Owning a bearded dragon

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castro1212

castro1212

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2012
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metairie louisiana
For a while now I've been wanting a bearded dragon and have done some research I just wanna gather personal opinions/experiences but I'm not sure if it would be a good idea. My main concerns are
- how often does one need to be fed
- how much does it cost to feed one
- how often should the cage be clean
What are your own personal experiences with beardies




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I haven't kept them myself but I care for 30-200 at any given time at work.

Feeding:

Greens every day; kale, dandelion, mustard, chard, collards, escarole, etc. romaine is okay but i wouldn't recommend it as a staple. In addition to the greens, squash, bell peppers, carrots, mango, berries, and melon are all good things to make the salad less boring and give them a bit of variety once or twice a week. Make sure all fruits and veggies are chopped up into bit size pieces. As far as insects go, babies eat around 20 appropriately sized crickets or dubia roaches a day and adults 8-10 appropriately sized crickets or roaches a day. Other good feeder insects include meal worms, super worms, wax worms, earthworms, and tomato worms as well as wild collected grasshoppers and moths if you know that they came from an area where no pesticides were used. Use calcium and vitamin supplements daily for babies and ovulating females and weekly for adults, personally I like repashy's calcium plus. The food cost will vary on your local produce and bug prices.

Cleaning:

The cage should be spot cleaned daily and the entire substrate should be changed out every six months or so or when it starts to smell.

As far as personal experiences go, I love beardies and I think you'd be hard pressed to find another lizard species that has such a favorable combination of charisma and ease of care imho.
 
I recommend a 4'x2'x2' cage for a single lizard.
 
I used to keep breeding trios in a 90 gallon. Would eat twice aday. Clutchs were always 24 plus eggs for each female. Would always have two basking spots.

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They are definitely 1 of the best first lizards if you've never kept 1 before. All info above is correct, but let me add in that as babies, they are for more insectivorous than they are as adults. After about a year, their main staple is primarily gonna be veggies with insects being fed once or twice a week. For an adult, the bigger the cage, the better. Babies are fine in a 10g and don't forget UVA/UVB lights. This is how they get their vitamin D and without it, they develop calcium deficiencies. This is very important so don't skimp out on it or go for mercury vapor bulbs. Other than that, listen to everyone else.

As for personal experience, I don't own 1 but my gf has 2. I'm more of a monitor and snake guy. Hers will literally just sit on your shoulder and chill all day and seem perfectly content. They also love to be scratched under the throat and literally act like a dog, closing their eyes, lifting their heads and opening their mouths. It appears as if they're smiling. Pretty cute.


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As babies they eat...ALOT...My Marvin would eat about 35-40 crickets each setting, but they get most of their growth then. As he got older it switches from less and less meats to more veggies and fruits. Kale, Collard Greens, Strawberries, Dubia Roaches...

For housing, As a baby I had him in a 45 gallon bowfront and at about 8 months I put him in a 75 gallon(not as wide as it should have been). Substrate...I used slate. I will avoid the sand debate and say why I chose slate tile. Holds heat, one wipe to clean, looks good, etc...

UVB Light bulb on what end and a house bulb on the other to keep a good temp gradient.



Otherwise................I love Beardies and cannot recommend them highly enough. Any questions, let us know and we'll be glad to help.
 
castro1212 said:
For people who keep them out for long periods. Do they ever use the bathroom on you or can they be trained to only use it in the cage?


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If you have a water bowl...they'll poop in that. Or when you do your daily water bath/soak(I had extremely dry air in my house) they'll poop there.
 
they are really easy to take care of. i have not had one in years buti had mine in a 55 for the longest time. gives you room to put a few sticks in there for climbing. i had the sand that was meant for beardies. would end up eating a little of it but never bothered him at all. they live in sandy enviroments in the wild so it couldnt be that bad. he liked to dig holes in it at night to sleep in too. the uv bulbs are important along with good calcium supplement. i used to gutload my crickets real good too. he would eat mainly his veggies. he really liked strawberrys. they would always be the first thing gone out of the dish. never had one poop on me. would deffinately like to hang out on my shoulder for hours though. sometimes in the summer, i would take him outside to bask in natural sunlight and eat the bugs out of the grass lol.
 
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