A lizard enclosure for your pet beardie has one purpose. To give your beardie a safe environment in which to eat, sleep and in some cases, breed. The size and items inside of this environment will depend on the length of time you own the pet and how many of them you plan to own. What’s good and acceptable for a juvenile won’t work for an adult Beardie because of their larger size. A home that feels cramped to your beardie will cause him to get stressed and in some instances, stress can make the pet feel aggressive toward an owner.

Don’t plan to place this enclosure in direct sunlight since the heat from the sun’s rays can make it hotter inside the pet’s home than you mean for it to get. Overheating can result in sickness or death for beardie and one of the signs that he’s too hot is what’s known among dogs as a cooling mechanism. You’ll witness your lizard begin to pant and that’s a warning sign you really should heed. Regulating body temperature for their pet is one of the number one problems many beardie owners find themselves battling.

A lizard enclosure that you set up outside your home should not have wide openings that a predator can reach a paw through to strike at your pet. Cats are known to stalk lizards and the trauma of being swiped at could result in shock or injury to your beardie. Crows and other large birds also view lizards as a meal and beardies do feel threatened by large birds. But since beardies do like to sun themselves, you can safely have them outside on a special lizard leash you can find at many reptile shops. You can walk your pet across your yard and keep him safe from predators and keep him from eating any insects he shouldn’t have.

When you want a beardie dragon, to buy supplies for him, you need to have a specific shopping list, more so if you’ve never kept a lizard in your home before. The first item you’ll have to provide for him, is of course, a place for him to give him a shelter. This shelter must be right on target in the area of lighting, heat and basking. Try to copy as closely as you can the way the beardie lived his life in his natural surroundings. This way, your beardie won’t start out with a strike against him already. They are hardy creatures, but you don’t want to make his survival a challenge.

In the past, some reptile owners gave advice to new owners that they could use any kind of substrate in the bottom of the cage. This is faulty. You should never use substrate that your beardie finds tasty and lizards have a tendency to eat shells such as walnut shells. Even if the shells are crushed into tiny pieces, your lizard will still nibble on them. Taking a chance isn’t worth the risk. You can safely use newspaper if that’s all you have handy. If you leave the newspaper whole, just remember the bottom of your beardie’s feet will turn black from the ink rubbing off.

Once you get your bearded dragon, to buy food supplies for him can seem a costly expenditure for someone who isn’t used to caring for exotic lizards. But there are ways to cut down on that cost. For example, you can learn how to keep insects yourself and raise them to feed to your beardie. But if the thought of having a tank full of insects around your home bothers you, then you can buy them from shops or from other owners.

For a bearded dragon, worms are a good way to bring protein into his diet and like foods for other lizards, his diet should also be a well balanced one. You can locate worms anywhere you find fishing bait and you can also get them from online stores that specialize in food for exotic pets. You can find one through a search but one of the best ways to order online supplies is by getting a recommendation from either an expert or a trusted breeder.

Before you think you can simply go out around your house and dig up whatever worms you find, stop! It’s not safe for your pet to eat insects that you find because even if you don’t spray your yard, it doesn’t mean those insects came from your yard. They could have traveled from your neighbor’s property and if your neighbor sprays for pests, then those insects could carry that pesticide straight into your beardie’s delicate stomach.

Wherever you get bearded dragon worms or other insects, you want to make sure you do a process called gut loading before giving them to your beardie as a meal or a snack. You’ll want to gut load insects at least a day in advance before feeding them to your beardie. You can feed your beardie mealworms, butterworms, waxworms and even earthworms.

You do want to be careful when giving your beardie earthworms that aren’t raised as food because again, earthworms dug up from a yard can carry chemical residue. Never under any circumstances give your beardie centipedes. Even though they might appeal to your lizard, centipedes do bite and their bite is venomous. So they could potentially make your beardie sick if he eats them and they can make him sick if they bite, so best just to leave those worms off the menu.

You need to know how to care for your reptile so you don’t end up with a dead bearded dragon. Dealing with a deceased pet can be a traumatic event for anyone. Because of their special needs, beardies have a few extra care requirements. One requirement is lighting. Lighting is so important for these little creatures that if it’s off kilter it can have dire effects on your beardie’s health. Exotic pets like this have to have UVB on a daily basis in order to remain healthy so always check and double check that you’re providing the proper care to maintain his needs.

Some owners end up with a bearded dragon that gets sick because they think that the UVB can double as a primary means of heat and it’s not the case at all. Nine times out of ten though, a sharp eyed owner can spot problems with the beardie long before it reaches the stage where it’s fatal. You have to pay attention and know his pattern of behavior. Some situations owners can’t prevent such as diseases. There are diseases that can strike a beardie that are serious but even then, watchful owners can curtail the seriousness of most negative conditions that beardies encounter and can treat or get help for the pet in time.

Still other owners wind up with a dead bearded dragon because while they’re enthusiastic and caring in nature, they just don’t know all the facts about providing for beardies. They’re not sure what the pitfalls are. One pitfall for beardies is the size of the prey they eat. Too large and it can set in motion a chain of events leading to a blockage. These gentle lizards are easy to bond with and fairly easy to take care of but only if you know the care tips and instructions.

Even if you’re not that handy with designing things, you can still build Bearded Dragon cage that’s sturdy and nice enough to give your pet a great home. One of the main things to consider is the size of the cage. Obviously, if you have one Beardie, you can get away with creating a smaller cage for him than if you have several Beardies that you plan to house all together. If you have only one pet lizard but you plan to get more in the future, you might want to go ahead and build the cage large enough now so that you don’t end up having to redo it in the future.

Once you’ve considered and decided upon the size of the cage, the next step you’ll need to take is to gather the necessary materials. Not all materials are suitable to use for some reptiles. You can find lumber that’s been treated that contains hazardous chemicals that if your Beardie ingests it, the wood will harm him and some woods emit toxins even without being treated. You also don’t want to use any type of mesh that’s been spray painted since many paints still contain some level of lead. Plus, using mesh can make it hard for you to be able to maintain the correct temperature the lizard needs. Don’t use all Plexiglas for the sides of your enclosure since Plexiglas can heat up the inside of the cage and make your Beardie become overheated.

So when you’re ready to build Bearded Dragon cage, you’ll want to sit down and draw up a set up plans. Make sure you cover aspects that will make it easy for you to access the Beardie to handle him. Design the cage so that when it’s time for you to take it apart it won’t be a problem.