how do i transform my 4ft aquarium into a vivarium suitable for a bearded dragon?

Question

Hi, im 15 and for my 16th birthday im getting a bearded dragon. ive been researching as much as i can about these guys. My problem is my cousin is giving me his friends old 4ft aquarium and i want to turn it into a vivarium for my beardie. How would i go about doing this? as i would probably need a new screen lid to let airflow, and i need it to be customized so that i can put my uv & uvb bulbs & so on, on it?

thankyou for taking the time to answer my question :D

Answer 1

You are right, you need to get a screen top. Next, there are very thin strips of gold metal you can buy, that you can wrap around a UVB fixture, then hook around the top. This way you can have a stand-alone UVB fixture inside the tank without having to ballast it or anything. Or you could get a fluorescent hood fixture for part of the top and screen for the rest, and put the lights in there. The basking light can simply go on top of the screen. Then you need to find some basking furniture. Try and get a cave of some sort, either a half log or something else they sell at pet stores for that purpose. Then get a log at least as wide and as long as the Bearded Dragon. Use a nonparticulate substrate for the bottom like textured tiles, textured and non-adhesive shelf liner, reptile carpet, paper towels, or newspaper, and you've got yourself a suitable habitat for a Bearded Dragon. Don't forget to add the thermometer, though, although it can be a removable kind, like a digital thermometer with probe.



Bearded Dragons do not need wooden enclosures, you may want to cover the sides with a background though so he can't see his reflection as well. I personally don't like wooden enclosures, I have 2 glass ones.

Answer 2

You will definitely need a screen top, but you don't need to turn it into a vivarium. Just put something along the back of the tank, and maybe one of the sides so the beardie doesn't see its reflection as much.



For the UV lights you can buy bulbs from pet stores that have UVA/B (like this one http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=7327 ) and than you don't need the full hood. You might want a timer for the light to ensure the animal always gets 12 hours of UV light.



For bedding you can just use regular play sand that you can buy at places like home depot. Most of the calcium sand in pet stores is too fine and can lead to digestive problems. You can use walnut shell bedding also.



I know many places say you don't need a water dish but I always kept one in for my Beardie because she did seem to drink it.



Put like a couple of inches of sand on the bottom of the tank. You can use a kitty litter scoop to take out the feces.



To form a basking spot you can use something as simple as a concrete block or just driftwood you can purchase in the pet store.

You'll probably want to buy a hide out for both the warm and cool side, as well as a heat pad and thermometer for the warm side. You can use the heat pad at night or to help keep the temperature up if the tank gets too cold.



Just a reminder though, if you purchase a baby beardie you need to house it in a smaller tank until it is big enough to easily find its food in the 40 gallon enclosure.

Answer 3

to make it into a terrarium out of a 4ft glass tank is inpossible except how to di it as the other guy said.

the best thing to do is either buy a terrarium or buy a fake background and some red sand and a infer-red bulb a UVB a heatmat and heat lamp and some logs and rocks and hides and some high up branches and maybey a vine or two and some fake plants.

Answer 4

while you're touching on the vivarium length around the front 4 foot is merely suited and could see a bearded dragon o.ok.for something of this is existence. They strengthen somewhat super or can do. desire you're O.ok. approximately desires of bearded dragon. If no longer as Yahoo solutions

Answer 5

Vivarium Lid

Answer 6

Here is some information for you to look over. You don't need to "turn it into" a vivarium. If you choose to do something like that I would just go to like a home depot and custom make the whole thing from scratch - it will be cheaper. Many people have done this; here is a link of different subjects on the matter: http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/viewforum.php?f=75 and http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/viewforum.php?f=34



Here is some important info for you to take a look at – a small care sheet type thing I made up:

They need at least a 40g tank - this is for each. You should never house two bearded dragons together as they can and probably will end up fighting – if not at first, they will with time as they get territorial. They get big in size, plus this size tank will properly distribute the needed temps on the hot and cool side. The hot needs to be 90-100, the cool 80-90 (add 10 to both sides for juveniles). The temp can go into the 70s at night throughout the whole tank as this is the normal temp they are used to at night. Beardie’s also MUST have an UVB light 10-12 hours a day, and need to be able to get within 6-8 inches of it to properly receive its rays. UVB helps some reptiles properly digest their food and receive the nutrients, especially calcium from their food. DO NOT use any type of under the tank heater or heat rock for your dragon or in the tank. Bearded dragons do not have heat sensors on their underside and many have experienced serious burns, some life threatening, due to these items.

Any type of loose substrate is bad for a bearded dragon as it can cause impaction (http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/impaction/). The best substrates to use are repti-carpet, outside carpet, tile, non-adhesive shelf liner, paper towel, and even felt. If you have a bearded who likes to dig, you can place a towel or some paper towel, or even a small blanket loosely where he likes to sleep. This will safely give him something to bury himself into. Here are some pics of my Spike with her favorite blanky, (http://picasaweb.google.com/dolphinsilversea01/Spike#5286327603195808962 and http://picasaweb.google.com/dolphinsilversea01/Spike#5286327592283475234). Beardie’s need both live food and salads on a DAILY basis. The salads should contain a mixture of greens, like collard greens and others plus an occasion of fruits and veggies mixed in. Visit http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html to get a listing of the foods that are good, and foods to stay away from. For the live foods NEVER feed your bearded meal worms or mice. Meal worms have too hard of an outer shell with very little meat inside making them hard to digest. Mice, no matter what size, are very fattening and have very hard bones that are hard to digest. A bearded dragon’s digestive track is VERY small and at one point has like a kink in it, anything that has not been digested properly up to this point can get stuck and cause impaction. This is why the rule of thumb as far as size of food, whether it be salads or live, is it should be no bigger than the space in-between their eyes. Some better choices for live food are crickets, super worms (only when beardie is big enough), wax worms (only as a treat as they are fattening), calci-worms, silk worms, and the best are turk and dubia roaches. A lot of people freak when they first hear about the roaches, but they are not like your house roaches. I have a colony of dubia roaches. They are clean, don't smell like crickets do, easy to care for, and reproduce for themselves! Here are some pics of my dubia colony. There are more pics that you can scan through, (http://picasaweb.google.com/dolphinsilversea01/RoachColony#). Always gut load all live feeders before giving them to your beardie. Gut loading is pretty much just making sure that the feeders you are getting ready to feed to your bearded are full and have recently eaten themselves. This fattens them up, puts more meat on them, and makes them nutritionally better for your beardie. Example: Take the crickets you bought and put them into a container with cricket feed, fish food, or crushed dog/cat food over night and then feed them to your beardie.

Humidity is bad for a beardie and should only be at 30% in the viv. They normally do not drink from a bowl, but I keep a small one in my Spike’s viv just in case. In the wild they drink from falling water when it rains as it falls down leaves and such. They also get it from their food, and it is good to soak your beardie as much as possible. You can soak (or give your beardie a “bath”) your beardie in like a plastic container, in the sink, or in the tub – wherever is easiest and more convenient to keep a good eye on him/her. Be sure that the water stays warm – you can test the warmth of the water by letting it run along the inside of your wrist much like when you test a baby’s bottle. Let your beardie soak for at least 10-15 minutes as often as you can. Soaking a beardie helps them get hy

Answer 7

I only know of one way, and its pretty common.

You will need to knock out the side and back walls.



Replace them with wooden walls, but keep the glass front.



The enclosure lid is usually made out of mesh, Im sorry I cant help you more! Thats all I know.