To monitor the temperature in the enclosure, you should have digital thermometers on the cool and warm ends of the tank to determine whether the correct temperature gradient is being maintained. 2. Your Bearded Dragon Needs Some Dark Time Bearded dragons become stressed when there is too much noise or activity around the enclosure, when their heating or lighting settings are incorrect, or they can see natural predators such as birds, cats, or dogs. They Do Not Want to Move Due to Illness

The mirror will eventually cause stress to your beardie if left near the tank for prolonged periods. And since we’re on the topic of getting to know your pet, here’s our post on building a bond with your bearded dragon. #4 Put It All Together Catnip is in the mint family, and it is safe for your reptile, so plushies and other cat toys stuffed with catnip are perfectly acceptable as well. #11 Add Some New Hides And Tunnels To The Enclosure After about 10 to 20 minutes of soaking and swimming, take them out of the water and dry them off with a clean towel. Once they are patted dry, place them directly onto their basking spot in their enclosure to warm up. Your bearded dragon will take some time to get used to their new home. 4. Your Bearded Dragon Does Not Like the DecorWe have a post on bearded dragon accessories if you’re looking for options. #12 Place A Mirror Outside Of The Enclosure Don’t forget to add some fun floating toys, but be sure to give your reptile plenty of space to swim. Once your beardie is comfortable with you, it will love being handled and will even fall asleep on you. There is no ‘fixing’ shedding. However, you can do things to ease the process along and prevent your bearded dragon from hiding during this time.

For optimal nutrients, be sure to properly gut-load the feeder insects before placing them inside the ball. If you’re new to this read our post on how often you should handle bearded dragons for some additional guidelines. Any kind of sudden change to their enclosure can cause a positive or negative reaction from your bearded dragon. If they love the new item, then great! However, if they are unsettled by it, they could hide away in a corner of their enclosure or in one of their hides to get away from it. Stress is a normal experience; however, excessive stress is detrimental to your bearded dragon’s health. If you think your bearded dragon is hiding because it is stressed, look out for some other stressful behaviors to confirm your theory. As they are in their enclosure, they cannot ‘run’ anywhere except to a safe spot that is as far away from the threat as possible, which often ends up being the corner.

Use your best judgment to keep your pet safe and healthy. #6 Schedule Some Bath Time For Your Beardie If you have a young bearded dragon, consider avoiding baby bearded dragon sounding names since they won’t be small forever.