# bearded dragon basking spot



## gowing238 (Mar 2, 2009)

:gasp:Wats the best was to provide a bearded dragons basking spot?

Bulb with dimmer stat or cermaic with pulse stat and wat makes are reccomeded?


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

gowing238 said:


> :gasp:Wats the best was to provide a bearded dragons basking spot?
> 
> Bulb with dimmer stat or cermaic with pulse stat and wat makes are reccomeded?


I'd always go for a bulb with a dimmer stat to make things as bright as possible - remember that in the Australian desert where beardies are from, you'd need sunglasses on most days!

For the bulbs, I'd get them from B&Q - regular household spotlights. I use 60W bulbs, but you may need a 100W depending on how warm your house is. For the stat, Habistat and Microclimate are both reputable thermostat manufacturers.


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## gowing238 (Mar 2, 2009)

cheers


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## exoticsandtropics (Mar 11, 2007)

screw the bulb go for a ceramic and pulse. if you have a bulb and a dimmer the beardy will think it's day then night then day then night then...........

ceramics are cheaper in the long run and produce a greater heat than bulbs also means you can leave it on and not need a heatmat


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

exoticsandtropics said:


> screw the bulb go for a ceramic and pulse. if you have a bulb and a dimmer the beardy will think it's day then night then day then night then...........
> 
> ceramics are cheaper in the long run and produce a greater heat than bulbs also means you can leave it on and not need a heatmat


A dimmer just dims the bulb down - as long as you use the right wattage bulb for the cage you will hardly notice the bulb being dimmed. The beardie will only think it's "day then night then day then night" if you used an on / off stat. Using a dimming stat it might think it was a bit cloudy for some of the time, but surely that's still preferable to keeping a diurnal animal in a pretty dark cage all the time? I guess if you used a ceramic with no dedicated spotlighting, then it might think it was night all the time though...

I don't know whether or not a ceramic would be cheaper in the long run either to be honest - B&Q sell 40W, 60W and 100W spotlights at 55p each and I'd expect to get 3 months or more use out of one of them. A ceramic is usually £15 or so minimum, so it'd need to last for the lifespan of 30 bulbs - that'd be somewhere in the region of 7.5 years to be cheaper in the long run. You might get that out of one, but given that the cost of 7.5 years worth of spotlights is only £15, it's not exactly a major expense when you consider the benefits that a basking reptile gets from having bright lighting.

As for leaving the bulb on overnight, unless you live in a proverbial fridge you don't really need to. Something like a beardie can comfortably drop down to 60-65f at night time, so there's no need for a ceramic or a heatmat unless your house gets exceptionally cold...


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