We have created this guide for our customers due to the many inquires we get regarding the accessories and supplies GEORGIA BEARDED DRAGONS™ selects to use and can recommend for a proper enclosure set-up. Cage-setups will vary depending on the size of the bearded dragon and the number of dragons being housed.

This is simply a guide based on what GEORGIA BEARDED DRAGONS™ actually uses or has used in the past for our own enclosures and does not mean that this is the only correct way to create an enclosure set-up. There are a wide range of styles, methods and supplies that can be used for creating a proper bearded dragon enclosure.

 Basking temps must be established based on your home room temperature and possibly the time of year. Cage temperatures should be between 105 -110 degrees on the basking end of the tank called the "hot zone" and range between 80-85 degrees on the "cool zone" at the opposite end of the tank. We recommend using a digital thermometer that reads indoor/outdoor temperatures with the external probe on the end so you can place the probe in the tank at different levels and locations to get accurate temperature readings.

We use  melamine cages for our adult bearded dragons. We use Semi-Clear Sterlite bins placed on table tops to house our youngest hatchlings and young juveniles. Using the Semi-Clear Sterlite bins allows us easy access and the convienence and opportunity to provide our "hands-on" method of interacting and raising our bearded dragons.

We personally interact with our bearded dragons daily. With the "hands-on" care we provide we consider our dragons "pet-ready" for our customers. Because we interact with and handle our dragons routinely they become accustomed to human contact and handling. We feel this helps our dragons transition into a family setting more smoothly and with less stress.
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.CUSTOM BUILT MELAMINE CAGES (See photo gallery webpage for pictures)
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These cages can be seen on our "Photo Gallery" page of our website. We have them in two sizes. The outside dimensions are 4 foot x 25" deep x 20" high for our four foot cages with a 24" flourescent strip light on one side and a socket on the other side for the basking bulb. Because the melamine cages hold heat so well we use a 30 watt or 50 watt basking bulb depending on the cage temps. The outside dimensions for our three foot cages are 3 foot x 25" deep x 20" high with a 24" flourescent strip light on one side placed at a diagonial and a socket on the other side for the basking bulb. We use  UVB flourescent bulbs designed for "desert dwelling" reptiles with a rating of 7.0, 8.0 or 10.0. These enclosures have front entry sliding glass doors which makes them much easier to access for cleaning and they maintain a good warm interior environment for your dragons. This type of enclosure holds heat very well and allows you to use a lower wattage basking bulb than a standard glass tank with a screen lid.  The added benefit of using a solid non-reflective surface such as melamine is that your dragon is not bothered by reflections that he would have in an all glass enclosure. You can purchases cages like these at www.customcages.comThe size we recommend is noted next to the cage as being recommended by bearded dragon breeder Georgia Bearded Dragons.

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TWENTY GALLON LONG GLASS TANK WITH LID - This size tank is best used for a 2-4 month old dragon - depending on the individual dragon's rate of growth.

40 GALLON BREEDER OR 50 GALLON BREEDER REPTILE GLASS TANK WITH LID -This size tank is best used for a 4 month to adult age dragon and is the minimum size for housing an adult bearded dragon.

An excellent cage supplier is www.glasscages.com. They have a NEW cage design out that is non-reflective with a granite appearance on all sides and has sliding glass front doors with a screen top. Here is a link to the page that shows these newer designed cages. http://www.glasscages.com/?sAction=ViewCat&lCatID=6  This style cage is available in several different sizes. The cages that we recommend will state "recommended by bearded dragon breeders Georgia Bearded Dragons". This is the granite looking cage that has a screen top lid and easy access sliding glass front doors which enables you to access your dragons without having to move the lighting and heating electrical appliances sitting on top of your screen on you cage. 

* No substrate materials should be used on dragons under 12" because of the risk of ingestion of the substrate They should be housed on paper towels or newspaper. Once they are over 12" from nose to tail tip you can change to the substrate of your choice. Please see our webpage titled SUBSTRATE ISSUES to see your options for different substrates or cage linings. 

Basking site should be available. The basking site location should allow your dragon the ability to get elevated off the floor of the cage somewhat closer  to the basking bulb and UVB source. You can also use a a flat river rock which can be purchased at a landscaping store and will provide a sufficient basking site when placed under the UVB light and basking light. The river rock will absorb heat and provide a nice basking site for your dragon.

Provide a food dish, flat plate or small shallow dish that will allow your small dragon the ability to access his/her food easily and see it.  A  large half round log hide to give your dragon a "private hiding place" and as an additional place to sit when your dragon is not basking. Half round log hides are also great as a stabilizer for the base of a basking log to keep it from sliding down in the cage and hurting your dragon.  (FOR AN EXAMPLE SEE PHOTO AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE)

The back and sides of the tank should have a "wallpaper" style covering on the outside of the glass to provide your dragon with a secure and private living environment. You can use the tank backgrounds that are available at most pet stores or you can go to your local WalMart or office supply store and purchase a package of Card Stock grade paper that is available in various neutral colors. We have used both methods for our tanks.Some commercially designed backgrounds will cause your dragon to want to "access or climb" the logs pictured on them and your dragon doesn't realize these are not real. From our experience the best commercially designed background for a bearded dragon tank has a desert scene. This will not irritate your dragon like the ones with logs pictured.

There are several "Hood style" lighting/heating setups that can be used that utilize the flourescent tube tube style bulbs. Just be sure that your basking light sockets points DOWNWARD and not SIDEWAYS. We have seem some hoods on the market that have the screw in fixtures that go sideways. You do not want your basking bulb mounted sideways, it will not do it's job.

 If you are using a flourescent tube style UVB bulb use a "Desert" UVB bulb for your flourescent lighting as they have a higher amount of UVB that is best for "desert dwelling" reptiles and best for bearded dragons. Many of these "Desert" tube style bulbs will have a rating of  7.0, 8.0 or 10.0 for UVB. We currently use the ExoTerra Repti Glo 8.0 flourescent tube style bulb, which I have just learned is being discontinued and replaced with the 10.0 bulb. These flourescent bulbs must be replaced every 6 months as the UVB output of the bulb will diminish over time and the bulb will become ineffective. To prevent eye problems make sure your dragon doesn't get to high and to close to the UVB bulb. A standard acceptable distance is approximately 10-16 inches. Be sure and read the recomended distance in the material provided by the manufactuer.

If you prefer "hood style" the Zoo Med Slider Reptile Hood is one of the best designs we have seen on the market - although it is not cheap. You can use other brand of hoods for your flourescent bulbs including some that have a screw in fixture for a basking bulb. .

* ZooMed brand Slider Reptile Hood (available in 24", 30", 36", 48" and 72")
The Zoo Med Slider Reptile Hood comes in a black lacquer finish. It has 2-3 vertically mounted porcelain base fixtures that accomodates basking spot bulbs, and ceramic heat emitters, or night lighting or infrared heat bulbs, and one fixture for fluorescent tube style bulbs. This hood slides for easy tank access and has a secure "nolift" position. It has multiple switches for independent light selection, built-in aluminum light/heat reflector shield and a 3-prong receptical mounted internally. This is not a cheap hood set-up but it is by far the most efficient and easiest to have on your cage instead of having multiple electical fixtures.  Click on this link.

http://www.bigappleherp.com/Zoo-Med-Slider-Hoods?sc=2&category=22

You can order your reptile supplies through on-line internet reptile supplier Big Apple Herptelogical in New York at www.bigappleherp.com . Ordering your supplies on-line will usually allow you to purchase your supplies AT A MUCH CHEAPER PRICE than retail pet stores. .We have an arrangement set up with Big Apple Herpetological aka Big Apple Pet Supply for our customers. For all  'FIRST TIME PURCHASES YOU CAN RECEIVE A 10% DISCOUNT ON YOUR TOTAL PURCHASE.  You just have to use the code "GEORGIADRAGONS" in the coupon field when placing your order. PLEASE take advantage of this discount. It will help off set the cost of your shipping.

For a basking bulb we really like the ExoTerra Sun Glo Neodymium Daylight Basking Bulb. The ExoTerra Neodymium Bulb allows you the ability  to view your bearded dragon in the best lighting. The Neodymium Daylight Basking Bulb produce a crisp clean "white" lighting instead of the "gold tone" lighting produced by other basking bulbs which can affect the viewing of your dragon's coloration and patterning. We are not saying that any certain bulb is going to actually change the color of your dragon, as they will not,  just that for the most optimum viewing of your beautiful "color morph" dragon this is our prefered bulb. This is the same concept as when the household GE Reveal bulbs came out on the market. They produce and give off  "white light" as oppposed to the "gold-tone" lighting of regular household incandescent bulbs.

If you are interested in using an "all in one bulb" that provides UVA, UVB and Heat, which is called a Mercury Vapor Bulb, we recommend the TRex Active UV Heat Mercury Vapor Bulb in the "Flood" style. Depending on the size of your cage and to get the correct basking temperatures this bulb comes in a 100 watt Flood and a 150 watt. Flood. We used this bulb for many years and had a lot of success with this bulb on our glass cages with screen lids and no eye problems.. If using one of these Mercury Vapor Bulbs you will need to use a 10" Deep Well dome suitable for housing a MVB bulb so the bulb does not extend beyond the housing of the dome fixture. These bulbs are large like a household flood light. Be sure your dragon has an appropriate distance away from the bulb so as not to get up to close during basking and create any eye problems. Acceptable distances are generally 10 - 16 inches. We dot not recommend using the "Spot" bulb as in may be to intense heat dirrected at one spot. We recommend and used the "Flood" style bulb.

Regarding the Compact Flourescent bulb, for years we used the ESU brand SuperCoil 7% UVB bulb designed for desert dwelling animals. We used one of these bulbs on each of our baby rearing bins and never had a problem with our dragons. The last time I tried to order these bulbs I was told by my supplier that ESU was bought out by Zilla and the 7% UVB bulb was discontinued.  These bulbs generally range in the price of $24 - $30 each and we found it to be more econimcal for us as breeders to use the tube style flourescent bulbs over our baby rearing bins utilitzing a four foot shop light.. This is the first year (2008) that we have used the shop light method for our baby rearing bins and have had great success. We currently use the ExoTerra ReptiGlo 10.0 tube style bulb.

Due to some serious recent concerns regarding the compact coil UVB bulbs we DO NOT recommend using them until further research is done on the use of these bulbs on bearded dragons. There have been reports that the intensity of these bulbs is causing eye irritation or damage to the dragons and that when they are basking they are doing so with their eyes closed which may be an indicator that their eyes are receiving too much concentrated UVB at their basking site. 

For examples of some of our cage setups see our  "Photo Gallery" webpage. We have several photos of some of our 40 gallon breeder and 50 gallon glass breeder tanks. These photos will show examples of cages with unprinted newspaper as well as cages with a sand substrate. We also have photos showing our custom made stackable cages made from melamine with sliding glass doors in the front. You can make these melamine cages with supplies purchased at a Home Depot or Lowes building supply stores or custom order them from www.CustomCages.com. The size we recommend is noted next to the cage as being recommended by bearded dragon breeder Georgia Bearded Dragons.

The photo shown on this page is a 50 gallon breeder tank utilizing an all in-one TRed Mercury Vapor "Flood" bulb that produces UVA and UVB housed in a 10" deep well dome. It is shown housing three six month old subadult dragons. We no longer use glass terrariums but they are fine for private bearded dragons owners. We have switched all of our adult dragons over to melamine cages.

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GEORGIA BEARDED DRAGONS™