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Is my bearded dragon's tank setup good for their health and safety?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Reptile | Bearded Dragon | Male | 2 months and 26 days old | 0.701 lbs

Is my set up for my bearded dragon good? (See attachment)

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Miranda Sadar, DVM, DACZM

Answered By Miranda Sadar, DVM, DACZM

Veterinarian

Published on September 14th, 2018

Thanks for your question about Smaug, and thanks for the photo as well! I think that you have a good start to your set up, and that we can tweak a few items. First, your lighting situation appears adequate - I see a UVB light (please change this bulb every 4-6 months), a basking light, and a ceramic heat bulb. I would ensure that your temperatures are appropriate for this species, and that you are monitoring them using digital thermometers (I think that you see both a digital and analog thermometers currently) at the level of Smaug. Analog thermometers are inaccurate, so I don't recommend using them (also, they are high up on the sides of the enclosure, so they wouldn't be giving an accurate temperature read for Smaug). For the cage furniture that you have, I like that you have places for Smaug to climb and hide. However, I would recommend having a hide on both the warm side of the enclosure and the cool side so that Smaug has choices. Same for the climbing structures. I may have missed a food and water dish in the enclosure - I would recommend that both of these be shallow, and be large enough for Smaug's entire body to fit within them. I cannot tell what type of shavings that you have on the bottom of the enclosure, but the only wood shavings that I recommend are aspen shavings. If they are pine, these can be irritating to the respiratory system.
I hope that gives you a place to start, and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!
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