Rainbow Bearded Dragons

               This is how we do it here at Rainbow Bearded Dragons. All babies and Juveniles that are sold were housed in clear Plastic Totes. The Dragon will need to go into a regular reptile cage at it's new home. This is normally glass or melamine. Do not put Dragons in a wire cage.It will not hold heat to get the basking and cool side temps correct.It is not a proper cage setup for a Bearded Dragon.  If you are putting your new dragon in Glass cages, most of you will. Please cover the sides and back of the cage with white  paper towels and just leave the front view uncovered. This will allow your new dragon to adjust faster. Please keep your new dragon in his cage for the first couple days except for soaking and a few 5-10 minute handling..This will help him adjust faster from relocation stress.

 Can still pet him in his cage. New dragons need to stay calm and settle into his new home before a lot of handling. Settling in, relocation stress can take a few hours most cases to a couple weeks extreme cases. This is normal but mine start eating usually within a few hours of arrival. Eating will increase over the first week of arrival. Be sure to soak your new dragon on second day of arrival and NOT STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX.  Can soak on first day if weather is hot in your area to hydrate the dragon from shipping and stress later on in the day.

           When dragon arrives unbox and place in warm cage with greens and start feeding cricket, roaches about 30 minutes later, no meal worms ever. Follow Care and Cage setup instructions below and Enjoy your New Dragon.

Please DO  NOT USE COIL UV BULBS !  They are making them to strong and they are Burning the Dragons eyes. Breeders are aware of the problem but most of the public are NOT AWARE. If you are using coil UV Bulbs and your dragon doesn't want to bask and has its eyes closed all the time it's eyes got BURNED. Take out the coil Bulb and replace with the tube type UV Bulbs. Provide the dragon with a hiding spot so it can get out of the UV altogether and let it's eyes heal. It won't be able to see, so you might have to hand feed the dragon . keep the dragon hydrated  by soaking the dragon every other day until healed, around 5 days. We also Do NOT recommend Bioactive cage systems.You can't clean these cages properly and you will be treating the Dragon often for parasite and respiratory problems.

                We use Exo terra 10.0 and Arcadia 12.0 UV Bulbs which provide 33% UVA and 10% UVB which I've found is all they need.. Also I use 10 inch domes for heat. The 10 inch domes allow more heat to come down.  Add a higher wattage bulb for more heat, less wattage for lower Temp.s  Start with a 100 watt bulb for a 40 gal reptile cage with a screen top and go  from there. Please don't guess at the temperatures in your cage. Check with a reptile thermometer or Temperature gun to check heat. Temp.s should be around 105 degrees under the basking light and 80-84 on the cool side of the cage. Check basking temp. in the beam of light on the BOTTOM of the cage, not side of cage.

Dragons need to regulate their body temperature and need a cool side as well as a hot. These temperatures are for all size dragons and all size cages.. Their lights are on timers here and are on 12-14 hours a day..Make sure lights are coming on and going off the same time everyday. Dragons need a set routine.. Do all of your heating from above. No Heat Rocks or heating pads under dragons. 

Please don't put dragons under 1o inches in anything smaller than a 20 long REPTILE cage. Do not use a 20 gal  aquarium. They are to small and hard to get heat correct in them. Dragons over 8 inches can go straight into a 40 gal reptile cage with no problem. A 40 gal reptile cage will house ONE adult dragon..

                                                    Night Time Heat

         Okay I get asked this a lot so here it is...Dragons will not need any night time heat unless your home is below 68 degrees at night. This means no lights of any kind or any type of under tank heater. If your house does go below that can use a red bulb sold at pet stores for night time heat. Only need the temp to be around 70-74 degrees IN THE CAGE FOR NIGHT TIME TEMPS. NOT 80'S or 90'S Dragons need to cool at night to stay healthy.

                                                    Cage set Up, Feeding

 No limit or time limit on eating! Under feeding will stunt their growth as well as not soaking the dragon weekly. Feed the New dragons in the cage they are housed in...This is how they are used to eating here.Clean cage first before feeding. Putting them in different cages to eat isn't necessary and will only stress the new dragon out more. So please don't do this. They won't eat that way.Also need to increase the size of the crickets as the Dragon grows,very important for proper growth. 

               Under no conditions should you house a dragon  on Sand and NEVER USE WALNUT SHELLS . Walnut shells are like rocks and can't be digested. This will kill a small dragon quicker than anything. I can't stress this enough,  use paper ,reptile carpet,tile or the like . Keep it bare as crickets and superworms like to hide and come out at night to nibble on your dragon. 

Never have something a NEW DRAGON can hide in or under in the new cage. I want the dragon to adjust .Hiding will only make the dragon more timid and will take a lot longer to adjust. HIDING IS A BIG NO NO...

 No water bowls are needed in the cage or misting. My dragons aren't used to and don't get misted here. They get soaked once a week in warm water to drink and hydrate.

We feed greens in the morning and  bugs in the afternoon and evening. Be sure to dust your crickets  with calcium that has D3 in it the first feeding of crickets everyday..The rest of the day don't need to be dusted.

 Babies up to 10 months of age need calcium  Daily with D3 in it as they are still growing.  A few times a week for older dragons. We use Zoo med calcium with D3 because they are indoor dragons. The Zoo med calcium seem to stick better to the insects... and Repcal Herptivite a multivitamin three times a week.

           Please be aware a lot of products out there, claim to to be healthy for Bearded Dragons and are NOT.They contain a lot of Vitamin A which is TOXIC to dragons. Herptivite multivitamin has all the vitamins they need and then some. IT DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY VITAMIN A BUT BETA CAROTENE WHICH CONVERTS SAFELY TO VITAMIN A IN THE BEARDED DRAGON.ALSO STAY AWAY FROM LIQUID VITAMINS and Sprays as you can over Dose your Dragon on these very easily.Less products used on the dragons is the best and Herptivite along with calcium with D3, Live insects , fresh greens and soaking once a week is all that is needed. UVB and heat lamp of course..

                 Soak your Dragon in warm water to drink and hydrate once or twice a week for 10-20 min. I do not recommend more  than that.They are not water dragons LOL. Dragons will drink from their bath water at bath time. This is perfectly fine and good for your dragon. If it poops however in the water , Drain it out and put fresh warm water in. 

                Keep your dragon and cages clean and your dragon will stay healthy. Dragons do need to be wormed around every six months, this is common practice.They  can get pin worms from the insects they eat, panacur is a good wormer to use. Dragons should also be  fecal checked by a vet. at around 10-12 months of age or sooner if  needed. 

                 If you Still feel you  want to use sand after they have adjusted a couple months to their new home and cage and have  reached 14 inches you can do so... But it will not be as healthy for the dragon as paper. There is no way you can get all the fecal out of the sand and the dragon will ingest this when it is eating and catching insects. Will also be breathing in the dust from the sand and ammonia from the fecal waste and so will you! NOT GOOD.

               Please be sure to feed you new dragon the right sized food. Greens and insects should NOT BE BIGGER THAN THE SPACE BETWEEN THE DRAGONS EYES WIDTHWISE. The dragon can choke on large food items OR GET IMPACTED. Babies and Juveniles are fed 60 % Mustard greens , 20 % Collard greens cut very thin with 20 % grated yellow squash with peel on all mixed together...

             Babies eat Lots of crickets,roaches and superworms, NO MEAL WORMS ever.  They can get impacted and die on those things and will throw them up as well. We don't feed meal worms at all here . If you still have any questions feel free to ask. Better to be safe than Sorry.

                                      How To House And Care For Crickets

         Armstrong crickets is a great place to buy crickets from that DOES NOT HAVE THE CRICKET VIRUS! This is the some place I  get my  brown crickets from. They are very friendly and have great customer service. Crickets always come in alive, healthy and with a good count. Their web site is below.

                                           https://www.Armstrongcrickets.com

         Buying your crickets from a cricket breeder will be much cheaper then a pet store. You will need at least a 18 gal tote from Target or Walmart whatever you have around in your area. Put some holes in the lid of the tote or leave it off all together. Don't worry they can't climb the side of the tote as long as it is smooth.

        Crickets will be  delivered in a box with egg crate.  Open box and dump crickets and egg crate into the tote you bought.Lean the egg crate against the side of the tote for cricket to climb on. Try to keep crickets in a warm place such as your reptile room. Feed crickets a good nutritious food and water gel. We use Organic chicken layer crumbles here and Oatmeal baby flake cereal . It's healthy , cheap and lasts a long time. Make sure to buy the Chicken laying  crumbles and not the pellets. Pellets are to big for the crickets.

Place empty paper towel  rolls or toilet paper rolls in a couple corners  to get the crickets out and into your dusting bag. Crickets will crawl up into the rolls and you just shake the rolls into your bag to get the crickets out. Make sure to Dust your crickets with calcium D3 and multivitamins as needed.

                                 How To House And Care for Superworms

                                     DO NOT REFRIGERATE SUPERWORMS

                                     Need A Good Roach Supplier?

Kritters For Christ, Dubia Roach Broker, is who I use for all my Roach and Superworm needs. I highly recommend them and they have the BEST SELECTION AND ROACH PRICES AROUND! I have never seen them out of Roaches and they always have all sizes in Stock. They also carry other insects and supplies as well. Can check them out by clicking on the link below . My Dragons LOVE their insects.