Bearded Dragon Care Sheet

Scientific Name: Pogona vitticeps

Country of Origin: Australia

Expected Lifespan: 15 Years Plus

Size: 45-60cm

Bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps), or 'beardies', are one of the most popular lizards in captivity in the UK. The species originates from dry scrublands and woodlands in Australia, and the environment of captive lizards should reflect their natural habitat as much as possible. Their lifespan is usually 10 to 15 years or more, so they're quite a commitment.

Bearded dragons are named for the spiky folds of skin around the neck which inflate and turn black when they feel excited or threatened. They’re diurnal – meaning they’re active during the day – and get their body heat from the sun, so need access to safe, high temperatures when kept in captivity.

Housing

Bearded dragons should be kept in a vivarium. Good ventilation is essential to reduce the risk of respiratory infections, and it should be made from solid material that is easy to clean and holds heat well. The minimum size for 1 adult bearded dragon is 120cm long, 60cm high and 60cm deep, but providing a larger space can only benefit and improve the quality of life for your dragon. The vivarium must be secure to prevent escape and free from hazards that might cause injuries.

Temperature/Light

To keep your beardy healthy, you need to create a thermogradient in the vivarium: a hotter (38–42°C) bright end, heated with a 60–100 watt light bulb, to a cooler (22–26°C) shaded end. Place a natural stone in the hot end – the ‘basking zone’ – to provide access to the heat, though your beardie’s back should not get closer than 25–30cm from the lamp. The bulb needs to be fitted with a wire mesh guard, to make sure it can't burn the beardie. Make sure you use a thermostat to regulate the temperature but use an infrared thermometer to record the temperatures at both ends daily as well. The temperature should not drop below 20–22°C at night, so you may need to use a ceramic heater (non-light-emitting) to maintain the air temperature.

Beardies need low humidity to prevent skin or breathing problems. Buy a hygrometer to measure the humidity at the cool end, which should normally be around 30–40 percent. If it’s too high, your vivarium will need more ventilation.

There are times when beardies will want to get hot. To allow this use a grapevine piece situated near the warm end but far enough from the lamps that the dragon is not at risk of coming into contact with the basking lamp. The dragon will climb its decoration to get to a hotter part of the enclosure.

Reptiles use natural daylight to set their day and night patterns. The UVA part of sunlight is essential for their colour vision, and UVB allows the lizard to make essential vitamin D3 in its skin, which is used to store and use essential calcium. UVB does not pass through glass windows so you should place a reptile UVB lamp inside the vivarium.

Create a ‘photogradient’, from light to shade, by positioning your light source close to the basking zone. Fix a high-output 10–12 percent UVB fluorescent tube, up to one half of the vivarium length, into the vivarium roof as far into the hot end as possible. The cool end will then be more shaded, like in the wild. Use a reflector of the correct length to direct the light onto your beardie. Check the UVB output regularly using a UV Index meter, to ensure the UVB gradient ranges from 3.0–5.0 in the basking zone to zero in the shade.

Some morphs of beardies, like albinos, will need lower UVB levels, with a gradient from 0 in the shade to a maximum of 3.0 in their basking zone.

UV lamps must always be guarded to prevent burns, or injuries if the bulb shatters. The UV output will drop over time, so check the light levels regularly, and replace the lamp when the manufacturer recommends (normally every 6 months). Turn off all lights at night – you can use a simple plug-in timer to set 12 hours on during the day and 12 hours off at night.

It’s important to provide opportunities for natural behaviour in captivity, called ‘enrichment’. Provide stones and branches for climbing, and a hide at both ends of the vivarium so the bearded dragon can feel secure. In the cool end, a box such as a plastic tub with an entrance cut in the top and filled with a sand/soil mixture provides opportunities for digging

Reptile Accessories:

Eco Terra Glow Light & Reflector

Exo Terra Dial Thermometer

Exo Terra Small Hide Out Cave

Exo Terra Small Silk Ficus Plant

Cleaning

It’s important to keep your vivarium clean. Otherwise, it can pose a health risk to your pet and to you: reptiles can carry salmonella, so wash your hands before and after cleaning or handling to reduce the risk of infection.

Animal waste should be spot cleaned as soon as it appears. Clean the vivarium once a month with a reptile-safe disinfectant, then rinse off well. When cleaning the enclosure, you should remove your animal, all decorations and all of the bedding.

Diet

A large sized water bowl should be placed in the dragon's enclosure. You might never see the dragon drink from it but it should be there as a back-up. You might notice the dragon use it for bathing, this is usually to cool down or to help loosen its shedding skin. Both the food dish and water bowl should be kept on the cool side of the enclosure to prevent them from raising the humidity in the enclosure. You can also give your beardie a Jelly pot for mositure.

Reptile Food & Accessories:

Banana Jelly Pot

Extra Large Exo Terra Water Dish

Bearded dragons are ‘omnivorous’, meaning they eat both live invertebrates (called ‘livefood’) and plants and vegetables (called ‘greens’).

Safe greens include watercress, rocket, chicory, cress and grated butternut squash, as well as wild plants – dandelion, clover and plantain leaves. Research other safe plants and vegetables to provide as much variety of those as possible. Avoid feeding spinach as this prevents calcium absorption, and too much cabbage or kale as these can affect hormone production. Remove uneaten items every day and replace with fresh.

Feed a variety of livefoods such as crickets (brown house crickets, silent crickets or black crickets), locusts and ‘calciworms’, no bigger than the size of the dragon’s mouth. Remove uneaten livefood from the vivarium as some insects can bite your dragon. As your beardie grows add dubia cockroaches, mealworms and morios to their diet and give waxworms as a treat.

Young dragons need more livefood than adults, so give them about 65 percent livefood, 35 percent greens, increasing the amount of greens as they grow. Baby dragons should be fed twice daily, with the greens chopped up small. Juveniles and adults should be fed once daily. Older bearded dragons (larger than 30cm) need about 40 percent livefood and 60 percent greens. Feed in the morning so that the dragon can digest its food during the day. It’s a good idea to weigh your dragon regularly.

Live food should be dusted lightly with vitamin and mineral supplement powders before feeding. Vitamins and minerals can be over-provided so always follow the manufacturer’s instructions. For example, with sufficient UV light, you won’t need to provide high dietary D3 levels.

Crickets

Locusts

Calci Worms

Waxworms

Mealworms

Dubia Cockroaches

Handling

Bearded dragons like to be handled

Do not remove your bearded dragon from the vivarium for so long that its core temperature drops. Around 10 to 15 minutes at a time is a safe period for this, depending on the air temperature. Keep other pets separate, regardless of how trustworthy they have been before. If contained safely, such as in a secure pen, the bearded dragon can be taken outdoors on bright summer days for some natural UV and enrichment. In this case, ensure that your beardie also has access to shade and supervise them constantly.

Shedding

Bearded dragons shed their skin in large pieces. There is no rule as to how often this will happen but young bearded dragons will shed skin more frequently. When ready to shed, the dragon may look dull as the old skin becomes dry, then the skin should come off easily over a day or so. Don’t pull off old skin if it seems stuck as it can tear the new skin underneath. If patches still remain after a shed, try bathing the dragon in shallow, tepid water for about five minutes to soften it. Poor shedding on the feet can cut off the blood supply and lead to the loss of toes. However, if your dragon is well hydrated this should not be an issue. Most shedding issues can be corrected by adjusting hydration and humidity. As long as it doesn’t create high humidity throughout the vivarium, lightly spray the digging box to provide an area of humidity.

Brumation

During cooler seasons, it's normal for bearded dragons to slow down, sleep more and eat less. It's a bit like hibernation, but for lizards, it's called brumation. They shouldn't lose weight or stop eating entirely, so keep a close eye on them and get in touch with your vet if they're losing weight.