Bearded Dragon Care Sheet

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Keeping a bearded dragon is a fun and rewarding experience, but it requires planning, proper cage set up, and some knowledge about their basic needs. There are many great websites and pages with comprehensive care information, as well as books available for purchase. Our care sheet is intended to be a helpful starting point, but certainly not a comprehensive guide. We would encourage any prospective owner to learn as much as they can prior to purchasing a bearded dragon.

CAGE, HEAT, and LIGHT

We have used melamine, PVC, and glass enclosures, and all can work well. PVC and Melamine provide more heat retention, some dragons seem to look better in them, and some seem to prefer the feeling of having only one clear wall. Glass allows more heat dissipation, and we’ve found that some dragons only began to thrive when switched to a glass cage, perhaps because of the greater mental stimulation from seeing out in all directions. We use mostly 48”x24”x18” cages, but have also used 36”x24”x18”, 48”x24”x15”, and 48”x18”x18” cages. While smaller cages are fine for baby dragons, an adult will need a minimum 36”x18”x18” cage. During the day, bearded dragons need a hot area of the cage at around 100 degrees to bask in, and a cooler side at around 80-85 degrees. Buying a larger cage will make it easier for you to create this heat differential, and give your dragon more room to move around, so we would encourage future owners to purchase the largest cage that will work within their space and their budget, up to 48”x24” for a single dragon. We do not recommend keeping two dragons together in a cage. While experienced owners do sometimes allow females to share a cage, you should never plan on housing two males or a male and female together. 

Heat can be achieved with clear incandescent or halogen bulbs and there are many marketed for reptiles. The wattage that works for your cage will depend on many factors, including the temperature of your room, cage material, cage size, cage location, and the type of UV fixture (because they generate some heat too.) We use 20-35 watt halogen bulbs for our PVC cages and we have needed up to 125 watt basking bulbs in glass cages. There will most likely be some trial and error in getting your cage temperatures right, and we strongly encourage future owners to test their cage prior to purchasing a bearded dragon. Purchasing a good thermometer is essential. We use an inexpensive infrared thermometer. Nighttime temperatures are important to consider too and shouldn’t be below 60 degrees. Our nighttime temperatures are in the 70s. If your cage is getting too cold, you might consider using a ceramic heat bulb overnight. 

In addition to their hot and cool side cage requirements, bearded dragons need UV-A and UV-B light to simulate the direct sunlight they would get living in the wild in Australia. While the dual dome lamps found in pet stores will work, we prefer T8 or T5 strip lights to provide UV lighting across part of the dragon’s cage. We usually use a T5 12% bulb for an 18” high cage, but our testing has shown that distance has a significant effect on the amount of UV your lights can deliver at ground level, so the specific type of bulb you should use depends on how far your dragon will usually be from the light. If you use a dual dome lamp, position it so the heat bulb is toward one side of the cage, and the UV is toward the middle. Both your heat and UV bulbs should be on for about 12 hours and then off for 12 hours. A mechanical timer for your lights is extremely helpful and well worth investing in. UV lights lose their effectiveness over time and should be replaced at least yearly. 

CLEANING and SUBSTRATE

Keeping your cage clean is extremely important in order to help your dragon stay healthy. We spot clean our cages frequently with diluted chlorhexidine in a spray bottle and paper towels. Deep cleaning should be performed periodically as well. For that, we use a steam cleaner because some organisms, such as coccidia, are difficult to kill other than with heat. Substrate is the term for what your dragon will be walking on in their cage, and there are a few options. We use paper because it’s easier to keep cages clean and it looks good. Reptile carpet can be used, but it can harbor germs if not cleaned effectively. Sand can work too, but you should only use the screened sand that’s sold near the bags of concrete in your hardware store, not the play sand sold in the soil section. Babies can become impacted from larger pieces if it isn’t screened. In addition to daily scooping, sand should periodically be removed and discarded, your cage thoroughly cleaned, and new sand added. Some owners prefer to use no substrate at all and that works as well. 

FOOD & WATER

We provide all our dragons, babies to adults, with a variety of greens in their cage every morning, prior to offering any bugs. This encourages them to learn to like it. The salads are chopped, misted, dusted with Calcium every day. The salads are also dusted periodically with vitamins or bee pollen. We usually rotate between organic spring mix and collard, radish, or mustard greens. We less frequently provide cabbage, chard, bok choy, arugula, spinach, watercress, parsley, cilantro, and more. We sometimes add various berries as a treat. We use a cheap salt and pepper shaker for dusting calcium and vitamins. 

A baby dragon’s diet should consist of a high percentage of feeder insects. Babies can be offered insects up to three times a day. By around 6 months old, they should be eating more greens and less insects, and do not need to be fed bugs until they are full. An adult may only want to eat a few insects a couple times a week and that is normal. We feed baby bearded dragons small dubia dusted with calcium, small black soldier fly larvae, small mealworms and sometimes crickets. Bugs should not be bigger than the distance between your dragon’s eyes. As they grow up, we also offer silkworms, superworms dusted in calcium, hornworms, wax worms, mealworms, and butterworms. Uneaten bugs should be removed from the cage, not left overnight, and they should be disposed of if they have been in or around your dragon’s feces. Feeder insects can be purchased from a pet store or from an online vendor. 

In the wild, bearded dragons stay hydrated by drinking the morning dew off plants. We simulate that by misting their morning greens. Baby bearded dragons should also be misted so that they can drink water off their snouts. We bathe babies every few days in lukewarm water up to their elbows. Juveniles and adults get a bath about once a week. Whether or not to provide a drinking water bowl in their cages depends on many factors. Our dragons stay well hydrated by eating their misted salads, and by being bathed, so we do not provide water bowls.

CAGE ACCESSORIES

What to put in your bearded dragon’s cage comes down to your personal preference and what your dragon seems to enjoy. There are no absolute requirements, but a completely empty cage would be extremely boring for your pet. On the other hand, adding too many accessories may cause your dragon to feel stressed. Whatever you choose to add should be clean and sterilized. We generally add a tile, rock or a thick branch near the basking light, as well as something to perch on away from the heat. We sometimes add a small, potted plant. Never add aromatic wood, like cedar, to their cage as the oils are unhealthy for your dragon. In addition, it’s important to provide an area where your dragon can escape UV light and direct heat, as they would do periodically in their natural habitat. They need to be able to regulate the amount of UV “sunlight” they receive. This could be in a hide, under a branch, on a perch in the back of the cage, etc. Rocks and wood can be sterilized by baking 250 degrees for a couple hours or so. Plastic or resin accessories can often be cleaned in the dishwasher.

HANDLING

It’s natural to want to hold your new bearded dragon frequently, but you may find it needs a few days or more of less frequent handling while it acclimates to its new home. We have found this to be helpful with some dragons, but not needed with others. It’s important to understand that while bearded dragons can be very social animals, they each have their own personalities. As you observe your dragon’s reaction to various situations, you’ll learn more about its likes and dislikes. For example, some dragons are not bothered at all by a hand reaching down from above to pick it up, while others become very scared and would rather be picked up from the side or below.