Temperature and Environment

Bearded Dragon Care Guide

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Temperature and Environment Overview

Required Lights:

UVB
Heat
LED

Required Budget:

$150-$350

Priority Level:

High

The Importance of Temperature and Environment

TLDR:

Without proper temperature, UV exposure, and humidity, your bearded dragon cannot complete basic biological functions, leading to severe health complications and in extreme cases, death. Their life depends entirely on the environment you provide—get it right.

Managing temperature and other environmental conditions (like humidity and UV exposure) are perhaps the most important aspects of keeping your animal healthy. Temperature is especially important because reptiles are ectothermic. This is commonly referred to as ‘cold blooded’. This definition is highly misleading as a reptile’s blood is usually not cold at all. More accurately, this means the internal temperature of reptiles is entirely dependent on the external sources (such as air temperature and solar radiation) of their environment.

Why does this matter?

Bearded dragons require a rather narrow internal temperature range so their biochemical and physiological functions operate correctly. Without the right temperatures in their environment, bearded dragons cannot digest, move, or repair their bodies properly. In the wild, bearded dragons are able to move freely to find the perfect temperature and light. In captivity, their smaller, artificial environment makes this impossible, leaving their health entirely dependent on our setup. Failure to create the right environment can severely harm your pet’s health.

Imagine how uncomfortable you are in a cold room without a jacket. For bearded dragons, inadequate temperatures don’t just cause discomfort—they prevent their bodies from functioning properly at all.

Our Temperature Recommendation:

Basking Surface Temperatures

104+ F (40+ C)

Warm Zone Surface Temperatures

86-91 F (30-33 C)

Cool Zone Surface Temperatures

70-77 F (21-25 C)

Nighttime Surface/Air Temperatures

59-68 F (15-20 C)

As explained above, bearded dragons move around various locations to regulate their temperature. To enable this in captivity, we must offer what is commonly called a temperature gradient. This means offering your bearded dragon a variety of temperatures within the enclosure (moving from hot to cool), allowing them to self-regulate as they would in the wild.

What the science says about the right temperature gradient:

Basking Spot: Surface temperatures of at least 40°C directly under the basking lamp
Warm Zone: Surface temperatures of 30–33°C in the middle of the temperature gradient
Cool Zone: Surface temperatures of 23°C ± 2°C (Room Temperature)
Nighttime Temps: At night, temperatures can drop naturally with your house. Avoid letting temperatures fall below 15°C.

The science behind this recommendation

TLDR:

Our temperature recommendations are grounded in scientific research from wild observations and laboratory studies, not anecdotal evidence. Proper temperatures are critical for their health and survival—don’t compromise their ability to thrive.

Our temperature recommendations are based entirely on genuine scientific research. We reviewed multiple sources on bearded dragon thermoregulation, including wild observations and controlled lab experiments. By contrast many alternative care guides rely solely on personal or anecdotal evidence. We are highly critical of any source that lack a scientific foundation. Be wary of care guides that fail to explain their reasoning or cite credible sources.

Wild Bearded Dragon Temperature Preferences

How bearded dragons behave in the wild provides extremely valuable insights into their temperature preferences. Research has shown that bearded dragons actively maintain a stable body temperature, even in various environmental conditions.

A 2001 study found bearded dragons maintain an active body temperature of 32.9°C. This stability occurred despite air temperatures peaking at 35°C and surface temperatures reaching 37°C at the hottest part of the day. Another study found bearded dragons’ temperature regulation behaviors vary depending on the season . During hotter weather, dragons basked for shorter periods. While intuitive, it is clear bearded dragons are able to adapt to different temperature environments. Despite the changes in behavior, the animals’ preferred body temperature remained somewhat constant at around 36.3°C.

From this, we know:

Bearded dragons are able to adapt their behaviors slightly to regulate their internal temperatures regardless of environmental conditions IF access to a temperature gradient is possible.
Bearded dragons in the wild will aim to maintain a body temperature of somewhere between 32°C–36°C.

Lab Research Temperature Preferences

Laboratory research further validates the temperature preferences observed in the wild. A study that provided bearded dragons with full temperature freedom , found that bearded dragons will attempt to keep an internal temperature between 31.7°C and 38.2°C with a mean of 34.7°C. This will vary depending on their thermal conditions and current needs. These preferences closely align with those observed in wild populations.

Determining basking temperatures:

Based on both wild observation and laboratory research, we know bearded dragons will seek to maintain an internal body temperature in the mid-30s °C, occasionally going higher, and often going lower during the cool nights. So how do we determine the best temperatures of the surface and air of our enclosure to enable proper temperature regulation?

Surface temperatures will be our primary focus as they correlate very strongly with body temperatures of bearded dragons in the wild. Your dragon’s internal temperature will closely match that of the surfaces they are on.

We cannot, however, simply use ideal body temperatures in place of basking surface temperatures. A basking location is used by animals to raise their body temperatures, not maintain it. Therefore, it needs to be a few degrees warmer than a dragon’s ideal temperature so that they can warm themselves up quickly when desired. Given that night temperatures will not fall as low as they do in the wild, a surface temperature of 40°C should be sufficient. This value is selected for two reasons:

Laboratory research suggests bearded dragons don’t voluntarily place themselves in areas warmer than 40°C. Granted, the starting body temperatures of these animals were not recorded, so it is possible that animals with very cool internal temperatures would find areas over 40°C acceptable. This is unlikely to be common for captive animals.
The mean ground surface temperature in a study that analyzed the basking behavior of wild bearded dragons was 37.6°C. While the highest recorded value was 58.9°C, such extreme temperatures seem very likely to be overkill considering the smaller temperature swings inside a captive enclosure.

While you can in theory go as high as 45°C, you must take into consideration what that will do to the rest of the temperature of the enclosure. In a small enclosure, having a basking spot this hot can easily throw off temperatures in the rest of the space.

Air temperature of the basking spot is less important, given that surface temperatures are a bigger influence on the actual internal temperature of your animal. We would expect them to be a few degrees cooler than the surface temp. It’s a good idea to check them and ensure they are within 5–10°C of the surface temperature.

Determining Warm Temperatures

Here we find it best to be around the animal’s ideal internal temperature, in this case, somewhere around 30C-33C. This provides a space for the animal to remain at a stable temperature that is ideal, if desired. Again, surface temperatures will be more important than air temperatures.

Determining Cool Temperatures

If your dragon gets too hot, it needs to be able to cool off. Thankfully, with the help of a couple of adaptations, they are well equipped to do so and can remain cool if required. A study looking into the thermoregulation behaviors of bearded dragons found temperatures of 20–25°C on the cool side of a thermal gradient are sufficient to cool the animal off fairly quickly when desired. Therefore, a surface temperature and air temperature of around 23°C should be sufficient to cool off, without risking any issues by decreasing daytime temperatures too low. This is right at room temperature.

Night Time Temps

In the wild, bearded dragons experience dramatic day-to-night temperature swings. They have been observed in areas where temperatures drop below 10°C at night. Based on this, some temperature drop at night is likely a good idea. Most US homes cool down at night already, so we don’t think it makes sense to stress over an exact number here. Ensure all heat fixtures are off (unless your home drops below 10–12°C at night, in which case you’ll want to provide lightless supplemental heating), and let the enclosure cool naturally.

What a good temperature gradient looks like:

Caution with ’Steep’ Gradients

As explained, bearded dragons are well equipped to manage their body temperatures in a wide range of environments. They do, however, struggle in one circumstance: a ‘steep’ temperature gradient. This refers to an enclosure temperature that rapidly changes in temperature over a short amount of space. As a result, the animal is forced to position themselves in a place where different parts of their body are at different temperatures. This impacts an animal’s ability to correctly regulate temperature and forces them to use more energy moving around more often.

We want to avoid such a situation in captivity. This can easily be caused by a smaller than required enclosure, combined with hotter than required basking temperatures. In theory, with a large enough enclosure, you can make your basking spot hotter than our recommendation. However, following recommendations that suggest 45°C+ temperatures in a 4x2x2 is a recipe for disaster.

Additional lighting - UVB and visible light

TLDR:

You NEED a UVB, and very likely supplemental LED lighting

Like many living things, bearded dragons are very reliant on the sun’s various light wavelengths. We need to replicate these same wavelengths in captivity so their bodies are able to function correctly.

As a result we need two additional lights: UVB and an additional visible light source.

Why do we need other lights?

As a refresher from high school science, the sun produces:

Visible light that controls our day/night cycles
Heat that warms things up (in various wavelengths such as IRA and IRB)
Ultra-Violet Radiation we use to synthesize certain chemical processes

Traditional heat lamps only produce a fair amount of visible light and infrared wavelengths that warm things up. They do not produce any Ultra-Violet radiation (which happens to be extremely critical to proper biological function in bearded dragons). To keep animals healthy, we need to come as close to replicating the sun as possible. To do so, we need to add additional light sources.

More visible light to match the intensity of the visible light produced by the sun. This can easily be accomplished with LED light bars. You can of course find something reptile-specific, but a simple search on Google will lead to many affordable options that are plenty bright. Aim for a color temperature of 5000K–6500K to match the color temperature of natural light.
A light source that produces UVA and UVB. These are typically sold as UVB bulbs, but rest assured, they also produce UVA.

The importance of UVB

To fully understand the importance of UVB for captive bearded dragons, you require a fairly technical understanding of reptile physiology and biochemistry. To ensure this information is readily digestible by most people, we will simplify some things:

In most reptiles, low vitamin D levels lead to a number of complex diseases. This is especially true for bearded dragons. These diseases are collectively referred to as Metabolic Bone Disease or MBD.
Metabolic Bone Disease is associated with inadequate calcium, and the resulting symptoms are brutal and very difficult to treat. Functionally, without proper vitamin D3 levels, animals are unable to absorb calcium from their diet, resulting in MBD or other related symptoms.
The concentrations of Vitamin D in bearded dragons are determined mainly by UVB exposure. Many incorrectly believe dietary supplementation can also raise vitamin D levels. It has, however, been found to be ineffective when compared to proper UVB exposure.

Put simply, without access to UVB, bearded dragons are unable to absorb calcium from their diets correctly. As calcium is extremely critical to bone health and cellular/muscle activity (including the heart), inadequate calcium levels will result in devastating health effects. It is one of the most common and complex diseases found in captive reptiles. If you care at all about the well-being of your pet (and your wallet should you need to treat a case of MBD), you need a UVB.

How to select a UVB Bulb

Due to the importance of Ultra violet light for overall health in bearded dragons, we suggest using a UVB bulb from a reputable supplier. Arcadia and Zoo Med are both well respected by the reptile community. We suggest starting on their website to determine the right bulb for your situation, and then shopping around to find the right price and delivery for your requirements.

As a general suggestion, the ReptiSun 10.0 T5 Linear will suit most set ups when placed around 7-8 inches above the basking location. We apologize for the lack of specific recommendations. The reality is, the right bulb will be dependent on the size of your enclosure and how you choose to set things up.

Linear UVB or Compact?

This is a topic of some debate. For the uninitiated, UVB bulbs typically come in one of two forms:

A ‘linear’ style bulb: Longer and narrow bulbs that look like this
A ‘compact’ style bulb: These resemble a standard light bulb

The primary debate between the two hinges on whether a compact-style bulb can spread enough UV light to a large enough area to be of benefit to an animal. We are not aware of any genuine research into this topic. Given the observed behaviors of bearded dragons in the wild, UVI is most important in their basking locations. Additionally, the UV light produced from modern bulbs has a dramatic drop-off in effectiveness as you get further away from it in height. As many basking locations will be perched up higher than the surrounding area, both a compact and linear-style bulb will result in very low UVI anywhere other than the basking location.

A linear-style bulb can presumably help to create a more gentle UVI gradient, which we would see as ideal. Nature offers animals a wide variety of UV intensity. It makes sense to replicate this in captivity.

Based on this, we hesitantly recommend a linear-style bulb over a compact bulb. For the sake of clarity, we are aware of knowledgeable and extremely effective reptile owners that do utilize compact-style bulbs, albeit typically with animals less dependent on UV light than the bearded dragon.

What is non-negotiable is the use of a UV light. Don’t mistake this point as any argument against their correct usage.

A practical guide to achieving the right temperatures

Selecting, purchasing and setting up various heat lamps can be daunting. Let’s break it down so it’s simple, and you can be sure you have everything set up correctly. Before completing this section, make sure you have completed the basic lay out for your enclosure. You can of course adjust things as you get your temperature dialed in, but having it roughly set up will help us to get started.

Example Supply List

We’ll preface this by mentioning that every set up is a little different. You may need materials not mentioned here, or require other options:

Infrared temperature sensing gun
Digital air and humidity monitor
1-2 100 W Halogen heat bulbs
1-2 100W or higher light fixture (dimmers are useful as an option)
1 UVB emitting bulb; like the ReptiSun 10.0 T5 Linear
1 UVB bulb fixture
1 bright LED light bar

Depending on your ambient temperatures and enclosure size, you may also need:

A ceramic heat bulb (75W-100W will likely be sufficient) or heat panel
A ceramic heat fixture

Setting up your heat lamps

Basking Surface Temperatures

104+ F (40+ C)

Warm Zone Surface Temperatures

86-91 F (30-33 C)

Cool Zone Surface Temperatures

70-77 F (21-25 C)

Nighttime Surface/Air Temperatures

59-68 F (15-20 C)

1. Set up your heat bulb directly above your planned basking location

Begin by setting up your halogen heat bulb (or bulbs depending on your setup) directly above your planned basking location.

The height you start with isn’t all that important. Just be sure your pet isn’t in the enclosure while you are working on getting the temperatures set up.

2. Wait and take surface temperature

Wait a couple of hours or so, and check the surface temperature with your infrared thermometer gun.

3. Adjust basking bulb as required

The primary way we can control the resulting temperature in the basking location is how far away the bulb is. You can also use a dimmer function if your light has one, but due to the way these lights generate infrared radiation (what we feel as heat), you want to use this as a last resort.

If it’s too cool, adjust either the height of your basking location or light to move them closer together or further away if too hot. This process requires a bit of trial and error to get it just right.

If you find that you cannot adjust the height any further without risking your pet coming into direct contact with the light, you will need a higher wattage bulb or an additional bulb altogether.

4. Determine if supplemental heating sources are required

With the basking spot taken care of, you can begin to assess if you’ll need additional heat sources. Check the surface temperature toward the middle of the enclosure (if you’ve placed the basking spot to one side) or wherever you have decided your warm location will be. If the surface temperature is not appropriately warmed by your basking lamp, you will need to add a heat source. The simplest method is typically a ceramic heat bulb. Follow the same technique you used for the basking setup until you find a stable surface temperature within the suggested range.

5. Check the cool temperatures

Finally, check the cool side of the enclosure to ensure it isn’t too warm. If it is, you may need to move your basking and warm locations farther toward one side. It is also a good idea to ensure you have enough ventilation on that side.

A note on air temperatures

As explained above, air temperature is less critical than surface temperatures as a bearded dragons internal temperature is much more close correlated with surface temperatures than it is with the air temperature. This said, it’s a good idea to check them to ensure they are normal and won’t cause any trouble for proper temperature regulation of your animal. Simply place your air temperature reader in the various locations around your enclosure. Record the air temperatures and ensure they:

-Don’t exceed 35 C in the basking location

-Aren’t below 23C in the cool area

-Are within a couple degrees of the surface temperature in the cool area

Extreme air temperatures would typically suggest improper airflow in the enclosure or an improper light set up. If things are too extreme, it’s a good idea to first check the surface temperatures again to ensure they are stable.

Setting up your LED and UVB bulb

1. Mount the LED

Setting up an LED to add additional visible light to your enclosure is very straightforward. Simply mount the light fixture at the top of the enclosure. It’s a good idea to ensure this bulb covers at least 75% of the enclosure. Just be sure the light is far enough away to spread light across the entire enclosure and is not overly focused.

2. Mount UVB Bulb

Setting up a UVB is more tricky. We are aiming for a UVI of around 4–5 at the basking location, down to zero on the cool side of the enclosure. It’s typically best to follow manufacturer guidelines to achieve this. All reputable companies will provide setup instructions on the packaging. It’s important to note that surfaces such as mesh and glass block either all or part of the UV light. As a result, most manufacturer instructions will provide different setup heights depending on how the light is mounted.

Frankly, without a way to actually check the UVI, this process is partly guesswork. We have personally followed manufacturer recommendations only to find the UV Index was much lower or higher than expected. For this reason, we do suggest purchasing a UV Index Meter. Fair warning, they are not cheap. We are aware of UV test cards that are much cheaper. We have not personally used these and cannot speak to their accuracy. As with anything, inaccurate data is just as harmful as no data.

Humidity

Low Humidity Range

20-30%

Max Humidity Range

50-60%

The humidity of the habitat bearded dragons live in varies significantly throughout the day. Overnight and earlier in the morning, humidity might be as high as 60%, and during the day, it may fall below 20%. Thus, we find the best strategy is to maintain a humidity of about 30–40% in most of the enclosure. Most US homes will have a humidity of around 40–50%. The humidity near the basking location will likely be lower as heat sources will lower the relative humidity of the air near them. This is to be expected. If humidity on the cool side of the enclosure falls below 30%, mist the substrate lightly.

Temporary spikes in humidity won’t cause any issues, but extended periods of 60+% may cause problems and are not recommended.

By allowing the humidity near the basking location to be lower, and higher toward the cool side, you produce a humidity gradient that has the same benefits as a proper temperature gradient. This very likely replicates the humidity of micro-habitats wild bearded dragons utilize throughout the day.