Bearded Dragon Advice please

[Halky]

Hi everyone ,

I am looking to get some bearded dragon as soon as my license arrives, dam DSE taking so long. Anyway i have been trying to do as much research as possible but now i am just getting confused. Some of the questions I have are as follows.

Housing - I was planning to use a 4x2x2 tank, and have the fluro light holder, i know i need to get a heat lamp for basking, but do i need to get someting to keep them warm overnight?

Substrate - whats good/bad. I was thinking of using gravel (6mm-8mm) like in a fish tank. Would that be ok to use?

Animal selection - I would idealy like to get 2 young dragons and watch them grow up, hopefully getting a male and female, though i know that would be more luck than good planning. Being new to keeping dragons would it be better to get one that was a few months old, rather than a few weeks?

I am sure i will have many more questions and will ask for as much clarification as possible. Maybe i need to just stop reading .

As always any and all advice is most welcome.

Cheers

[Chris1]

noooo! no gravel!
if u must use a loose substrate playsand is the safest, $5.50 for a 20kg bag from bunnings, and change it regularly.
red desert sand is also ok,...but dam expensive if ur gonna keep changing it!!

i keep babies on newspaper and move them to sand when theyre 30cms long and toilet trained.

injestable substrates also breed bacteria if pooped on and ur beardy will lick @ the sand from time to time.

4x2x2 is ok fro 1 dragon, 6x2x2 is ok for 2, thats assuming u dont wanna have to upgrade tanks when theyre big.

the reflector globes from coles are great, and cheap fro heat lamps, the UVB is very important so spend ur savings on a good UVB light. i recommend the repti sun or repti glo 8 or 10 % ones.

Night time heating isnt necessary unless it drops to under about 18C @ night, but make sure ur beardy has 2 hours of heat before lights out if feeding late so it can digest.

if ur gonna try to keep 2 together the most likely to work is 2 females, dominance is an issue with dragons. also when they reach puberty the male will breed with the female whether shes ready fro it or not, generally is not a good idea to let them breed under 18months to 2 years.

hope that answers ur questions, if u have any more, just ask.

[Chris1]

heres a pic of the kiddys tank, i think the sand looks quite nice.

theres normally a flouro UVB next to the heat lamp, but i took the pics b4 i put their salad bowl in so the UV's not up there yet, but basically they can get nice and close.

the other pics are bath time and bed time,...just to show how lovely beardies are. i love my kiddies to bits.

[Zdogs]

LOL, love that bed time pic, they're so cute

[Chris1]

hehe, thanks,..they had the biggest wriggle fest last night, i put them on their beanbag and they all started pushing themselves around with thier back legs, front arms tucked back, snuggling in together till they got comfy.