Need advice

[Philpod]

Hi my name is Phil and my son Alex is currently saving up for his first Bearded Dragon. We have read a couple of books and he is very set on his goal. My question is , Is there a good total set up (enclosure, lights, medium etc ) out there for sale? Or should we put one together our selves from all the recommendations we have read. He knows he has to have everything ready before we can get the dragon, we just would like some advice as to how to proceed.

Thanks for this great site.

Philpod

 

[Blaise2oo6]

Hi Phil,

I'm not too sure where you live but where I'm from the exotic pet store that sells the pets around me will make you a deal if you purchase the beardie and the complete set up from them. Otherwise some cheaper alternatives are to look online and piece together a set up, which is what I did and if you've been reading the books you know the right stuff to buy. Good Luck

 

[beardielover17]

as far as a premade setup goes, most of the time they dont come with the correct things you would need...a regular household bulb or floodlight provides great heat so you wouldnt need to buy a reptile heat light, the fixtures you can purchase at home depot or lowes for a fairly cheap price, and as far as substrates go, newspaper, paper towels, reptile carpet, non adhesive shelf liner and textured ceramic tiles are good choices and are safe for the dragon and pose no risks that can lead to impaction...as far as how your dragon will get UVB is your choice...you can use a tube UVB with the reptisun 10.0, and Arcadia 12% (in the UK) being the best ones or you can go the route of the MVB bulbs for your UVB....MVB bulbs are a UVB source as well as heat but sometimes additional heat lamps might be needed to achieve proper temps...also you will need calcium and multivitamin supplements (i personally use the rep cal brands) and to measure temps a temp gun is best but a digital thermometer with a probe touching the surface is also another good way as well...wow this is a long post but its all useful info anymore questions just ask

 

[Blaise2oo6]

I'm not speaking about going into petsmart and expecting to find a complete set-up. But they are sold and not all of them have the wrong things in them. Especially for a child the start-up kits are great! Being informed about your pet before buying them is the best thing to do, but sometimes getting over loaded with info can scare you out of wanting/getting one. Trust me, it's not as complicated as it sounds!

 

[HUNTEQ]

I had to buy a $300 cage and a $100 light separately, I can see you want to be economical, but I've never seen anything like that, otherwise I would have purchased something like that. What I recommend is getting a used cage and washing it out, but if you plan to get really devoted, you should invest in a beardy room, basically a room sized cage with plastic so you can get in there without hiting sand or your beardy.