bearded dragon habitat setup questions

[dirtydan88]

I recently was given a 80 gallon tank and i want to get two bearded dragons. After doing some research i have found out that the tank might be too small for two fullgrown bearded dragons. i have made plans to build e tank 3 foot high 6 foot long and on the putsides it will be 1.5 foot and taper out to 2.5 in a 4 foot across section in the middle making it a trapezoid shape. my questions are is this big enough, can i make it out of half inch plexiglass or should i just go with glass because of heat and suggestions on what to use for bedding i want it to look as authentic to their native area as possible but i still want it to be safe for the beardies. the bedding seems to be something a lot of people have different views on whats best any suggestions or help would b greatly appreciated thank you.

 

[HUNTEQ]

Don't make the substrate AUTHENTIC until they are more mature because of impaction, and it might bust your wallet, I spent $3,000, making a room size cage, just on substrate, ground walnut shells, the beardies should still be more mature. Now to the cage, I'm trying to think about size, six feet long and three feet wide might not be big enough for mine soon, she's only 18 inches now, but still not full grown, and I have a four and a half foot 100 gallon cage, AND IT'S NOT BIG ENOUGH FOR ONE, but this is a feeding cage for cricket reproduction problems.



Hope it helps

 

[beardielover17]

to answer your questions you should scrap the whole idea of housing multiple dragons altogether...its very dangerous regardless of the gender combo you have...and as for bedding their natural terrain is hard compact clay so tiles would be the closest to their natural terrain and tile is also the safest, cheapest and easiest bedding to use...if you want to use a less safe bedding the zoo med excavator clay is the next most natural one but back to housing 2 dragons together....heres a excerpt from my caresheet:



As far as housing 2 or more beardies together, I advise against it because bearded dragons tend to be very territorial animals (even the females). No matter the gender combination you use there are risks you are taking when housing multiple dragons together.Some of the possible risks are over breeding when housing a male and female, almost definite chance of one being dominated by another dragon (signs include significant size difference, lack of appetite in other dragon, “piling up” on the other dragon under the basking spot and possible wounds or missing digits such as toes, fingers and tail tips and in some cases death to one or both dragons is possible), if a dragon is sick it is more difficult if not impossible to tell which one is sick and if you do it has probably spread the illness to the other dragon. These are some of the risks included and not all the time are there physical signs.

to add to this, i have pictures of dragon's ive been given that have lost limbs from being with another dragon if you would like to see as well