Maybe premature but I am sitting here looking at a cage frame and starting to build a BD cage in my head. I happen to currently be building two iguana cages at once and plan on using the left overs to build myself a BD cage. Call it a college graduation splurge -- still potential I am still not sold on the whole crickets idea. Never dealt with a lizard this small, well for longer than a few months, or terrestrial so I am a bit lost.

I am working on the adult size cage now rather than a baby cage as the yearling cage is a lot less expensive, smaller, and not much of a design problem.

First footprint. I am walking around with a tape measure and checking all my tables. Looks like roughly 24' x 48' will easily fit on tables I have around here. For one adult is 24"x48" suitable? What about 24"x36" or even 18"x36"?

Height which is based right off lighting and heat. From reading on these guys it is commonly said they are even less graceful than an ig, which I find hard to believe, and climbing should be limited. Would a 12" high shelf be safe for a common BD? If I were to put a shelf in that would be the UV basking and hot spot is that advisable or should I have the basking spot be terrestrial?

To allow for a 12" shelf and lighting I would make the cage 36" tall but only for terrestrial I would make it 24" tall.

How much of the cage floor should be open to the top of the cage verses have a shelf over it. If I were to have about 1/4 of the floor space covered by a shelf above for some climbing and basking then have additional fake rocks and wood formations would this offer enough stimulation and exercise potential?

I plan on continuing my use of MegaRays and the lighting-mount design I have for my ig cage. I also plan on adapting my floor liner from my ig cage.

thanks

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~ Mark

I keep a single dragon in a 4 breeder 36 l x 18 w x 17 h..I keep multple dragons in a 4 t x 2 w x4 l...The rule of thumb is more floor vs height for Bearded Dragons, but they love alot of space no matter what,,,at least mine do.

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MARSHA
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We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart!

my single adult cage 4lX2hX2w and its a pretty big cage for my bearded dragon. he loves it but he only ever uses 3/4ths of it. i think there are still decorations in there he hasn't discovered yet.lol

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I think I am right there with everyone else. 4ftx2ftx2ft. I have seenadults in smaller cages, but would not reccommend it. I have a few climbing decorations for them and they make very good use of them. Good luck! I wish I would have been able to build something. It would have saved me quite a bit of money.
Angel

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0.0.1 Mali Uromastyx (Spike)
1.2.0 Bearded Dragons (Hercules, Megora & Eeyore)
1.0.0 Bi-color Flame Point Himalayan (Koda)
1.2.0 Children (Dimitri, Mercedes, and Mariah)

Is it going to be one of your famous PVC enclosures? Cool! =)

Let me see if I can give you a hand.
Footprint
Rachel's caresheet here states "The recommended minimum enclosure size for one adult bearded dragon is 3ft x 2ft, and you should increase the floor space by 2 square feet for every additional dragon. Height is dependant on where the heat source is allocated, but a minimum 2ft of height would allow you the inclusion of climbing branches."
So 24"x48" and 24"x36" are fine but I wouldn't recommend 18"x36". From my own (short) experience I believe animals are not comfortable in a place they bump against something if they take one step forward or backward.

Height
A 12" high shelf should be safe in case they decide to jump from it. Don't know about igs but Bearded Dragons seem unable to grasp the simple concept of "descend and run left" when it comes to chasing food or investigate something interesting. "Jump left" or "clumsily fall while attempting to jump left" seems to be their only understanding of most situations.
Lacking other options they will bask at ground level but mine never seem to enjoy it so I would advise a higher place to bask

High ceilings vs low ceilings
I don't think a 12" high shelf will upset a Bearded Dragon under it and I think you can go till a 1/3 of floor covered without a problem as long as it doesn't affect overall temps and temperature gradient. Light/shade ratio would concern me most and would avoid deep shades.

I'm not familiar with megaray specs and your lighting-mount design so cannot offer any advice in total height, light/heat positioning and how well it will perform with a Bearded Dragon.

Keep us posted on your progress! =)
Ricardo

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rbl, gave some great info, other then that, the MINIMUM cage size for ONE adult dragon would be 36"long by 18" wide footprint, and 15-18" tall... good luck...

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I have Dundee in a 4ftx4ftx2ft enclosure. When she is not is hibernation light mode, she is all over the place so I would say bigger is better.

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0.1.0 Bearded Dragon (Dundee)
1.0.0 Chow/mix Dog (Simba)
0.0.1 Anole (Elizabeth Arledge Lizard “Lizzy”)
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)
0.0.1 African Dwarf Frog (Hopper)
0.0.1 Plecostomus Algae Eater (Spot)
0.0.16 Fishy Friends - misc. tropical fish

I am also in the process of getting a larger enclosure for my Bearded Dragons, and appreciate the effort lol. All the above suggestions sound really good and the hard part is actually making the size decisions. Good luck and happy building.