So I have been thinking about getting a bearded dragon. And called around my local pet shops to see if any were available. Out of the three in my area, one has an adult dragon was given to them because the owner could no longer take care of them, and another tank with a bunch of juveniles in a single tank.
All of the people I spoke to at each store recommended that they can be kept in a 40 gallon tank for their entire lives. It seems contrary to online care guides I watched and read that said 120 gallon tanks are best once they get to adult age. One of them also said that the bigger the tank, the more likely they'll be stressed. Seems odd since they'd have an entire biosphere in the wild to do whatever a beardy does.
But im in no rush to buy one now, im thinking once I move hopefully this year I'll be in a bigger place that will allow me to have a potentially large tank for a beardy.
The questions I do have to ask are:
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What's the best age to get a beardy? I've heard around 6-9 months.
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Is a 120 gallon tank necessary, for an adult?
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Is it hard to set up the tank to be bio active? I've seen a bunch of tutorials for tropical bio active terrariums but not arid.
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Is there any way to get over the ew factor of touching or feeding bugs? Roaches and crickets gross me out but I have no real issue with meal worms.
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So I seen a suggestion that gut loading insects should take about 3 days. Is that too much time, seen it suggested that it should be that long. Apparently, it is so the insects have time to digest the food a for a longer time to get all of the nutrients from the gut load and the beardy can get all of the benefits from it.
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