Bearded dragon trouble

[Darren86]

Hi everyone,

I'm just new to this site.
I have two beardies that are about 1 year old. I have them in an indoor enclosure on a sand substrate. they have recently started digging a lot. they dig under their logs and under their water bowl until they are almost completely hidden underground as their tunnels tend to cave in on them once theye through. I'm just wondering if this is normal behaviour and whether they may actually get stuck or run out of oxygen once they're in there
any advice would be a huge help

[pete12]

make the sand a bit moist so i wont cave in as much

[BT]

hmmm, my adult created a burrow the other day, in 15cm of sand he created a sort of burrow in the back left hand corner, though this thing was soild and you would have to hit it with a hammer to knock it down. must be the cool weather and making them go into brumation

[buttss66]

the trouble with making the sand damp is that the humidity will be too high. I do that for my hermit crabs and it quickly gets to 80% humidity. I believe that as long as your temps are ok, it's normal behaviour for beardies to dig. Make sure any rocks, branches etc are firmly placed on the floor of the enclosure so they dont fall over and you could take some sand out so its not too deep if you're worried.

[Darren86]

thanx for all the help everyone, i've decided to wet the sand and make it set somewhat and i'll see how that goes. hopefully it'll limit their digging, otherwise i might just remove some sand like buttss66 said. thanx again

[JasonL]

They are trying to brumate, give them a large tub of wood shaving or a good hide they can brumate into, then don't disturb them.

[Riley]

whats the temps? if your not intending to breed them, your tank might be too cold therefore they are burrowing to try get warmer

[dragon lady]

if you dont want to change the substrate....
use 2 thick flat rocks(or bricks)....place them on the base of the habitat-remove sand from the area
then on top of the rock pieces...put a wood cave
put the sand under the cave in between the rocks
if they dig they sand cant cave in..they cant move the rock or bricks

[Darren86]

Originally Posted by Riley

whats the temps? if your not intending to breed them, your tank might be too cold therefore they are burrowing to try get warmer

The temps are about 38-40c in the hot end and 30c in the cool end, also i'm up in cairns where we dont really get that cold anyway, the lowest temps havent dropped below 17c.

[JasonL]

It often does not matter what the temps are, the lizards know what season it is, esp from night temps, they will often brumate in any temp.

[Darren86]

ok guys,

i've added two pics of the enclosure, i should have done that to start with. In one of the pics i've added the lines that they have dug.
In reply to dragonlady, you will also see that i already have a rock cave in the enclosure which is another reason i have been a little perplexed about their activity

[Darren86]

Originally Posted by JasonL

It often does not matter what the temps are, the lizards know what season it is, esp from night temps, they will often brumate in any temp.

thanx JasonL,

can i ask what you would call a good hide, and is it ok to leave them in their normal enclosure to brumate? also do i just stop turning the heat and UV lights on? how long should i brumate them for?

sorry for all the q's, i'm just new to this.

[JasonL]

Darren, wild bearded dragons bury themselves to brumate, their activity is perfectly normal. If they are kept in unsuitable substrates, they will use hides ect, but as you have desert sand that seems to have some depth, they will bury.

[buttss66]

your enclosure looks good! I'm wondering if those temps are a bit high. Some people will disagree but mine range from 35 right under the heat lamp down to 22 in the coolest corner and in both my set ups the dragons spend 90% of their time in spots that are between 29 -31 deg on the surface of the branches. At night i heat them with a single 40 watt moon globe (i'm in geelong and its getting cold). I dont imagine you would need any heating over night. I dont really know enough to suggest anything else.

[Darren86]

Thanx JasonL and Buttss66, next time they dig i will just leave them and see what happens, i'll also try reducing the cage temps a bit 2. thanx for the positive coment on the cage buttss66