Project Reptile Vivarium

By Thindes78

We are getting a Bearded Dragon!  Something the boys are looking forward to very much, and when the vivarium arrived, they got extremely excited.

The lovely people at Swell sent us the Bearded Dragon Starter Kit - Silver which costs £134.99. The starter kit has everything included to give a bearded dragon a suitable home.  

In the kit we received:

  • A vivarium, which is available in two color choices – Size: 86cm x 37.5 x 42 (34" x 15" x 16.5")
  • Basking spot lamp 60w
  • 2 ceramic lamp holder
  • Compact lamp 10% UVC 26w
  • Feeding and water dishes
  • Thermometer
  • Natural Desert sand 4kg
  • Reptile Hide large ('habba hut' style)
  • A Guide book
  • Calcium Dust
The vivarium came flat packed 'eekk', however putting it together was quite a doodle. Paul was at work, and the boys were rather excited and wanted me to put it up for them, so I braved it and together with the help of all 3 boys, and because the instruction were clear, it was really straight forward.  However we had one blip; once we had fully put it together and we moved it on the cabinet, we realised that we had to unscrew the top off so we can feed the ceramic lamp holder wires through. Sigh - I was really nervous I would break the vivarium, but because of the way it is set-up, the plastic screws are designed to unscrew easily, to make it easier for you to take apart and clean. So we took the top off, fed the ceramic lamp holders through and screwed the top back on, easy peasy.

After we took the top of, and put it back on again, we laid the sand, put the accessories in and turned the lamps on. We left it now for a couple of days and the heat inside the vivarium is now within the correct temperature range to house a Bearded Dragon.  They need a basking temperature of around 38°C (which we have set up in the left side of the vivarium), they need an ambient temperature of 26.5°C - 29°C - With a cool area of around 23°C, and a night temperature of around 24.5°C.

So we have everything set up and ready to go, and we plan to go pick the baby Bearded Dragon up this weekend.  To say the boys are excited is an understatement - they have spent the past 2 weeks watching Bearded Dragon videos on YouTube, and coming up with different names. Now the name is a different story; you can't really tell the sex of a Bearded Dragon until they are about 10 months old, sooo I have explained to the boys that we really need to come up with a gender neutral name, and we shouldn't call it 'Bob Marley' like Jacob has suggested.  

Any name ideas are welcome? :)


Swell Reptile website offers a huge array of items for all types of reptiles you may want or already have as a pet. They offer lots of good advice and information on either there website or on the end of their customer service telephone line. Next day delivery is available and the charges are:  Packets £3.49 or Parcels £4.49, - They also offer a 60 days returns policy.
Disclaimer: We were sent this vivarium for the purpose of this review, all opinions are my own.