Soldato
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Vivarium, I really hope you haven't actually bought a cage 
Those of you with Bearded Dragons in here please
- Thread starter Hunders
- Start date
Vivarium, I really hope you haven't actually bought a cage
Nah, cage. It's got a hamster wheel and everything, lol
He told me that the heat mat was just used to provide the ambient temperature in case it drops too low. It'll still have a ceramic basking heater.
I'm just wondering whether anyone uses any other form of heating like a heat mat to maintain the ambient temperature or if a basking light should be sufficient.
Soldato
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I read something like you should be careful with heat mats as beardies cannot sense heat properly through their bellies and as such can get burnt. I don't see why you'd need one since most people manage to maintain suitable conditions with just a heat lamp.
Well, he said to use a thermostat in conjunction with the mat so that temps are around 80F rather than letting the mat max out it's heat.
I wont bother buying one but if the winter months come and I'm having trouble maintaining a decent ambient temp then I will look into other heating solutions. I think I'd rather get another ceramic heater than a mat if need be.
I wont bother buying one but if the winter months come and I'm having trouble maintaining a decent ambient temp then I will look into other heating solutions. I think I'd rather get another ceramic heater than a mat if need be.
Nah, cage. It's got a hamster wheel and everything, lol
He told me that the heat mat was just used to provide the ambient temperature in case it drops too low. It'll still have a ceramic basking heater.
I'm just wondering whether anyone uses any other form of heating like a heat mat to maintain the ambient temperature or if a basking light should be sufficient.
Don't use a heat mat, they can't detect heat from underneath and can get burnt from sitting on them for too long. Use a ceramic heater if need be at night, but in reality as long as it is around 60f at night, not too much lower, then it will probably not need any night time heat source. They experience massive drops in temperature in the wild at night.
If you use a ceramic heater then either protect it with a cage or make sure it's well out of where the dragon can climb onto, or too near it, as again they can severely burn themselves on it.
Irwin - a few months old
and more recently.. about 14 months I think.
Nice looking dragon 
I was originally going to use a basking spot light but as my house can get VERY cold in the winter I decided upon a ceramic heater for it's basking spot. That way, in conjunction with the pulse proportional thermostat with day/night settings it will still heat the enclosure at night at a reduced temp which I can set as being 5-15C below normal daytime temps.
I was originally going to use a basking spot light but as my house can get VERY cold in the winter I decided upon a ceramic heater for it's basking spot. That way, in conjunction with the pulse proportional thermostat with day/night settings it will still heat the enclosure at night at a reduced temp which I can set as being 5-15C below normal daytime temps.
Nice looking dragon
I was originally going to use a basking spot light but as my house can get VERY cold in the winter I decided upon a ceramic heater for it's basking spot. That way, in conjunction with the pulse proportional thermostat with day/night settings it will still heat the enclosure at night at a reduced temp which I can set as being 5-15C below normal daytime temps.
Thanks
I could be wrong here, but I don't think I am. I think that you need to have a basking spot light as the dragons not only head towards the light to bask, but also it gives them a visible day/night cycle which UVB tubes can't produce alone. Also, basking lights give them a necessary amount of UVA.
Like I say, I might be wrong, but I'd certainly feel more comfortable with a true basking bulb and the ceramic, if it's really needed, for night ambient temps.
The fluorescent tube that I'm using emits 30% UVA as well as 10% UVB. I don't plan on using the UV tube to provide the light for the enclosure at all. I'm going to set up a strip light from B&Q that I used to use with my snakes which emits a very nice daylight-replicating shade of light. I'll try find a pic of either my snake or gecko cage that had these lights to show you how it looks.
Sounds interesting. Also, for your UVB strip, try to get a reflector for behind it, can double it's useful range - well worth it
I've just completed the vivarium set up and while I'm not entirely happy with it I think it will make a good home for a Beardie for the time being. I needs something to make it look less empty and I'm thinking that some sort of backdrop poster of an Australian setting would do the trick.
Here's some shots. In the second shot you can see the ceramic heater, UVB tube and also the strip light that I bought from B&Q which is used to brighten it up more for that natural light look.
I'll be picking up the little 'un up today at around 14:30 so I'll be sure to get a snap or two of it
Cheers.
Here's some shots. In the second shot you can see the ceramic heater, UVB tube and also the strip light that I bought from B&Q which is used to brighten it up more for that natural light look.
I'll be picking up the little 'un up today at around 14:30 so I'll be sure to get a snap or two of it
Cheers.
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Man of Honour
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Oh nice! Marvellous *licks lips*.
Nice little dragon! Now you will spend the next week worrying about it!
I chilled the crickets for the first 3 weeks until they became good at catching them. Now they just high speed ones. Pretty funny to watch them running after them!
I chilled the crickets for the first 3 weeks until they became good at catching them. Now they just high speed ones. Pretty funny to watch them running after them!
I was concerned that it might not eat for a few days due to relocation stress but about 20 minutes after I put it in the tank it wolfed down a piece of spring greens and it finished off about 15 crickets around 10 minutes ago
The people who I bought it off told me that they make sure that all their hatchlings are handled once per day to get them used to it so it looks like them doing that has paid off
The people who I bought it off told me that they make sure that all their hatchlings are handled once per day to get them used to it so it looks like them doing that has paid off
I've had my beardy nearly 9years now and he munches on medium sized locusts and sometimes the od pinkie.... hes quite a large dragon now, pushing close to 26"
your viv is very simlar to mine and how i have mine set up. just more driftwood laying about for him to climb on and a red light on the other end only gets switched on time to time. helps keep the temperture up during the winter nights. any kind of light on a night can disturb there sleeping patern mine sleeps under his driftwood so this is okay for my setup.
With him or her being a baby make sure that the Nighttime temperatures are the low to mid 60F
another note if he/she gorges them selfs on lots of crickets one day and then it doesnt eat for a couple of days dont worry about it.. they tend to pig out sometimes FATTIES!
You have a lil cutie there
your viv is very simlar to mine and how i have mine set up. just more driftwood laying about for him to climb on and a red light on the other end only gets switched on time to time. helps keep the temperture up during the winter nights. any kind of light on a night can disturb there sleeping patern mine sleeps under his driftwood so this is okay for my setup.
With him or her being a baby make sure that the Nighttime temperatures are the low to mid 60F
another note if he/she gorges them selfs on lots of crickets one day and then it doesnt eat for a couple of days dont worry about it.. they tend to pig out sometimes
FATTIES!You have a lil cutie there
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Lol. The bigger one of my 2 just ate its way through a full box of small hoppers! To be fair, there were not that many there, but jeezuz, ive never seen the bugger move so fast! It then polished off 2-3 medium crickets. ts only 9 weeks old!
Just thought I'd make a little update.
All seems to be going well with the little one. It's quite amusing at times for instance it will be sitting there basking for an hour or two, not moving much, then all of a sudden it will leap from the basking log and frantically run about the vivarium with an excited look about it.
While not being as docile as I'd hoped it's far from being scared of me. It will try to get away from me as I go to pick it up but not in a frantic, panicked manor. Once on my hand it's calm enough if being a little unpredictable, jumping randomly. When it comes to feeding time I put the box of crickets outside it's viv so that they are visible and once it spots some movement it leaps from the log and hastily runs towards the glass with a keen interest. I'll then feed it one cricket at a time until it's done. During feeding it will eat things right near my hand, for instance when there's a cricket that's not moving I'll reach in and give it a little poke with my finger and the dragon will run over without concern. It won't approach crickets that I'm holding yet, though. Overall, for a 7 week old lizard that I've only had for 4 days it's very calm around me. In comparison, the Leopard gecko that I owned for 3 years wasn't as good around me as this little dude.
I've noticed that when it eats some of the spring greens I leave in the viv, it will always seem to decide to eat the one piece that I've not cut as small as the rest. It looks very cute chomping on them though I'm glad that it's readily eating it's greens as a baby because I've read that if they don't it can be a problem later on in their adult lives with them needing ~70% of their food intake being greens but not having much interest in it.
I've decided that as the ceramic heater tends to heat the cool side of the viv about 10F too hot for my liking I will change it for a spot bulb which I will be fitting tomorrow. I gave it a test run today by sticking it to the top of the viv and it seems to be a better basking heat solution. The ceramic will be used to make sure it doesn't drop below 80F in the winter months.
All seems to be going well with the little one. It's quite amusing at times for instance it will be sitting there basking for an hour or two, not moving much, then all of a sudden it will leap from the basking log and frantically run about the vivarium with an excited look about it.
While not being as docile as I'd hoped it's far from being scared of me. It will try to get away from me as I go to pick it up but not in a frantic, panicked manor. Once on my hand it's calm enough if being a little unpredictable, jumping randomly. When it comes to feeding time I put the box of crickets outside it's viv so that they are visible and once it spots some movement it leaps from the log and hastily runs towards the glass with a keen interest. I'll then feed it one cricket at a time until it's done. During feeding it will eat things right near my hand, for instance when there's a cricket that's not moving I'll reach in and give it a little poke with my finger and the dragon will run over without concern. It won't approach crickets that I'm holding yet, though. Overall, for a 7 week old lizard that I've only had for 4 days it's very calm around me. In comparison, the Leopard gecko that I owned for 3 years wasn't as good around me as this little dude.
I've noticed that when it eats some of the spring greens I leave in the viv, it will always seem to decide to eat the one piece that I've not cut as small as the rest. It looks very cute chomping on them though
I'm glad that it's readily eating it's greens as a baby because I've read that if they don't it can be a problem later on in their adult lives with them needing ~70% of their food intake being greens but not having much interest in it.I've decided that as the ceramic heater tends to heat the cool side of the viv about 10F too hot for my liking I will change it for a spot bulb which I will be fitting tomorrow. I gave it a test run today by sticking it to the top of the viv and it seems to be a better basking heat solution. The ceramic will be used to make sure it doesn't drop below 80F in the winter months.