Species: Pogona vitticeps | Difficulty: 2/5 — Easy | Hardiness: 4/5 — Hardy

Critter Cabana & Gresham Pet Supply — Keeping Your Pet Healthy & Thriving

At a Glance

Why We Love Them: Bearded dragons are the "golden retrievers" of the reptile world. They are highly interactive, often recognize their owners, and will gladly sit on your shoulder while you watch TV. While they require a bit more setup than a snake (due to UVB and daily fresh salads), their engaging personalities make them incredibly rewarding.

Housing & Enclosure

Enclosure Type & Size

• Type: PVC, sealed wood, or glass front-opening terrarium. PVC or wood is preferred as it holds heat much better than glass.
• Minimum: 48" x 24" x 24" (120 gallons) for a single adult. This is the modern bare-minimum standard to allow for proper temperature gradients and exercise.
• Recommended: 48" x 24" x 24" or larger.
• Lid: Secure screen lid to allow for maximum ventilation and light penetration.
• Enclosure Recommendations: Exo Terra Glass Terrarium 36x18x18 (for juveniles only), transitioning to a 4x2x2 PVC enclosure by 8-10 months of age.

Substrate

• Recommended (Solid): Slate tile (naturally files their nails), newspaper, or paper towels.
• Recommended (Loose): A safe arid mix like Zoo Med ReptiSand mixed with organic topsoil, or bioactive Terra Sahara.
• Avoid: Calcium sand (encourages eating the sand, causing lethal impaction), Wood chips, Crushed walnut shells.

Décor & Enrichment

• Basking Spot: A wide, flat rock or thick piece of driftwood placed directly under the heat lamp. Slate rocks are excellent for absorbing and radiating belly heat.
• Hides: Minimum of two hides (warm side and cool side) large enough for the dragon to completely conceal itself.
• Climbing: Sturdy branches or hammocks. They love to survey their territory from a high vantage point.

Temperature

Bearded dragons come from the harsh Australian outback and require intense heat to digest their food.

Heating

• Primary: Overhead Halogen flood bulb (e.g., Zoo Med Repti Basking Spot Lamp) to provide intense, bright heat.
• Nighttime: Only necessary if your house drops below 65°F. Use a Ceramic Heat Emitter (CHE) which provides heat without light. NEVER use red or blue "night bulbs" as they disrupt the dragon's sleep.
• CRITICAL: Use a digital thermometer with a probe or an infrared temp gun to measure the actual basking surface temperature, not just the air temperature.
• (cross-ref: Reptile/Amphibian Heating)

Humidity

• Target Range: 30–50% (typical household humidity is fine).
• How to Maintain: Ensure adequate ventilation. If humidity is too high, it can cause respiratory infections.

Lighting (CRITICAL: UVB)

• Photoperiod: 12-14 hours on / 10-12 hours off.
• UVB: ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED. Without UVB, a bearded dragon will rapidly develop fatal Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD).
• Type: You MUST use a linear T5 HO (High Output) tube that spans 2/3 the length of the enclosure. Do not use compact coil bulbs, as they do not provide a wide enough spread of UVB.
• Placement: Position the UVB tube to overlap with the basking light so the dragon gets heat and UVB simultaneously.
• Replacement: UVB tubes stop producing UVB long before they burn out visually. Replace the bulb every 6-12 months.
• UVB Recommendations: Zoo Med ReptiSun T5 HO 10.0 or 14.0 (Ferguson Zone 3-4).

Diet & Nutrition

Bearded dragons are omnivores. Their diet shifts dramatically from insect-heavy (as growing babies) to salad-heavy (as adults).

Feeding Schedule

Prey Items & Salads

• Staple Insects: Dubia roaches, crickets, black soldier fly larvae (Nutrigrubs), silkworms.
• Treat Insects (High Fat/Chitin): Hornworms (great for hydration), mealworms, superworms, waxworms.
• Staple Greens (Daily): Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens, endive, escarole.
• Occasional Veggies: Butternut squash, bell peppers, carrots.
• Avoid: Iceberg lettuce (zero nutrition, causes diarrhea), Spinach/Beet Greens (binds calcium), Avocado/Rhubarb (toxic), Fireflies (highly toxic/fatal).
• Size Rule: Never feed insects larger than the space between the dragon's eyes to prevent impaction.

Supplements

• Supplement Recommendations: Zoo Med Repti Calcium and Zoo Med Reptivite. (cross-ref: Reptile/Amphibian Supplements)

Water

• Provide a shallow water dish. Many dragons do not recognize standing water; you can drip water on their snout to encourage drinking, or offer a 15-minute lukewarm bath once a week.

Health & Husbandry

Common Health Issues

1. Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) — Symptoms: Soft/rubbery jaw, kinked tail, tremors, dragging hind legs, lethargy. / Cause: Lack of UVB lighting or calcium. / Prevention: Use a T5 HO 10.0 UVB tube, replace every 6-12 months, and supplement calcium. Requires immediate vet care.
2. Impaction — Symptoms: Lack of bowel movements, bloated belly, lethargy, paralyzed hind legs. / Cause: Swallowing loose substrate (calcium sand) or eating prey that is too large, combined with basking temperatures that are too low to digest food properly. Emergency vet care required.
3. Yellow Fungus (CANV) — Symptoms: Yellow, crusty, necrotic patches on the skin/scales. / Cause: Highly contagious fungal infection often stemming from poor hygiene or contact with infected animals. / Prevention: Quarantine new animals, maintain strict hygiene. Requires aggressive veterinary treatment.
4. Adenovirus (Atadenovirus / "Stargazing") — Symptoms: Failure to thrive, extreme lethargy, looking straight up at the ceiling ("stargazing"), wasting away. / Cause: Highly contagious viral infection. / Prevention: Quarantine. No cure; requires supportive vet care.

Shedding

• Bearded dragons shed in patches (unlike snakes).
• Never peel pulling or stuck shed, as it can damage the scales underneath.
• Provide a lukewarm soak or use Zoo Med Repti Shedding Aid if a patch is stubbornly stuck (especially around toes and tail tip to prevent circulation loss).

Veterinary Needs

• Annual wellness checks with an exotic vet and a fecal test to check for internal parasites (coccidia and pinworms are common).

Morphs & Varieties

Note: True morphs are genetic scale or pigment mutations. Words like "Citrus," "Blood Red," or "Sunburst" just describe the color selectively bred into the dragon.

Scale/Texture Morphs

• Leatherback: Reduced scale size and lacks spikes down the back, resulting in a smoother appearance and often brighter colors. (Dominant gene)
• Silkback ("Silkie"): Completely scaleless. Requires extreme specialized care, as they lack protective scales, are highly prone to UV burns, and have difficulty shedding. We do not recommend breeding Silkbacks.
• Dunner: Irregular, chaotic scale patterns that point in all directions, especially notable on the chin and tail.

Pigment/Pattern Morphs

• Hypomelanistic (Hypo): Reduced dark pigmentation, resulting in pastel/lighter colors. Identified by their clear (translucent) fingernails lacking the normal black stripe.
• Translucent (Trans): Scales appear slightly clear/gummy. As babies, they often have blue bellies. They typically feature solid black "alien" eyes.
• Zero: A completely patternless, color-free dragon resulting in a stunning silvery-white animal.

Handling Guidelines

• Support: Always support all four legs and the tail. Do not grab them from above, as their "parietal eye" (a photoreceptor on top of their head) detects overhead shadows like birds of prey.
• Reading Body Language:
• Black Beard: Extreme stress, anger, or feeling unwell.
• Head Bobbing: Territorial display or dominance (fast bobbing). Slow bobbing can be submission.
• Arm Waving: A sign of submission ("I'm just a baby, don't eat me!").
• Gaping (Mouth Open): Normal thermoregulation! Like a dog panting, they open their mouths to vent excess heat while basking.

Compatibility

• Cohabitation: Strictly solitary. Bearded dragons are highly territorial. Housing them together routinely results in missing toes, missing tails, or death. Do not cohabitate.

Oregon & Local Keeping Notes

• Oregon: Legal to own. No special permits required.
• General: Widely captive-bred and legal in almost all jurisdictions. Australia banned the export of native wildlife in the 1960s, so all pet bearded dragons today are descended from lines established decades ago.

What We Stock & Use in Our Stores

These are products we carry and recommend for this species. Ask any associate for help finding them in-store.

Care sheet compiled by Critter Cabana & Gresham Pet Supply. For questions, ask any reptile specialist in-store.

Last updated: 2026-08-04

How We Keep Them at Critter Cabana & Gresham Pet Supply

• Beating Dry Oregon Furnace Air (and Summer Heat Spikes): Across the Willamette Valley and Portland Metro, running the house furnace all winter drops indoor humidity to 25–35%, which quickly causes stuck sheds and dehydration in screen-top tanks. To hold 30-50% reliably for Bearded Dragon, our crew uses a deep 3–5" substrate bed (or our store-shelf 10-Part Bioactive Mix of ReptiSoil, Coco Fiber, Orchiata Bark, Sphagnum Moss, and Leaf Litter), a dedicated humid hide packed with damp sphagnum moss, and partial screen cover when needed.
• Thermostat & Linear UVB Standard: Every heating element in our Newberg and Gresham reptile rooms runs on a thermostat probe set to 100-115°F on the warm side with a 70-85°F cool retreat, paired with required on a 12-hour day/night timer. In summer, if an upstairs room climbs above 82°F, a dimming thermostat automatically backs down the basking lamp so the cool side never overheats.
• Stocked at Newberg & Gresham: We stock reptile enclosures, thermostats, Arcadia & Zoo Med UVB lighting, bioactive substrate ingredients, live Springtails, Dwarf White, Powder Blue/Orange, Dairy Cow, and Giant Canyon isopods, and gut-loaded crickets, dubia roaches, hornworms, and frozen-thawed rodents at Critter Cabana (Newberg) and Gresham Pet Supply.

Common Questions (FAQ)

What size tank does an adult Bearded Dragon actually need?

An adult Bearded Dragon needs at least 48x24x24 inches so you can maintain a true thermal gradient from 100-115°F on the warm/basking side down to 70-85°F on the cool side.

How do I keep Bearded Dragon humidity at 30-50% during dry Oregon winters?

Oregon winter furnace heat dries out thin bedding fast. Use a 3–5 inch moisture-retaining substrate mix (such as Zoo Med ReptiSoil blended with coco fiber, Orchiata bark, and sphagnum moss), provide an enclosed humid hide, and cover 50–70% of an open screen top with HVAC foil tape or a PVC panel if ambient humidity drops too low.

What is the best bioactive clean-up crew for a Bearded Dragon?

Pair Temperate White Springtails with a humidity-matched isopod species (such as Powder Blue/Orange for semi-arid setups or Dwarf White / Dairy Cow isopods for humid forest setups) in a 3–5 inch bioactive soil and leaf-litter bed. You can pick up our 1-Page or Tri-Fold Bioactive Substrate Recipe Guide and live cultures at Critter Cabana (Newberg) or Gresham Pet Supply.

Where can I get Bearded Dragon setup supplies, live feeders, and thermostats in Oregon?

We stock our full reptile, amphibian, and bioactive setup supplies—including enclosures, thermostats, Arcadia and Zoo Med UVB lighting, bioactive substrates, live isopods/springtails, and live or frozen feeders—at Critter Cabana in Newberg (514 E First St, 503-537-2887) and Gresham Pet Supply (2185 NW Burnside Rd, 503-665-7606).