Bearded Dragon Care Guide! (EVERYTHING you need to know)

It's up to you my name is Tyler Ruggie welcome back to my YouTube channel today is going to be a

bearded

dragon

care

guide

as some of you may

know

I've had

bearded

dragon

s for a long time I've probably been keeping them for a long time. I'm about six or seven years old now, so I have a lot of experience taking

care

of them. I've also experimented with a lot of different care methods and I definitely made a lot of mistakes along the way and learned from them, so I thought it would be great if today I could make a care

guide

for you guys to help anyone who wants to get a bearded dragon and I hope be able to make it so any first-time bearded dragon owner can pass. many of the mistakes I've made along the way, so I'm basically going to go over

everything

you

need

to

know

to take care of a bearded dragon,

everything

from all the supplies you

need

, dietary lighting substrate for enclosures, literally everything you need. you can. possibly need to know, I will tell you and I will also have all this information in the description under any item I talk about for any supplies you need.

I'm going to link below where you can purchase them and Without further ado, let's jump right into the bearded dragon care guides, so right behind me we have Malachi, my bearded dragon, so here's Malachi. Most bearded dragons are very calm, they are generally very friendly and manageable, so many people like them and Malachi is no exception to that, he is a very calm dragon. I'm going to put Malachi and the compound back on. I'm just afraid of him pooping on me, that's the main concern I have, so "If you're going to get a bearded dragon, I wouldn't recommend going to Petsmart or Petco or any chain pet stores because you don't know where they get the ones from." reptiles and most of the time Petsmart and Petco get their reptiles from a large scale like a mass reptile breeder where many of the reptiles are not genetically healthy, they are not in very good health and you just don't really know if they have parasites or diseases or what they carry reptiles that Petsmart and Petco is too expensive so save yourself a few bucks and go somewhere else so I would recommend if you have a local reptile show go to a local reptile show you might not even; know that there is one near you, but go to Google, search for it and try To find a good breeder, you can also search on Facebook or reptile groups and try to find a breeder around you and if you are having difficulty finding a breeder around around you, you can also go online and there are many bearded dragon breeders online that will ship bearded dragons. for you and if the whole shipping process makes you nervous and you also can't find a good local breeder and your only option is to get it from a pet store, then I would recommend trying to find a store that sells reptiles and specializes in reptiles or just, In general, try to find a locally owned pet store.

If you go down one of those routes, chances are you'll find a good quality bearded dragon that's also reasonably priced and you know it's going to be healthy and it's just going to be better all around and you'll also be wondering: Can I keep both of your dragons? together? The answer is no bearded dragons. They are completely solitary. They don't benefit at all from being in groups. Some people keep their two dragons together and they don't. You have aggression problems, but that's not always the case. There are many horror stories of bearded dragons attacking each other and bearded dragons losing limbs or the tips of their tails, so only get one bearded dragon if you want more than one, then you can.

I'll have to get more than one enclosure and keep them separate. Another thing to keep in mind is that bearded dragons live on average between fifteen and twenty years. I have known some bearded dragons to live even over twenty years, obviously some can live a little shorter than that, it really depends, but it is a long commitment, so if you want to have a beard, make sure you are willing to commit to a commitment of about twenty years the next day, getting all the supplies you'll need. Take care of your bearded dragon, the first thing you're obviously going to need is an enclosure, so for bearded dragons I personally recommend nothing smaller than a seventy-five gallon enclosure now if you go online and search here: take good care of the dragon. of people online recommend a forty gallon breeder as a minimum, you should keep a bearded dragon extreme, but that's what it is, it's a minimum standard and in my opinion, bearded dragons should not be kept on anything as small as 40 gallons.

Because a healthy, adult bearded dragon will need much more space to explore and exercise. Bearded dragons are quite large. You saw how big Malachi is. A 40 gallon breeding tank is simply not big enough in my opinion for a lizard. that big, so what I have behind me is Malachi's enclosure, which is a 75 gallon enclosure, it has sliding glass doors in the front, it's four feet long, it's a decent sized enclosure, if you go to have a bearded dragon when you are a baby, I would probably recommend it. get something smaller to start with like 40 gallons or 20 gallons but as he gets older you'll want to upgrade him and when he's an adult you'll want to have a 75 gallon or larger tank, you might have some trouble finding a 75 gallon tank because unfortunately They don't sell them at Petsmart or Petco if you have a local reptile store I would look there and if not there are a couple enclosures I would recommend so my enclosure behind me is made by Marty made now I think Marty made It could be local to me.

I live in Michigan. I'm not sure if they like boat enclosures or something, but you could probably contact them and find out. I'll put your link below but Another really great enclosure for bearded dragons are Zen habitats. Now I would almost recommend more because they are actually larger and I have a Zen habitat that I keep one of my snakes in. The standard Zen habitat is 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet equals 120 gallons, so it's actually a lot larger and gives you a lot more space to work with and I think they're also really beautiful and unique looking enclosures as well. which I will also link to Zen below.

I have an affiliate. Connect with them if you are interested in getting a Zen enclosure. I would highly recommend some enclosures for bearded dragons, so next we will talk about lighting and heat, so this is the part that is a little complicated and gets confusing if you are not. You have no knowledge about this and you're not a reptile yet and you have no knowledge about healing and just like UVB, it can be really confusing doing the research and trying to figure out what you should get, what's good, where to put them. and all that, so I'll try to simplify it as much as possible.

Number one, you're going to need a basking bulb, so the basking bulb is going to be the bulb in the tank that you put on the side of the tank. the far left or the far right and it will create a basking spot and also the hot side of the tank so there will be a hot side and a cold side where you will want there to be a temperature gradient for your bearded dragon to go to. hot side and sunbathe under the bulb whenever I want, but I can also retreat to the cold side if you want to cool off and bearded dragons are from Australia and they live in a kind of desert environment, so very high temperatures they need a nice and Strong sunbathing bulb, along with the sunbathing bulb, will also need UVB, so your options here are that you could use a mercury vapor Bob.

Many people simply use a mercury vapor bulb because mercury vapor bulbs give off heat and also place AA qva and UVB. so it's like all in one for your bearded dragon and they usually come. I think at 100 watts and 150 watts, you'll typically only need a hundred watts, but again, this depends on how far the bulb is from the heating point. Be it how high the enclosure is and also how hot it is in the room where you keep your bearded dragon. I have experience using the Med power son mercury vapor bulbs, those are the ones that have worked well for me and the ones I have used.

The most popular thing for people who have bearded dragons is to have a separate heating bulb and then a UVB strip, so this comes down to preference of whether you prefer to have a mercury vapor bulb or have them be separate, but I have found Most people who keep their two dragons like to have a UVB strip bulb and a sunbathing bulb separately because having a UVB strip bulb gives them a broader spectrum and covers more of their enclosure, so in that case you're going to If you want to get a sunbathing bulb that just turns off the heat, you have a couple of options here.

You could get one that is marketed for reptiles, which is personally all I've done. I've always used the zoom sunbathing bulbs and again you're probably going to want to get around a hundred watts and if your rooms are a little bit colder you might need a hundred and fifty watts but I would say a hundred watts is a good place to go. begin. Another option is for some people to simply use halogen bulbs. They are cheaper and some people say they are more reliable. I can't really endorse this because I've never used halogen bulbs but if you want to try them from what I found a lot of people use the 60 30 watt halogen bulbs which again will be linked below and you can also read online and I encourage you to do your research beyond this video anyway, if you're using a 100 watt bulb, you'll want to To get a mini deep dome light, I think the mini deep domes go up to a hundred watts and then if you're using a 150 watt bulb, you will need to get a full size deep ceiling light and those bulbs take bulbs up to about 150 160 watts and I also want to mention that Basking bulbs do not use colored bulbs, they just use regular bulbs like white or yellow.

I really don't know why people use them, they are not beneficial at all. some people think your reptiles can't see light because it's red and they think you're a dragon or whatever that can't see red light and that's not true, that's a myth, just because the light bulb is radical doesn't mean your dragon can't see it, it can still see the light and that will interrupt its photography period and if you need the temperatures to be a little higher at night get a ceramic heat emitter. Ceramic heat emitters produce heat, but do not. it produces light so if you need higher night temperatures because maybe your house gets too cold at night then you can use a ceramic heat emitter and another thing you can get for your heating bulb that I would recommend is getting a dimmer so you can plug it into the lamp and it will make it so you can dim the bulb so you don't have to have it at full power.

If you find that your temperatures are too high then you can simply dim the light and it will be a little colder once you have the heating bulb you need to look into a UVB bulb, if you are not using mercury vapor then you will want to use a UVB strip, so it will be like a long tube type. of bulb that you are going to place next to the heating bulb to cover the rest of the enclosure, there are two different UVB bulbs that I would personally recommend again. I usually use zoom and zoom does something called Sun rep.

TenPoint ot5 and this is what a lot of people recommend for bearded dragons. It is a high performance UVB bulb. Bearded dragons need a fairly high amount of UVB exposure and another really good brand is Arcadia. They make a bulb called dragon d3 Plus. t5 bulb, but basically you want to get a ten point ot5 UVB bulb and you'll be set, there are t5 and t8, t5 is stronger and t8 people usually don't use it unless they mount it inside the cabinet. but if you just put the uvb bulb on top of the cabinet on top of the screen then i would get a t5 but uvb is really important because bearded dragons use uvb to process calcium and make vitamin d3 if they are not getting adequate UVB rays can cause them to have metabolic bone disease, which is really not good.

We'll talk about calcium and supplements a little later, but know that having an adequate amount of UV exposure for your rap tiles is extremely important and with that being said, you'll also want to have timers for your lights now, obviously, you can wake up in the morning, turn on the lights and then at the end of the day, turn off the lights. Five bearded dragons benefit. From having a pretty standard photography period to like you don't want it to be different every day because it might put them off, a lot of people keep the lights on theirbearded dragons on for 12 to 14 hours and I find it much easier they have timers that automatically turn them on and off at the same time every day so you never forget and it's never different so I would recommend getting timers for your lights it does make everything much easier now that I know all the Talking about UVB can be very confusing and all the bulbs can be very confusing if you are interested in learning more about UVB and how it really works and how to choose the right bulbs for any reptile you have and how to know how to place them. and everything I do, I have a video where I talk about UVB.

I recommend watching it, it's a bit long but there's a lot of information in it, it's really useful and I actually spoke to a lighting specialist on Zoom Add List if so. If I'm confused about UVB rays, I think that very easily clarifies a lot of things that I recommend watching that video and it will be linked below, so basically under the Basking bulb you're going to want to have a pretty tall rock or some pieces of wood and different things to so that your bearded dragon can climb and get closer. the heating bulb or a little further away if they want, but at the closest point that the heating bulb can reach that your bearded dragon can reach, you want the temperature to be between 110 and 120 degrees.

Now I've seen a lot of variation as to how people like to keep their heating temperature some people keep it as low as 100 degrees. I've seen some people say to keep it as high as 130 degrees, which I think is a little hot in my opinion. I keep mine at 110 degrees. just think that's a really good temperature that r2 dragon might like, but it's recommended that it be between 110 and 120 degrees in general, so make sure it's in that range. You can use a temperature gun to measure the temperature or you can use a digital probe. Thermometer I would recommend getting both, they are both very useful tools with the temperature gun.

You can point at any part of the conclusion and calculate the temperature with the digital thermometers. You can place them in different places in the cabinet and just be able to read. temperature at all times are really helpful and I would just recommend getting them, but again, the sunbathing temperature will want to be between 110 and 220 degrees Fahrenheit and then as far as the ambient air temperature in the enclosure, you just want to I would recommend that the general warm side of the cabinet is in the 90s, 90 to 95 degrees is good and then on the cold side of the cabinet, which will be the other end away from the heating bulb, you want that.

For it to be like the 80's, I'd say around 80 degrees is good. I also want to emphasize that I highly recommend the digital probe thermometer over an analog thermometer. I just find that digital ones are much more accurate when reading temperatures. I would also recommend getting one that reads both the temperature and humidity in the enclosure. You can get ones that are separated for temperature and humidity, but they also make ones that are just two in one because you actually want to track the humidity inside. For the enclosure, as well as the humidity and the enclosure, you'll want it to be between thirty and forty percent.

It's also okay if it fluctuates and rises in the 50s, but generally thirty to forty percent in some fluctuation is okay. but you don't want it to go down too much below thirty degrees and you don't want it to go up too much either. Having the wrong humidity can cause respiratory problems, but in general I find that many times the average humidity in your home is fine for the bearded dragon, so there is usually not much to do here, but if you need to increase the humidity in the enclosure your bearded dragon, maybe you live somewhere where it's really dry, so I would recommend just lightly misting the enclosure as needed. or you could try putting a good sized water dish in the enclosure and that will naturally increase the humidity so next let's talk about substrate so substrate is a touchy subject when it comes to drag and keep beer because each It has its own opinion and this is one of the things that gets really confusing if you try to look into it because I feel like everyone has something to say about the substrate and usually there are different conflicting opinions so you wonder what is right, so I'm just going to tell you what my opinion is on the matter and I also have a video on the bearded dragon substrate that I'm going to link below and I would also recommend watching that video if you want a full explanation because believe me there is a There are a lot things to consider when you're thinking about what substrate to use and I don't want to have to talk about that for ten minutes in this video, but just to give you a general idea, there's loose substrate and then there's substrate. that is not loose, many people are against loose substrate and they do not like it.

Personally, I think loose substrate is fine if you have a bearded dragon that is six months or older. I don't see any problem keeping it in a loose substrate for that long. since you are using something that is safe, something that is not safe is calcium sand, do not use calcium sand, calcium sand can promote your bearded dragon to eat the sand and put him at greater risk of impaction, so just don't use calcium sand. If you are going to use a loose substrate, this is what I would recommend, or get an arid bioactive mix. The ones I would recommend include the arid soil mix, I think he calls it Arcadia and then there is also Terra Sahara which is made by bio Amigo, those are good substrates.

I use the bio dudes substrate. I love it, I've never had any problems. The main reason people don't like loose substrate is because they fear it will cause impaction. Mithun bearded dragons. I think a lot of it has to do with it. It's breeding and not having temperatures high enough, if your temperatures are too low, it puts your bearded dragon at greater risk of impaction, so if your temperatures are too low and they're also accidentally eating some loose substrate in here , then Obviously, there is more chance of impaction if your temperatures are high enough, then you probably don't have to worry about anything.

I would recommend feeding your bearded dragon in a dish so that you are not feeding him right on top of the dirt. and you should have nothing to worry about again. I would recommend only using loose substrate if your bearded dragon is six months or older because baby bearded dragons are more susceptible to impaction. I decided to let Malachi walk around with this weapon that he could poop on. Me, but that's just the risk I'm willing to take right now. If you don't want to get a pre-made mix, you can also mix it on site and with organic potting soil and you can mix it pretty much 50/50. and it's a pretty decent mix, like an arid type, if you don't want to use loose substrate there are other options too and like I said before if you are going to buy a baby bearded dragon I would recommend starting without using the substrate anyway so other very popular options, a paper towel, very easy, straight to the point, you can put a paper towel down if your bearded dragon messes it up, just throw it away and replace it, there is really no risk, many people like to use tiles to bearded dragons tiles are a good option and the tiles look better and the other option is not an adhesive shelf liner.

If you don't want to use a loose substrate, it's really not necessary, you can use tiles without including the shelf. line or paper towel, one of those things works great once again. I highly recommend watching my video on substrates because this was a very abbreviated version of my speech on substrates for bearded dragons, but I personally use a bioactive mix and my bearded dragon lives just the same. It's not a bioactive enclosure and he loves it and I haven't had any problems with loose substrate because he ingests there or anything like that. I just take the proper precautions to feed him in a container so he doesn't eat directly on the substrate now.

It's also important to add enrichment places for your bearded dragon to hide and explore, so I would add things like rocks for your bearded dragon to climb on, these can be pieces of wood for him to climb on if you have a bioactive enclosure that you can add alive. plants and you just need to make sure that the plants you are using are safe to eat because your dragon will probably eat some of the plants, but that's another thing. I also have a video on how to keep your bearded dragon active, but that's a little more advanced.

I definitely probably wouldn't start with something like that, but it's an option later on, if you want to try it, you can also add large cork rounds. I have a large cork round in my enclosure and my bearded dragon loves to hide inside it, so you want to have something that your bearded dragon can hide. Not all bearded dragons like to wear fur but some do and most people would just recommend giving them something they can hide and if I would like to make sure you are adding plenty of things so they can explore climb after climb inside. and you can use things like cork, wood, vine, really anything as long as it's wood you bought from a pet. store and it is for reptiles.

I wouldn't recommend going out and looking for pieces of wood, but if you want to do that, make sure you sterilize it properly because things that are outside again can have bacteria, diseases, parasites that you don't really know about. If you find something outside that you want to use, just make sure you sterilize it properly before placing it with your bearded dragon, so next we'll talk about bearded dragon diet, so basically juveniles and adults have a little different diet, but Bearded dragons are omnivores, eating both insects and plant matter, so juvenile bearded dragons will need between 70% insects and 30% greens.

Tall bearded dragons need between 70% greens and 30% insects, this is only because when your bearded dragons are smaller and growing, they need a higher protein content, they need to eat more insects, but once As they become adults, they will become mostly vegetables and then a little less insect, so when it comes to insects, you want to be sure to feed your bearded dragon a variety of gut-loaded insects. , so a really good staple food in my opinion is dubia roaches. I highly recommend having a colony of dubia roaches at home, as long as it is legal where you live, it is not legal in Florida or Canada, unfortunately, probably among other places, but it is legal where I live, look for videos on how to start a colony of dubia roaches and why dubia roaches are amazing and you will save a lot of money if you raise your own doobie roaches, you can also use crickets just from the pet store and also super worms and black soldier fly larvae, they all make great feeders and then You can also feed your bearded dragon things like hornworms and waxworms from time to time as a treat.

I wouldn't recommend it. eating them all the time but just to add variety to their diet you can also feed them from time to time, wax worms are very high in fat and you need to be careful about the weight of your bearded dragons with all these insects you are around. When feeding your bearded dragon, you want to make sure it is loaded, which means you are feeding it fresh vegetables. Many websites will sell themselves as charger packs and different things that you can feed to your feeder insects. nice and nutritious because obviously what goes into feeding bugs is I'm going to get into the bearded dragon so you want to make sure that your feeding bugs are healthy and loaded and full of a lot of good things to Make sure you're feeding your bearded dragon healthy insects and then move on to fresh vegetables.

Great fresh vegetables to feed your bearded dragon and vegetables in general are things like kale, dandelion greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, and squash. I would avoid feeding spinach or tomatoes because they are tall. in oxalates which bind calcium and just cause your bearded dragon to not be able to absorb calcium properly and if you give them too many of these things it can cause them to develop MBD so I would just avoid feeding them, they are just not necessary. and then at all costs avoid feeding them avocado or rhubarb as they are toxic to bearded dragons and then also avoid feeding them iceberg lettuce because it is mostly water, won't be very nutritious and will probably give your bearded dragon diarrhea.

I would recommend looking up. lists of all the vegetables you should feed your bearded dragon and if you're ever in doubt about what you're about to feed your bearded dragon, just Google it and say, "Okay," I'm sure you'll find the answer. and with that. That being said, you should also be careful with your bearded dragons. Wait, if your beauty dragon starts to look like it has a littleoverweight. I would recommend cutting back on their diet a bit because there are a lot of fat bearded dragons on the internet that people just search for. in love, but unfortunately it's a good thing that your bearded dragon depends on you to feed them a healthy diet and keep them healthy, and if your bearded dragons get fat it can lead to health problems and a shorter life expectancy, so just make sure your reptiles They are healthy and you.

When feeding them the proper amount, I would recommend getting tweezers. The tongs are really nice because you can feed your bearded dragon. Some bearded dragons like it when you move things in front of their face, like green ones and all that, a lot of times if you're bearded. The dragon is finicky, and many bearded dragons are finicky, they are sometimes more inclined to eat if they like to move things in front of their face and in general it is good to have pincers so you don't have to like to touch them directly. insects, you can also give your bearded dragon some fruits as a treat, many berries are safe for bearded dragons, such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, peeled apple is okay, a little bananas are okay, again, just looking for a safe list, but as far as I know for the most part, you want to avoid anything citrus is not good for, but you want to make sure you feed fruits in very low amounts because they are high in sugar and, again, too much fruit will probably lead to a fat bearded dragon, so next. and this is really important get supplements you're going to want to get three things in particular so first you're going to want to get calcium and there's two different types of calcium that you're going to want to get: no d3 and then there with d3 so this is just powdered calcium and You're going to sprinkle it on your bearded dragon salad or sprinkle it on your bugs when you feed them, they will need calcium to make d3 and if you don't give your bearded dragon calcium they can get metabolic bone diseases and you don't want to do that to them.

I would mainly recommend giving your bearded dragon without d3 because they can actually overdose on vitamin d3, but it is not common and also not very likely unless you are using calcium with d3 like every day. Basically, when your bearded dragon eats calcium and is exposed to UVB rays, it produces its own d3, so some people say, well, you shouldn't even have to use d3 because they produce their own, but the fact is that they don't. they are. They're not going to efficiently produce as much t3 under a UVB bulb as they would in nature under the Sun.

We can come pretty close to replicating the Sun in your enclosure, but it's not exactly like the Sun, so they just aren't going to produce. as much d3 as they would in the wild if that makes sense so it's good to add some d3 back into their diet from time to time but I would mainly recommend using calcium without d3 and then you can use calcium with d3. maybe just once or twice a week, yes calcium is really important. I would recommend sprinkling it every time you feed them salad or every time you feed them bugs, just sprinkle a little calcium and you'll be good to go and then the other.

What I'm going to want to buy is a multivitamin, so obviously there are different brands and what I have on hand right now is the Wrap Cal Herb the Bite multivitamin, so the multivitamin you only have to use maybe once a day. week or maybe twice a week. When it comes to cleaning, you obviously want to clean one spot every time your bearded dragon poops, and if you don't, it will smell really bad and get very dirty, so every time your bearded dragon just poops, you just have to. clean it. I only use diluted Vinegar to clean my cabinets mainly because it is all natural and you really don't want to use any harsh chemicals.

If you're going to use something like bleach, you'll just want to make sure you really rinse everything off. thoroughly and another really important thing if you are going to buy a bearded dragon is to set aside money for it. Bill it's probably obvious if you have dogs and cats, reptiles need to see the vet and bearded dragons have different diseases and things they can catch. That will require attention and happens more often than you think. Make sure you have a good amount of cash set aside. $500 to a thousand dollars set aside for vet bills, just in case, is what I would recommend because seeing an exotic animal. that's not cheap, it usually costs over a hundred dollars to just walk in the door and have your reptile looked at and then depending on what's wrong with it, if you're lucky you might need to get some medication and it will be another couple hundred. of dollars and then you can leave, but God forbid something serious happens, you need to do surgery or something, it will most likely be close to a thousand dollars, if not more, so make sure you have money set aside like a little. that fund because you don't want to be in the situation where you have to take an animal to the vet but you can't because you don't have the money and with that being said I think I've covered everything so if you have any questions feel free to let me know at below and again, all of this information is basically what I said, but with a little less detail it will be in the description below along with all the products I said you will need.

I'll try. put all that stuff in the description also with links to where you can buy it so yeah thank you all so much for watching good luck to any of you future bearded dragon keepers I wish you the best of luck you guys are truly amazing . Owning reptiles is very rewarding, yes, as long as you do it right. I think they make excellent pets. You will definitely love it. If you found this video useful, please like it. Subscribe to my channel if you are new here. Follow us. Me on Twitter and Instagram if you want to keep up with me and my animals and I'll see you in my next video.