Vivarium Heating
A bearded dragon's heating is his/her life line. As beardies originate from Australia they need a warm environment to digest their food and to simply survive. Like with choosing substrate, you will find that people differ in opinion to what to use to provide the heat for your beardie. The one thing that people can agree on however is the required temperature.
A bearded dragon will need a warm side and a cool side. The warm side will be his/her basking area where s/he will digest their food. This should be at a temperature of 90F-105F. The cool side (known as thermoregulation), where the dragon will go to, to get away from the heat should be at 75F to 85F. During the night temperature should not get below 62F.
Here are the following heating options along with comments to help you with your choice.
Heat lamps
For basking, dragons enjoy perching on their favourite branch under a heat lamp, this choice appears to be a popular one with a range of options to choose from on the lamps.
- Ceramic heat lamp - This is the method we have chosen to use as its positives outweigh its negatives massively. These are less fragile and temperamental as that of its infra red alternative. Though these are expensive they last much longer indicating that the cheaper option is simply false economy. You cannot however, tell its working by looking at it as this does not let off a light
- Infra red heat lamp - The good thing about an Infra red heat lamp is that you can tell it is working because you can see the light coming from it. It is also cheaper than the ceramic heat lamp. We started with this type of heat source but have now moved on to the ceramic heat lamp. From experience we found that the Infra red heat lamp is a bit of a hit and miss product. A bulb could last a year but its most likely to last a week or at most a few months. You have to be very careful when screwing it in as the bulb is fragile. Always keep a spare, but even with a spare check that it works as soon as you buy it as peace of mind that on the day you turn to your spare bulb it's going to work.
Check out the lovebeardies shop where you can find a selection of heat lamps to choose from for your vivarium.
Heat mats
Are dangerous! These are readily available in most reptile shops and on the internet and are often the means of heat that comes with a set up provided by a shop. I have never used these for my dragons as I have heard that these are dangerous and can cause the dragons serious harm. Some people may use these without having a problem but due to the consistent negative feedback I have received, or read on forums, I would not like to recommend these to any reptile owner.
Heat rocks
Heat rocks can become extremely hot and potentially burn a dragon that has fallen asleep on this. Some have suggested putting a heat rock in a sock to avoid this from happening. I would however avoid using these full stop.
