so...now I have 2 bearded dragons

[Gumberc563]

I came out to Maryland to help a friend move and ended up with a ball python and 2 bearded dragons. As you can see (I hope) the cage needs some help. I really want to keep the sand (they are desert critters after all), however it seems that that is a breeding ground for bacteria, mites, parasites, and could start the zombie apocalypse. I am not sure about the hot rock. The cage seems to cold to me as at night it just barely stays above 65. not really knowing their feeding schedule I fed them some freeze dried crickets and one of them are around 8. the other one are the other 4. which brings me to another issue, 2 bearded dragons in 1 cage.
So I have some work ahead of me when I get home to Tennessee. this looks like a fairly wild ride for the next few weeks. I will be posting a few questions in the general forum. I just wanted to kind of explain my situation here.

 

[Rdr4evr]

Wow.. this should be fun!!!
The dragons look good! I would say first get rid of the sand, if your very experienced I don’t feel sand is horrible, but you sound a lil new to all this, get the reptile carpet, newspaper,tile... along those lines,
I didn’t see it in the pic, but no heat rocks, I think I read that? Lighting is very important, someone else here can help there, gotta Get to work.... GL and have fun!!


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[Gumberc563]

I am definitely new to dragons. Snakes I am fairly experienced. I am hoping that a fair amount of that knowledge will overlap with the dragons.

 

[Sander Andrade]

I'm not sure if you're new or not here but either way, welcome!
So for starters, bearded dragons are territorial and will fight if anything else is within fighting distance in their cage. Generally male and female will be alright, but male and male are definitely a suicide go. Can you identify their genders?

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[Sander Andrade]

They will also eat any kinds of bug you can buy in a pet store really. Crickets are a good source of protein to them, there is alot of arguing about what food to feed them, but that would be my go to. They about (if not) in the adult phase so I'd switch over to giving them more veggies than insects. They will eat just about any greens you would, there are also websites online that direct you to what is safe and not safe for them to eat.

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[magpie]

If it's the calcisand (likely) you should get rid of it because it can clump and cause impaction issues (even though it's marketed for them). People use play sand, often mixed with top soil 50/50 BUT the setup has to be perfect and you need healthy dragons to do that safely. Most people here will recommend tile/slate, especially with a dragon you don't know baseline health on. Would be good to get vet checks and fecals on these two.

They need tube UVB lighting, T5HO, 2/3 length of the tank. People recommend Reptisun 10.0 or Arcadia 12%.
Do they have temperature probes in the tank? What are the basking temps and the cool side ambient temps?

No dragons should be kept together, any sex. I've read a lot of horror stories of dragons being eventulaly seriously injured or killed, or at the very least there is one dragon that doesn't get the food and water as much and therefore doesn't do as well.

Most recommend a 4 x 2 x 2 tank for adult dragons. (And again, you'll need 2.)

How old are they? That will determine what they need to eat - adults more veggies, juvies more bugs.

Thanks for taking them on - you'll get lots of great info here!

 

[magpie]

Also, 65 at night is fine for dragons.

 

[Gumberc563]

As far as temp probes...there is a velcroed one on the far side from where the basking light is. However the hide and the hammock are also away from the lamp. once I get them home tomorrow I have an infrared thermometer so I will know how how it really is in there. I do have another old aquarium that I can use for the other lizard. However it has the typical aquarium lid, so that will have to go and a lizard or snake one put in its place. I have read that some uvb lights can't go on top of a mesh lid. Is there a reason for this? so much to learn.

 

[Hdrydr31]

I'm not sure if you're new or not here but either way, welcome!
So for starters, bearded dragons are territorial and will fight if anything else is within fighting distance in their cage. Generally male and female will be alright, but male and male are definitely a suicide go. Can you identify their genders?

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Actually if you have male and female together at first they might be ok but once they become of age the male will mate her to the point of exhaustion and then you gotta deal with eggs...

 

[Sander Andrade]

Actually if you have male and female together at first they might be ok but once they become of age the male will mate her to the point of exhaustion and then you gotta deal with eggs...

They are ok if all is provided, such as enough food for satisfaction to both, as well as enough space and heat for both. Otherwise they may fight.

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[Sander Andrade]

They are ok if all is provided, such as enough food for satisfaction to both, as well as enough space and heat for both. Otherwise they may fight.

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As @magpie said, they can and will fight each other at one point .

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[Hdrydr31]

As far as temp probes...there is a velcroed one on the far side from where the basking light is. However the hide and the hammock are also away from the lamp. once I get them home tomorrow I have an infrared thermometer so I will know how how it really is in there. I do have another old aquarium that I can use for the other lizard. However it has the typical aquarium lid, so that will have to go and a lizard or snake one put in its place. I have read that some uvb lights can't go on top of a mesh lid. Is there a reason for this? so much to learn.

You are correct on lighting on mesh so if you get a T8 those bulbs do not penetrate far enough thru the mesh to get to your dragons so those have to be mounted to the bottom of mesh. These get replaced every 6 to 9 months. If you get a T5 HO 10.0 system either reptisun or arcadia 12% these can be placed on the mesh and will penetrate enough. These bulbs get replaced 10 to 12 months

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[PatsyB]

I'm not sure if you're new or not here but either way, welcome!
So for starters, bearded dragons are territorial and will fight if anything else is within fighting distance in their cage. Generally male and female will be alright, but male and male are definitely a suicide go. Can you identify their genders?

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Male and female are not alright to house together. The male will mate the female to death. You are new to bearded dragons so you really don't want to deal with eggs so if you have a male and a female, separate as soon as possible. 2 females could possibly be housed together but that's not always the case. I have two females housed separately and when one sees the other through the glass, she gets very violent and black beards and puffs. So nothing is a guarantee.