High vit. C (7%), high vit. A (53 IU/g), moderate oxalates (1287 ppm), goitrogens
Silkworm	Contain an enzyme called serrpeptase, this has properties that make calcium absorption more efficient, can reduce inflammation, pain and best of all it can break down arterial plaque.
Squash, Acorn
Squash, Butternut (Winter)	High fiber, high vit. A (78 IU/g)
Squash, Hubbard	High fiber, high vit. A (54 IU/g)
Squash, scallop
Squash, Spaghetti	High calcium and fiber
Squash, Summer
Turnip Greens	High vit. C (6%), high vit. A (76 IU/g), mod. oxalates

 

Lighting/Heating:

Bearded Dragons are cold blooded reptiles. This means that their body temperature is regulated largely by their climate. That being said it is very important to provide the animals with the proper climate ranges in their enclosure. We recommend that you have a basking spot (typically a rock directly under the heating bulb) that is 100 to 110 degrees. On the other side of your enclosure, it should dip all the way down to 80 to 85 degrees. This ensures that animal can adequately regulate its body temp. NEVER USE A HEAT ROCK AS THIS WILL BURN YOUR ANIMAL. Also, temperatures of 60 to 65 degrees at night are ok, if your enclosure dips below these temps, you may need a night bulb.

Other extremely important lighting aspect is the presence of a UVb bulb. UVb light aids reptiles in the proper absorption of calcium. With out the presence of UVb, your reptile will most certainly develop Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) in its adult life. A great article on reptile MBD and UVb can be found here. Many people will purchase the much cheaper fluorescent aquarium strip bulb and think that this is adequate, this is not the case and you will get what you pay for. Here, we use two different kinds of bulbs depending on the application. Click here and here to see them; in both cases we use the 10.0 for the ultra high UVb output.

Note: UVa and UV IR (infrared) are in the visible light spectrum and are provided by your heating lights and/or normal light. Exposure to direct sunlight (not through a window or other obstructions) whenever possible, is best.

 

Thank you for reading this care sheet, please feel free to email us with any questions or comments.

E and J Dragons