Archive for the ‘Bearded Dragon Tips’ Category

New pet owners want to know which Bearded Dragon terrarium plans and supplies they need to have on hand before bringing their new beardie home. There are two ways you can tackle your beardie’s enclosure – buy a cage or terrarium or take the do it yourself route.

A Bearded Dragon needs an environment that emulates the dry desert, but they’re very sensitive to their climate, so it has to be just right – not too hot and not too cold. Start your supply list off with an enclosure thermometer. Your new pet will also want enough room to stretch out and sunbathe on a flat rock, but they don’t need much room to run around. You’ll want to have your beardie measured before you buy a terrarium or build an enclosure on your own.

Add a flat rock that you can buy in pet stores to your supply list that’s big enough to accommodate your new pet. It will also love some plant décor, but be careful because some plants – real or fake – can harm your pet bearded dragon. Your beardie’s terrarium plans should include room for a food bowl, for the vegetables and possible wet food that you supply, and room for its prey – whether you plan to feed it a daily supply of crickets or mice. Add a cricket keeper container to your supply list, along with a food bowl and a water feeder so your pet can stay hydrated.

You’re almost finished buying you Bearded Dragon supplies for its terrarium! All you need to add now is food – choose between adult and juvenile Bearded Dragon food to ensure your pet gets the right nutrients.

Your beardie’s new habitat may cause them to eat very little the first few days as it becomes acclimated to its surroundings, so don’t be alarmed if eating habits wane at first. Your pet should perk up soon.

If you ask ten different Beardie owners ‘Do Bearded Dragons Bite?’ you’re going to get different responses to the question because each Beardie is unique. Some won’t bite no matter what the provocation is while others will bite when bothered. It’s rare to find a Beardie that will bite simply for the sake of biting. There’s usually a reason behind the bite. For example, if your Beardie is hungry and your fingers linger in the cage while you’re giving him his food, he might bite your finger thinking you were part of the menu.

Usually though, when that happens, the lizard realizes that your finger doesn’t taste good and he’ll release his hold. If you do happen to get bitten and your finger is still in the Beardie’s mouth, the more you move it around, the harder he’ll clamp down until he figures out what he’s got a hold of. For the best result at feeding time, don’t get distracted. Keep an eye on the lizard while you’re introducing his food into the cage. Under no circumstances should you ever allow a toddler in a room alone with a Beardie if there’s any way at all the toddler can get his or her fingers into the enclosure. Both the toddler and the lizard could end up getting hurt.

So the answer to ‘Do Bearded Dragons Bite?’ is ‘sometimes.’ But you have to remember that Beardies are extremely tame and if they bite and it’s not from aggressive behavior, they certainly don’t mean to. If your Beardie does give you a nip, check to make sure the skin wasn’t broken and wash your hands with antibacterial soap. If the skin was broken, make sure you wash the wound carefully and apply a first aid ointment then protect the cut skin with a bandage until it heals.

They look so cute and sweet that some would be owners tap on the enclosures and ask ‘Do Bearded Dragons bite?’ The answer to that question is found in the circumstances involving the dragon and the person who adopts the exotic lizard. Usually, Beardies are well mannered, laid back creatures that opt for a peaceful co-existence with their both their fellow lizards and their human owners. They prefer a gentle life of exploring, basking, eating and sleeping sort of like humans prefer a peaceful life. But as with any creature, they do have their limitations and some do have what in animal world what we call in human world ‘past baggage’.

If you take home an adult Beardie that hasn’t been pre-loved very well and has been taught that humans cannot be trusted, he’s going to be on the aggressive side and if you come at him in a way he doesn’t like he’ll feel threatened. When he feels threatened, he might bite. But you can head off this situation by carefully watching the Beardie you plan to get. Usually signs of aggression or bad behaviors can be spotted long before you take him home.

While some Bearded Dragons bite due to aggression others might bite simply because any animal can bite. The key to avoiding a bite is to understand the Beardie. Any animal can mistake a wiggling finger for food. If you stick a finger in your Beardie’s cage and play around-much like you would drag your finger along the ground for a kitten, you can expect that your Beardie might pounce and clamp down on your finger. Since their teeth are razor sharp, they can puncture the skin and cause both bleeding and infection if not treated right away. For the most part though, Beardies that bite are few and far between.

If you’re interested in exotic lizards, you might have heard other owners talk about Bearded Dragon UVB and maybe you either weren’t sure what they were talking about or you had a vague idea that it referred to light but you didn’t know why it was important. A Beardie has to have both warmth as provided by a heater and he has to have light but on top of that, your pet has to have some sun. He needs the sun so that his body can make a very important vitamin for him-Vitamin D. You can help him with the ability to create Vitamin D one of two ways.

You can either take his cage outside-obviously you wouldn’t want to do this when the temperature isn’t suitable for him or you can buy a light specifically designed to give him the UVB he needs. Don’t think that if you center his aquarium or cage setup directly in front of a window that it’ll be enough. Also, if you use a glass aquarium don’t take that outside because it can become too hot for him. What many owners do is take their Beardie out of his enclosure, put him on a special leash and watch him carefully while he suns himself outside. Sometimes, giving a Beardie the UVB he needs from the sun isn’t practical and owners must resort to artificial means.

If you can’t supply a Bearded Dragon UVB naturally, then you must purchase a light that’s designed solely to give your lizard the UVB he needs to remain healthy. Some owners will buy a fluorescent light like you might see on a fish tank hood but this type of light isn’t suitable since it doesn’t give off UVB. When you first setup your Beardies cage, one of the best investments in his long term health is to get the right kind of UVB- providing light.

Bearded Dragon vivariums are homes for Beardies and can come in all sizes and shapes. As long as the setup provides for your lizard’s needs, you can use a variety of enclosures. Installing the correct lighting, heating and choosing the best location for the housing will be the first step toward making your pet as comfortable as he can be. Even though Beardies do adapt well to life as a domesticated pet, there are a few mainstays you’ll need to place inside his home to help meet his needs. You can find most of the items to furnish a vivarium either at your local reptile supplier or by ordering online.

One of the activities that Beardies enjoy in the wild is the ability to perch on rocks or pieces of wood. You’ll want to give him that same option in the home you provide for him. You can either buy or find rocks for him but if you bring in rocks from your yard or a landscape company, make sure they haven’t come in contact with chemicals. For wood, you can use disease free branches that are small enough to fit into the cage or you can use pieces of driftwood. The perch serves the purpose for the Beardie of giving him a place where he can bask. He does this to help regulate his body temperature.

Also in Bearded Dragon vivariums, in the bottom of the setup, you’ll have to have a substrate that he won’t eat. You can add plants-but if you use live plants, choose wisely-some plants are deadly to a Beardie. One of the most important issues that many Beardie owners overlook when choosing a home for their pet is the ease in which the cage can be cleaned. Pick a setup that won’t make the required cleaning feel like such a chore.