I was given the ok by my wife to take a 2 1/2 by 6 area right in the center of the house. It's next to the kitchen, actually in the dining room and looks right into my office or the family room. He should see lots of us and be in the center of everything. I am now planning the cage. Starting from scratch I can include anything! Water features and pools! Rock formations! Plants! Lights! Anything! So what should I include? Since I have all the pumps and drains for a chameleon drip system I was thinking of a small pool, kind of at the base of a seep. I can set it up so it can be drained and cleaned daily,with all the stuff I have, I can provide a flow of fresh water draining off the old water. The pool idea came from seeing all the pictures of bathing Bearded Dragons! All ideas are welcome from the simple to the most extreme. My main goal is to provide my soon to be pal with a nice enclosure that he will think is great.

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0.1.0 Bearded Dragon (Dundee)
1.0.0 Chow/mix Dog (Simba)
1.0.0 Russian Hamster (Bear)
1.1.0 Parakeets (Little Tweet and Feathers)
0.1.0 Long hair gray calico cat (Opal)
0.0.3 Red-eared slider turtles (Mommy, Daddy, Robbie)
0.0.16 Fishy Friends - misc. tropical fish

Sounds great, how tall are you going to make it? My Bearded Dragon enclosure is 4lx2wx3h, they seem to enjoy being able to climb around.

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Answers are great. But I prefer questions!

Visit me at www.jaysreptiles.com

I have about 4 1/2 feet in height to play with. The amount of space inside will depend on the mechanics under the enclosure. I want to use all my area to full advantage.

LOL I must not have proofed my typing on my last post! I fixed it!

LOL Now I fixed this one!

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0.1.0 Bearded Dragon (Dundee)
1.0.0 Chow/mix Dog (Simba)
1.0.0 Russian Hamster (Bear)
1.1.0 Parakeets (Little Tweet and Feathers)
0.1.0 Long hair gray calico cat (Opal)
0.0.3 Red-eared slider turtles (Mommy, Daddy, Robbie)
0.0.16 Fishy Friends - misc. tropical fish

I think the height you are proposing may be a little too much for a Bearded Dragon - they do like to climb but are not great climbers and can be clumsy, and may risk hurting themselves if they fall or jump from such a height.

We house our three adults (we will be adding one or two more females in the future) in a 6ft x 2ft x 2.5ft (h) enclosure, and they have two climbing branches,. even with this height the male has caused himself some trouble by jumping from the top branch!!

Your overall floor space sounds great and i'm sure your dragon will love it, although bare in mind it is a huge space and more suited to several Bearded Dragons, so you will have room to add in the future if you want to?

Also bare in mind that you won't be able to house a baby in such a large enclosure, if you are planning to get a young specimen - it would just get too freaked out and would have a hard time catching food! You would either need to use a smaller viv or put a divider in there until the dragon grew.

The water system sounds brilliant, and should encourage the Bearded Dragon to drink, although you need to make sure that it doesn't create a lot of humidity as Bearded Dragons require dry habitats.

Good luck, sounds like you have a plain space to do with what you want to and the world is your oyster here!

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

I sort of thought I would place the pool on one end near a vent to help keep the humidity down. I am also thinking of adding a very small fan in the center to give a slight bit of air movement. I don't want to cool the enclosure just provide a little fresh air. The hot side would of course not get much in the way of vents! I also want to make any vent adjustable so I can regulate temps as well.

The height I mentioned is just the amount of space I have to work with. I don't plan on letting him get too far off the ground. I should be able to provide a lot of different heights. I am thinking of creating a kind of feeding arena so the prey won't have it so easy and a hard surface to help reduce the chance of impaction.

I do have a couple of questions about the baby cage size requirements, I would think that in the wild they would have a much larger area, so why would they freak out in the size I have? How big do they have to be to get out of the baby enclosure?

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0.1.0 Bearded Dragon (Dundee)
1.0.0 Chow/mix Dog (Simba)
1.0.0 Russian Hamster (Bear)
1.1.0 Parakeets (Little Tweet and Feathers)
0.1.0 Long hair gray calico cat (Opal)
0.0.3 Red-eared slider turtles (Mommy, Daddy, Robbie)
0.0.16 Fishy Friends - misc. tropical fish

sounds like a great enclosure. However, i would start off with a smaller cage if you are getting a single baby. Sometimes it's hard for them to find their food and the heat if the cage is too big. Having a smaller enclosure (20-40gal) would be great until it gains a little size.

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-Adam

"Help Protect our Planet from Overcollection, Purchase Aquacultured Livestock and Captive Bred Herps"

New Cage Question: What kind of plants can I get that are the same kind as they would find in Australia?

I have a few pieces of opal in matrix and some interesting semi-precious native rocks so I can give him a bit different rocks from the home land. Sorry he's not getting my expensive rough like my good opal or facet rough. I cut gemstones as a hobby so I just seem to acquire stuff like that.

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0.1.0 Bearded Dragon (Dundee)
1.0.0 Chow/mix Dog (Simba)
1.0.0 Russian Hamster (Bear)
1.1.0 Parakeets (Little Tweet and Feathers)
0.1.0 Long hair gray calico cat (Opal)
0.0.3 Red-eared slider turtles (Mommy, Daddy, Robbie)
0.0.16 Fishy Friends - misc. tropical fish