What about beared dragons?

Question

I need to know EVERYTHING about a beared dragon!

Food?
Shelter?
Cage?
Bedding?
Livespan?
Male or female? (Which is better)
Companany?

Answer 1

Food-Feeding and diet
Bearded Dragons are omnivorous, meaning that they eat both animal and plant matter. Any and all food items that your Bearded Dragons eat should be no bigger than the space between their eyes. If the food items are bigger than the space between their eyes it can cause impaction and/or hind leg paralysis. Either way your Beardie will suffer horribly.

Baby and juvenile Beardies should be offered appropriately sized crickets two-three times a day. Offer as many as your Beardie will eat in a 5-10 minute time frame. When your Beardie stops eating, stop offering. Young Bearded Dragons can eat anywhere from 20-60 small crickets a day. Your Beardie should also be given fresh greens daily. Spraying the greens with water will help them last longer and will also help keep your Beardie hydrated.
Sub-adult to adult Beardies only need to eat prey items once a day along with fresh greens. Once they are this age you can also offer them Locusts, Cockroaches, Mealworms, Waxworms, Zophobas worms, Silkworms, Butterworms, Red worms, Earthworms and just about any other worm available. All these should be used as treats though with crickets and greens being the stable part of your Dragons diet. DO NOT feed your Beardie insects that you have caught in your backyard. These bugs could have parasites that could be passed on to your Beardie or they could have been exposed to poisons that could kill your Beardie. Lightning bugs can also kill your Beardie so it is much safer to stay away from wild caught insects.

Prey items should be dusted once a day with a calcium/vitamin D3 supplement such as Rep-cal makes. All prey items should be dusted once a week with a multivitamin supplement such as Herptivite, also made by Rep-cal.




Cage-Housing
Young Beardies under 10 inches in length can be housed in a 20gal long aquarium. This will last them for a few months only though as they grow quickly. Adult Dragons should be housed in nothing smaller than a 40gal breeder tank. I prefer using 55gal aquariums due to the extra length it gives them to run and they are easily found at most Pet stores. Screen lids should be used for the top of any aquarium style cages you use. Do not use glass, plexiglass or wood to cover your cages. This will not allow enough air circulation and will also trap humidity in the cage. Screen tops allow air flow, allow your lighting and heat sources to work correctly and also allow humidity to escape.

Lifespan- The expected life span of a bearded dragon is anywhere from 4-10 years, although with good attention to nutrition and the ideal environment, the high end of that range should be expected.

Lighting
Bearded Dragons require full spectrum lighting for 12-14 hours a day. I happen to use the Reptisun 5.0 or 8.0 fluorescent bulbs. There is also other brands available such as the Reptiglo or lumichrome bulbs. These fluorescent bulbs should stretch the length of your Beardies enclosure and your B.D. should be able to come within 6-8 inches of the light. The UV light should be placed over the cage and not directed through the glass , glass will deflect the UV rays. Follow the directions on the package of the bulb for replacement frequency.



Heating and temps
To produce heat and a basking spot in your enclosure you can use either a ceramic heat emitter, a reptile basking light(red, blue or white) or just a plain old household light bulb. The best fixture for any of these choices is a porcelain dome light fixture. This type of fixture is a must with a ceramic heat emitter due to the amount of heat they produce. The temperature for this basking spot you created should be around 110f for juveniles and can be around 95f for adults. Although I don't recommend any temps above 110f, within a few degrees of these basking temps will be sufficient.



The cool side of the enclosure should be around 85f during the day. Once again within a few degrees of this temp is just fine.



Nighttime temperatures can fall as low as 65f. It is fairly easy to keep your night temps above this even in the winter. If you can't keep your temps above this you may want to consider buying an under tank heater (UTH) for nighttime use. Using this just during the evening hours will help create a warm spot for your Dragon to sleep. DO NOT use heat rocks as these can cause serious burns on your animal's underside.



A thermometer on the "hot side" and one on the "cool side" will make sure that your temps are in the range they should be in.



Substrate
For baby to juvenile Bearded Dragons I prefer and recommend either newspaper, paper towels, butcher paper or reptile carpet. These choices are cheap, easy to clean and hold no health risks to your animal. If using reptile carpet the stuff that looks and feels like grass is the best. The felt kind has little loops of fabric that may catch the nails of your Dragon and cause injury. DO NOT use sand, shavings or any other loose substrate for baby to juvenile Beardies. They can be very clumsy eaters and they are also very curious and like to taste everything. Any kind of loose substrate holds serious health risks to your Beardie. If they eat a loose substrate they can become impacted, which is a blocking of the intestines, and die.

These gentle beasts are from Australia but are now readily available due to their willingness to breed in captivity. Bearded Dragons make a wonderful pet for both beginners and advanced reptile keepers. Due to their docile nature and relative small size (usually 16-20 inches) they have become quite popular in recent years. These beautiful creatures are highly recommended for families with small children also due to their seeming love for attention.

Answer 2

Working at a pet store that deals with many types of lizards I have come to think of the bearded dragon as my favorite. So, in that vein I'll answer as many questions as I can.

Food: Beardies are carnivores and need to have crickets and mealworms for food. Occasionally you could also feed them a pinkie mouse (if your dragon is big enough) and offer them a leafy green lettuce, like Romaine.

Shelter: You can offer your dragon a number of lizard styled rock hideouts, you can find these at your local pet store.

Cage: Beardies need about a 40 Gallon Breeder tank, this size tank would be big enough for two adult dragons. Just never put a baby beardie in with an adult, because the adult will think the baby is a snack. Also don't forget that beardies need a heat lamps, one that produces both UVA and UVB light is needed. The set up for a beardie isn't cheap, but for the health of your pet it's essential to do it right.

Bedding: There are really only two types of bedding that are acceptable for use with beardies. One is Aspen, just aspen, no other type of wood. The other, and the best, is a lizard sand made from calcium, it's safer for them (and can actually be beneficial) if they ingest a little when they are trying to catch their crickets.

Lifespan: A beardie can live from 5 to 7 years in captivity.

Male or female: Both males and females are great. Neither really have an advantage over the other. Dragons are super social and love interaction with you. As with most other pets, the more you handle them the more they'll want to be handled.

Company: Beardies do well on their own, but most owners prefer to have two.

Answer 3

They eat vegetables, like collard greens, mustand greens, carrots, apples, grapes. they also eat crickets and mealworms sometimes but its not nescesary to feed them this and just helpes them grow. They need at least a 40 gallon tank because they grow to be 20 inches on average. In the cage, there should be a basking log or rock(not an eletric one because that burns there bellies), and for substrate you can have sand, reptile carpet, all kinds of things. You will need a heat mat to go under the tank, a UV light, and a florescent light. They can live up to 10 years. I think that females are often better, but some people might disagree. Even they get relatively big, they are still very friendly as long as they have a lot of human contact and handled everyday.

Answer 4

Bearded dragons eat fruit and veggies, and crickets. you can buy the crickets at a pet store, usually for about 1.50 for a dozen. you can keep it in a tank, jsut try to put somthing in there that it can climb on. they like to sleep up off the ground. you can actually buy lizard cage bedding, i think thats waht its called. they like to live alone. and i dont think theres a big difference between male and female. but all the people i know htat have them have males.

Answer 5

food-crickets
shelter-48" rectanglar tank/cage
bedding-a big rock, tunnel, dirt/mulch
livespan-12 years
female
no


my friend has 2 bearded dragons, we are getting one for our classroom, he is an expert on advice

Answer 6

here is a great website: http://www.dachiu.com/care/abeard.html


if you have any other questions you can email me, my younger sister has a bearded dragon so i can help with a lot of things.

Answer 7

try