6. Food – Live food and various greens. Live food size varies on the size (age) of your dragon. Live food options:
Dubia roaches, Crickets, Black solder fly larva, silkworms – remember to vary the diet and NOT just feed one!)
7. Calcium with D3 as well as Calcium without D3 and Vitamin supplements.
8. Food Dish – Needs to be large enough to hold a decent salad.
9. Dimming Thermostat – Must be a dimming stat. A pulse or mat stat will not work for a basking area. This is for your basking light.
10. Digital thermometer/hygrometer combo with probe x 2- To measure the temperature and humidity accurately of the basking spot and cool side of the viv. (Optional: Temperature Gun, can be fast way of double-checking temperatures, also useful for checking temps outside if it’s sunny.)
11. CHE (Ceramic Heat Emitter) or Deep heat projector for night-time heating if your house temps (not outside
temps) fall below 15 degrees only, otherwise it’s simply NOT needed. No coloured night lights, they can
disturb the dragons sleep as they can still see it (Despite what shops say.)
12. Reptile Safe Disinfectant – F10SC
13. A decent big enough hide and décor

14. LED Grow light bar – to increase the visual light.
15. Also get an exotic vet and budget for a fecal test at least once every 6 months

UVB light and Controller:
Most T8 UVB light must be replaced every 6 months but the Reptile Systems will be good for up to a year after which a replacement will be needed. Coil uvb is not recommended as this creates too small an area for the beardie to get the proper uvb. The linear uvb has a bigger coverage that will cover your entire beardie and not just part of it) Lighting should be set for a 12hour on and 12hour off period. Unless the beardie goes in brumation.

Basking Bulb:
This is to reach the 38c air-temp basking temperature. Maybe get a couple with different wattages and it is always handy to have a spare just in case your bulb blows. Ensure it is a white light emitting bulb. No coloured lights or night lights!!!!
You ultimately want a 38C temperature at the basking spot. The Shade side of the enclosure should be between 27-30C. These gradients are only possible with a decent size enclosure.
E27 Ceramic light fittings – Ceramic to cope with the constant high temperatures – can be bought at the hardware stores.
Lighting should be set for a 12hour on and 12hour off period. Unless the beardie goes in brumation – this topic will be
discussed in the technical pack to follow.  

Night time heating:
If your house/room temperature falls under 15 degrees at night you can get a ceramic heat emitter (CHE) or a Heat Emitter. These units does not give off any light and must be used with a thermostat as these units put out a lot of heat.
Please see thermostat details under environmental control equipment below. Set your temperature to 18-20 degrees.
We do not want to go higher than this as the beardie needs a drop in temps at night to properly cool down. If the beardie does not cool down at night, it will not bask in the morning!!!
This unit will be mounted on the sunny side.

For glass enclosures with mesh on top at the deep heat projector works very well.
Please note these units are NOT to be used for daytime basking as it doesn’t project any visual light and Bearded dragons need sunlight/ visual light!

Supplements:
(lightly dusted and only on live feeders)
Calcium with D3
Calcium without D3 (do not dust when you give natural sun)
Vitamin supplements – Lightly dust once every two weeks

 Temp gun: To measure SURFACE Temperature (MUST HAVE)–The basking spot temp should be around 40-44C – this will depend on what surface you have for your basking spot. We recommend a flat surface like a piece of slate. (always get your air temp correct first) This unit can also be used to check the beardies temps which should be around 38 while basking and the optimal temperature of 36 degrees during the day for digestion.

Thermostat: to be used with the CHE or deep heat projector. Please note this cannot be used for the basking lamp – see dimmerstat.

Dimmerstat : This product is optional but highly recommended as it has a dimming feature for your basking light.
This is fantastic as you never have to worry about your animal overheating. You simply set your desired temperature and place the probe on the side of the wall by your basking spot. Once the basking temp that was set is reached the light will dim down to bring the temperature down and brighten up again to reach the required temp set. This device also has a timer for both your UVB and basking light. (plug and play system) to create that perfect 12h on 12h off system.
*Side Note: Reptiles and Research advise to place the probe on the cold side and set it for 30C – it will then dim down when this temp is reached on the cold side. However, these systems that we get in South Africa has a very short wire for the probe – I therefor keep my probe on the warm side and through trial and error has gotten the sweet spot whereas I set my temp for 35-36C. You will have to play around a bit.

Substrate:
NO Reptile carpet – these harbours bacteria and are difficult to clean.
With babies it is recommended to have them in a quarantine setup until they eat and poop properly and have settled
in. This setup consists of paper towel as the flooring. Please also get a fecal test done at your vet to rule out any
parasites. Loose substrate is only recommended after 6 months of age. Never feed your beardie on the substrate. I use a piece of flat slate that my salad bowl will be on so if leaves fall out its on the slate and not the substrate.
For new adult bearded dragon, we recommend a quarantine setup until a clean fecal was given by your vet. This will ensure you don’t have to sterilise and throw substrate out if the beardie does have parasites.
After 6 months of age you can go for a natural substrate as we want the beardies to thrive and not just survive.
We recommend an organic topsoil and sand mix at a 60/40 ratio.

You can sterilise all soil and sand by baking it in the oven for plus minus 40 min at 95 degrees C. This is just to kill any larva or eggs from other insects.
You can also add clay sand.

Cleaning and medical:
F10 SC Veterinary Disinfectant – you can use this for all cleaning purposes just following the correct ratio mix. Use this to clean bowls, logs, rocks and even the enclosure.
F10 GERMICIDAL BARRIER OINTMENT – treat open and contaminated wounds and to act as a protective barrier
against infections on intact or abraded skin as well as in open wounds.
Betadine solution – you can use the tube and just water it down so that it has the colour of tea. This can be used to treat tail and scale rot. Please note that should you detect tail or scale rot a vet visit is needed.
PLEASE note should your beardie eat something that is poisonous, you have to get to a vet ASAP.