A continuation from last month's article - a quick sheet for Care and Feeding of Bearded Dragons.
3) Beardies need light. Sunlight is the best. UV light is what is used in cages and you need to use UVB - but you need to get the proper rays (rating) and also realize that, while the bulbs still work (giving light), they stop giving off their therapeutic UV in about two years. We use the desert mode (UVB 8.0) for our Beardies and change about once every two years. We do keep the old bulbs in case of an emergency - BUT they are only to be used until we can get to the store to replace the old bulb - this does not mean more than a week at most. See Reptiles - Lighting and Calcium - time for a change for a more in-depth look at lighting requirements.
Please note: regular UV bulbs really should be changed every year.
We also make sure that our Beardies get natural sunlight. Even in winter we place them at the window so they can soak up those rays! In summer we do take them outside (one per person - so no chance of problems) - either holding them in the sun or lying down with them - yeah, sunning/tanning with a lizard makes for strange comments from the neighbours!
4) Beardies need proper supplements. The key word here is "proper". They do usually need supplements of varying vitamins - usually Vitamin D and Calcium. HOWEVER - if you are using the newer UVB bulbs with a rating of 8 - then you should NOT be supplementing with Vitamin D and Calcium. See the above mentioned article that is underlined.
5) Beardies need a proper cage environment. This means a proper strata (ground cover for lack of a better explanation) - we use play sand - this is sand that has been sterilized for kids - and it means we don't pay a huge amount from the local reptile store for sand. Many people use walnut strata or a type of vermiculla - not great - try cleaning poops from it! And often the lizards will try and eat the floor - the walnut stuff is not really digestable for them, and the vermiculla isn't much better. Sand is easier to clean from poops, etc.
They need a cave (to hide in, sleep in, get cooler in, get hotter in) and they need a basking area, and they need some branches to climb. You need to keep one part of the cage as the warm/basking area (yes, you do need a heat lamp for this area), and the other side as the cooler area. Think of it this way - they need to decide if they need heat or if they need to escape the heat. Remember, their heat receptors are on their tops, not their undersides or belly.
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