How do I provide the correct heating and light source for my bearded dragon?

I have a bearded dragon hatchling and I'm keeping her in a 20 gallon tank. I'm using a 26W coil UVB bulb in a 250V holder and there is also a heat pad on the bottom of the tank. Is that enough heat for her?

The coil bulb is DANGEROUS to your beardie! Turn it off ASAP. Replace it with a fluorescent tube type of UVB, either the ReptiSUN 10.0 or the ReptiGLO 8.0. These are the best bulbs on the market. You can order them online for waaaay cheaper than you can get them in a pet store.

The UVB coil does not put out any heat, so you need an additional heat bulb. Heat pads aren't a good source of heat for a beardie, because they sense heat from the top of their heat, not thier bellies. With that small a tank, a 60 or 75W should work to keep your temps up (100-110 for basking, and 80 on the cooler side).

How do you measure your temps? The stick on dial and strip therms are inaccurate by up to 20 degrees. You need a digital indoor/outdoor therm with a wire with a probe on the end. The probe should lie directly on your dragon's basking spot. This is the "outdoor" temp on the display and should be 100-110. The base unit should rest in the coolest part of the tank, and this temp should be around 80 (78-82).

I'm afraid you may have some other issues as well, since you are so uneducated about the heat and lights. This is not your fault. I'm sure you got your info from a pet store. Pet stores are notorious for having bad and even dangerous information about reptile care. I'm going to assume that you're using calci-sand, and you feed your dragon 4 full size crickets every other day and give him romaine lettuce, broccoli and carrots. That's what many pet stores teach to do, and ALL of that is wrong.

Please go to http://www.beardeddragon.org and review their caresheets to get your setup as perfect as possible for your dragon. When their husbandry is off, their health REALLY suffers, but you may not see evidence of ill health until it's too late to do anything about it. So, please, go to the website and learn from people who really know what they're doing!

Best of luck!

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