Bearded Dragon - Setup Questions

[jarich]

Id recommend skipping the beechwood or any other type of wood chip. Many of us have gone with bioactive soil like you probably used on your bosc. I always go that way with all my reptiles as its the most natural and gives a total microsystem. Alternatively, the most commonly used base is simply slate or other rough stone tile. This will make it easy to clean/replace, as well as allowing for the natural wearing down of their nails.

As for the present set up, the thing I would say right away is to move that fluorescent tube up onto the ceiling of the viv rather than the back wall. Their eyes are adapted to being protected by overhead light, but with that light on the back wall it will be shining into the eyes of your dragon and possibly causing conjunctivitis. Id also put it all the way over to the left, so that on the far right there is an area out of the exposure of the bulb. That will create photogradient in conjunction with the thermal gradient.

With your thermostat, youre really just looking to set the basking temp about where you want it and then use the thermostat to protect the cool side. So you can put the probe for it over on the cool end at the bottom and set it to say 80F. It will shut off your heat lamp if that cool side goes higher than that.