Dudleys New Home

[DudleyDragon]

Hi everyone,

We just bought Dudley a new terrarium with the sliding front doors. It is 40 x 18 x 19. We would like to get rid of the sand when we switch him to a new house, but are not too sure what is best for the floors. Our thought was a thin layer of wood underneath a layer of textured tiles that fit together like tetris. Then to get some of the fake rock background for the wall. We have 3 lights, 2 heat and one UVB. But our challenge is what wood can we use underneath the tiles that will be safe to heat up?

Any advice would be helpful as he has just woken up from Brumation and we wanted to move him in the next two months.

Thanks,
Natasha, Alex and Dudley.

 

[Pat B]

You want to heat your tiles for your beardie? Not too sure if I ready that right. How long was Dudley in brumation? My Spike has been sleeping since the end of October....pushing 3 months! How old is he and does he brumate every year? How did he wake up? I am just curious because I don't know what to expect. Spike was only about 10 months which is young for a beardie to brumate. Thanks.

 

[DudleyDragon]

He is about a year and a half. We got him from a friend that wasn't caring for him properly so he didn't brumate his first year, but this year he went to sleep about September and woke up maybe once every two weeks to eat a bit of greens. He only pooped once the entire time! But the first week he just started coming out of hiding more often so we offered him more food and each day he would eat the whole bowl. He also pooped 3 times in a week, so we are just assuming he is awake. Just giving him some time to fully wake up because he seems groggy still, not fully himself yet. Don't want to offer too much protein yet either.

As for the tank. We wanted to use textured tiles on the tank and want to glue a piece of climbing wood to it so we can take each tile out individually to clean them. But we want to put a piece of cork board or ply wood or something underneath the tiles so they do not scratch the tank up. Problem is the wood underneath will probably heat up as well so we wanna make sure it is safe for him.

Thanks,
Tasha, Alex and Dudley.

 

[Pat B]

Thanks for the information about Dudley coming out of brumation. Maybe Spike will be waking up soon....who knows??
Textured tiles are good as they will keep his 'nails' filed down and they look good. I have a glass 40 gallon breeder so not too sure about the heat underneath. Someone will answer you. I personally like the sand. It is easy to clean when the beardie poo's and that is their natural habitat. Lots of people use different substrates....use whatever you are comfortable with.

 

[Lemonpie]

I put reptile carpet under my tiles and the glass never scratches and the tiles don't slide!

 

[Germ]

Placing wood under loose tiles is not the best of plans unless the wood was very well sealed & the tiles would likely scratch\wear the seal out. The wood would absorb any leakage through the tile cracks & believe me there will be, creating a haven for bacteria growth. The same with carpet underneath, it would have to be cleaned as often as the tile.

I have a question, why are you concerned about scratching the bottom? If the enclosure were to be used for anything else afterward, would the bottom not also be covered up?

The floor of the enclosure should never get hot enough to be of concern or it would be hot enough to do harm to the BD .

 

[DudleyDragon]

I was worried I guess because it is the first tank I have actually bought brand new. Everything else has come used and covered in scratches so I thought maybe I could avoid it.

We shall just get the tiles then and get building!

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful and informative answers.

 

[Carcleland75]

He is about a year and a half. We got him from a friend that wasn't caring for him properly so he didn't brumate his first year, but this year he went to sleep about September and woke up maybe once every two weeks to eat a bit of greens. He only pooped once the entire time! But the first week he just started coming out of hiding more often so we offered him more food and each day he would eat the whole bowl. He also pooped 3 times in a week, so we are just assuming he is awake. Just giving him some time to fully wake up because he seems groggy still, not fully himself yet. Don't want to offer too much protein yet either.

As for the tank. We wanted to use textured tiles on the tank and want to glue a piece of climbing wood to it so we can take each tile out individually to clean them. But we want to put a piece of cork board or ply wood or something underneath the tiles so they do not scratch the tank up. Problem is the wood underneath will probably heat up as well so we wanna make sure it is safe for him.

Thanks,
Tasha, Alex and Dudley.

We have textured tiles in Spike's tank and like you didn't want to scratch the glass...or break it. We ended up sticking some felt stickies (the ones that go on the bottom of chair legs) on the bottom of the tiles. We are still careful, but the tiles don't scratch.

 

[DudleyDragon]

Thank you Careceland75! That sounds like a wonderful idea. I shall try that one out.

 

[Carcleland75]

Your welcome! It has worked well for us.

 

[DudleyDragon]

Is there any particular things to avoid because of being poisonous.
I have read of shelf liner, and other things like newspaper. Would these be okay. The shelf liner is easy to get and replace or wash in between cleanings but wanted to make sure it would be okay for him. And newspaper seems like the print would rub off on the beardie.
Thanks.