Hi Guys

 

My Daughter is going to buy a bearded dragon, I saw an exo terra terranium on ebay with loads of extras and a reasonable price.........so I bought it only to be told by my wifes friend [who has a beardie] it is not suitible:taz:

 

Any body out there have a beardie and what are your thoughts?

 

It is 900 wide x 600 high x 450 deep she reckons its to high and very difficult to maintain heat!!!

 

Thanks

 

Dave

Edited March 12, 201312 yr by yewcheck

You cant beat the advice you get from an independent pet shop in my opinion. I know its tempting to buy off ebay to save money but for the sake of the animals lives its better to stick with the pet shop! I speak from experience as I had three bearded dragons and lost two of them due to the enclosure I made out of an old tv cabinet. Normally it would have been ok but due to a cold snap and the lamp I bought off ebay was not up to the task... it broke my heart to be honest. I took the third one back to the pet shop as I didn't trust myself keeping a reptile anymore! They need optimum conditions unlike cats and dogs.

Plus she needs to expect to have live crickets running around the house I had that all the time! As they always find a way to escape trust me lol!

You cant beat the advice you get from an independent pet shop in my opinion. I know its tempting to buy off ebay to save money but for the sake of the animals lives its better to stick with the pet shop! I speak from experience as I had three bearded dragons and lost two of them due to the enclosure I made out of an old tv cabinet. Normally it would have been ok but due to a cold snap and the lamp I bought off ebay was not up to the task... it broke my heart to be honest. I took the third one back to the pet shop as I didn't trust myself keeping a reptile anymore! They need optimum conditions unlike cats and dogs.

 

Thanks for the reply, the set up I bought was what we were looking at...at a garden center / pet shop that they sold with beardies, so may pop in and bend there ear:whistling:

 

Again thanks for the reply:wink:

My beardie lives in a 4ft wide 2.5ft high and 1.5ft deep as long as you have you basking spot and a hot side of the tank at the right temps basking needs to be at around the 105-110 temp little higher for babies and around 90-95 on the warm side of the viv

And the have a cooler side around the 60 mark,

 

You'll need a UVA UVB bulb aswell and calcium supplements nutrobol is a good all round vitamin supplement and you'll also need a calcium supplement

 

Wooden vivs are best, you want one that deep and wide rather to high as beardies like alot of floor space try to keep humidity to a minimum as beardies can suffer from respiratory problems if humidity gets to high

 

If you need any in depth info drop me a pm

Edited March 12, 201312 yr by 111mattin111

Ive had one or two lizards over the years, if its the one Im thinking of those exoterra ones are quite poorly insulated as they have like a mesh top? So I can kind of see what she is saying, plus beardies get quite big and smelly. Best to speak to a local specialist really. Beardies are often recommended as good starter lizards, but the size I think is a bit of a undersight on this one, I honestly think that Lizards are crap pets personally. They seem to come in two brackets, big snotty aggressive things or small skittish snappy things, they spend long periods sunbathing and doing nothing interesting, or hiding asleep. In fact the only interesting thing they do is eat.... you soon get over that achievement, and get hacked off with regular visits to the pet shop to buy noisy bloody crickets that stink and escape all over your house, you are left with a fat motionless bag of scales that is simply an inconvenience. The other problem imo is that you cant really go keeping various species together to make a visual display, so are left with a large dislay with not a lot in it, again boring. If you do get the bug and like them, every new specimen more or less, will want a new enclosure making its a serious space issue and energy sapping exercise. I had a leopard gecko, I literally never saw it, it lived in a 2 foot square tank full of logs and wood chips, it was cool at first...unfortunately it had a disease they regularly get, from poor breeding and despite my best effort it died, which if im honest is probably for the best as it rarely came out and when it did it didn't do anything. So next I went for a bit more of a display and had a sand lizard and some other geckos etc little things a few inches long, think there were about 4 in total, they were supposed to be more active as they were day time creatures, but honestly they still hid a lot, and I got sick of feeding them and them doing well bog all, worse than having a hamster, so I took them back to the shop after about 6 months and sold the viv. One of my customers has a big adult beardie, it sits on a log under the heat lamp, and well that's it, the only reason I know its alive is it occasionally looks at you. You can get some really nice lizards very pretty but remember they are likely going to be very boring, and live a very long time, like dog long time, so its really worth considering how much you like the damn things first, probably less than you thought originally. Buy a Rabbit, it will only live 4 years you can cuddle it, it lives outside so it doesn't stink your house out, it eats cereals that are easy to store and and don't chirp at you, and it does well something.....

lol that's my 4 pence anyways.

My beardies havent had a cricket in years as they eat locusts and they dont make a noise plus they prefer them to crickets.

 

Mine are active which is all about the upbringing and diet plus supplements.

 

My viv is huge now having had 3 ranging from smaller glass ones now to a 6 foot wide 2 foot ish deep and about 2 half feet high. The heat is all about the bathing spot on top of a bit of wood next to the heat source the whole viv doesnt need to be redders. You can use a thermometer to measure the temps in basking spot and cool spot. My 2 ceramic heat lamps run on a thermostat to regulate the temp at the basking spot. UV strips need changing every 6 months iirc as this promotes a healthy beardie and they will be more active. I let mine run round the house and they play about with the cats in fact the cats are just shit scared of them.

 

Size wise they aint massive at around 4/5 years old now. Bodies are about 7/8 inches and full length of about 15 inches this should be them fully grown now.

Edited March 12, 201312 yr by Gonzo12c