Adult Bearded Dragon Enclosure
The Spec
The minimum sized vivarium for an adult bearded dragon is 48" x 18" 20". When Eugene outgrew his baby vivarium we purchased a 4ft flat-pack vivarium through Ebay. On top of this we needed to upgrade to a larger UVB/UVA florescent tube and starter, ceramic heat bulb and fittings, thermostat and purchase additional thermometers. We use the Habistat Heat Control, and a digital thermometer (which are now cheap to buy).
Now that Eugene is an adult, he can cope with having more extravagant furnishings. We purchased a few things include decorative plants, larger hiding caves and a fake back-drop wall, which Eugene now climbs happily.
Before Eugene moved to his new home, we made sure that it was all up and running so there would be as little stress as possible. We didn't feed Eugene that day as to not disturb him while he was still settling in.
Heating
Adult bearded dragon's don't require as much heat as baby bearded dragons, however it is still an important part. It's important that they have a hot end, in which they will have a basking rock, and a cooler end, which is where I tend to place the food. With Eugene we used a ceramic heater, because this omits no light, and get's very hot, it is important to have a heater guard so that the bearded dragon, or yourself, can not suffer injury.
If your not sure about your heating you need to do some research as it is very important you get it right, you will find some useful sites in our useful resources section.
Lighting
It is important that Bearded Dragons get the correct lighting as this is essential for proper bone growth and health. Eugene has a 3ft long T8 reptisun UVB and UVA bulb. It runs on a timer (which you can purchase from any diy store) and is on for 12 hours and 30 mins every day, starts at 7am and goes off at 7.30pm.
Decorations, Hides & Feeds
Adult bearded dragons can have much fancier decorations, baby bearded dragon's however must have simply decorations so that they can find their food easily. I like to decorate Eugene's vivarium so that it looks a natural as possible, in order to make him feel at home and happy.
Bearded dragons should have a small water bowl, although they are unlikely to drink from it, at all times. Eugene also has a salad dish where he munches on his greens.
Substrate
This seems to be a controversial subject, for adult bearded dragons I recommend a very fine sand, I use T-REX natural desert sand, and Eugene seems perfectly happy with this. Baby bearded dragons should ideally have no substrate or newspaper, as sand and other substrate can get stuck in their mouths by mistake.
Baby Bearded Dragon Enclosure
The Spec
When we got Eugene we purchased a "starter kit" which consisted of a 36" x 18" 20" vivarium with vents, a UVB/UVA florescent tube and starter, a ceramic heat bulb and fittings, a thermostat and a thermometer.
We also purchased a few things to make Eugene's new home more comfortable: water bowl, food dish, basking rock, log, hides and decorative plants.
Setting up the vivarium was a lot harder than I originally thought, but now two weeks in we are confident that the vivarium is now at a stage were it is the best for Eugene.
Heating
The hardest part of setting up a vivarium is getting the heat gradient correct. Basically you need a hot end and a cool end, the hot end needs to have a basking spot and a hide. The cool end needs a hide also.
After huge amounts of searching on the net I came to the conclusion that many people have different opinions of what they think is a suitable heat gradient, so I decided to try my own way (based on what people had told me) and Eugene seems to be quite happy with a temperature of 30-32° in the hot end day time and a drop to 20-26° nighttime.
I use two thermometer to keep a track on the temps, a digital one on the cool end and a dial thermometer at the hot end. The hot end also uses the thermostat sensor to keep the temp at 30-32° and 34-36° on basking spot.
If your not sure about your heating you need to do some research as it is very important you get it right, you will find some useful sites in our useful resources section.
Lighting
We were supplied with a reptisun 8.0 florescent UVB and UVA tube, this runs on a timer and is on for 12 hours and 30 mins every day, starts at 7am and goes off at 7.30pm.
Decorations, Hides & Feeds
The most important "decorations" are hides and basking rocks. I use a piece of slate on top of a rock for the basking spot, two logs for climbing (one almost vertical, dragons like that!) and two hides, one in the cool end and one in the hot end.
He also has a shallow water dish which we supply fresh water in every day and a small salad dish.
Substrate
I was given bark chips to start with but after further research I concluded that it is no good for baby beardies as they can swallow them while hunting which can result in illness or worse death, so for now I'm using newspaper but will use bark chipping's when he is older. Do your research on this one, there are a lot of opinions.