Reptile Cymru

If you are in the UK and ever visit Cardiff, in South Wales, consider stopping in to Reptile Cymru, a breeder and retailer, specializing in a wide range of captive bred snakes & lizards, and supplying all the equipment that you need.

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Care Guide - Housing

The cage in which you will be keeping your bearded dragon is a specialist unit which is called a "Vivarium". The dictionary defines this as being "an indoor enclosure for keeping and raising living animals and plants and observing them under natural conditions "

In the UK, with cold weather, it is impractical to keep a bearded dragon outdoors. The most common place to keep them is inside a wooden vivarium, a heated and lit indoor enclosure.

This should provide enough space for the dragon to be able to turn around and exercise. It needs to have enough length to provide a temperature gradient. Keeping more than one bearded dragon in an enclosure will require even more space.

Recommend sizes

A single bearded dragon should require no less than 48 inches of length. The depth and height should be a bare minimum of 15 inches. Ideally, this will be at least 18 inches.

It is possible to keep a bearded dragon in a more restricted length if greater depth is provided, for example, a 36 inch length with a 24 inch depth and height.

A pair or group of bearded dragons would require at least a 48 inch length, and a 24 inch height and depth. It is possible to keep a very large group, for example one male, and four or five females in a 72 inch length, and 24 inch height and depth.

Groups

If your enclosure is less than 72 inches (6 foot) in length, it is advised to only keep one male to the enclosure. Some breeders do successfully keep two males in a 6 foot or larger enclosure, when accompanied by at least four or five females, but this is not recommended for the inexperienced keeper.

General advice is to adhere to a one male per enclosure policy, due to aggression and fighting between males who have reached sexual maturity. Groups of youngsters and babies tend not to exhibit these aggressive tendancies.