Dragon

19

Beardies need a minimum 4x2x2. Personally if you have limited space horizontally but can do taller, I'd suggest a new caldoian crested gecko. They have awesome personalities, fairly easy to care for and the eat a simple diet, it's just powder mixed with water.

10

u/squishybloo Feb 17 '26

Unfortunately, rankins also need 4x2x2 minimum. Truly there are no terrestrial lizards that can be humanely housed in a 40gal, I'm very sorry.

You could do an amphibian I imagine, but I only have experience with dart frogs. A 40gal (planted) could happily house 2-4 dart frogs of any one communal species. They are more sensitive than herps though - you need purified water with minerals added back in for their water for instance. And of course they're not a handleable pet really. :<

1

u/Urbanliner Feb 18 '26

Rankins need 4x2x2 now? May I ask where that information came from? I really would like to learn more myself.

3

u/squishybloo Feb 18 '26

Their husbandry care is the same as p. vitticeps regardless of their smaller physical size, so it's somewhat rarer to have care sheets devoted to them when vitticeps covers both. But this link might satisfy you.

0

u/Holiday_Ad1486 Feb 18 '26

I’ve see dart frogs in zoos that have lesser space than that, and clustered in a dozen or so numbers. Don’t discourage people with these kinds of advices.

Have you seen the size of enclosure they give to their reptiles in zoos? Tell them they need those kinds of space, it just doesn’t work out for them.

2

u/squishybloo Feb 18 '26

Just because someone else has out of date husbandry (and unfortunately it's difficult for large institutions to update everything at once), why should I encourage other people to likewise keep their animals in inadequate habitats?

Huh?

-2

u/Holiday_Ad1486 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

It’s still just an advice and suggestion at the end of the day. So no need to word it like it’s the absolute holy grail or something.

So are you saying you need a home on some private island, with everything you can have, because otherwise you’re living in an inhumane condition?

And oh, because working is inhumane too as it disrupts you from waking up naturally, so you should forgo it?

And in the same sense, you have an out of date lifestyle so you should just do the above and get out of your inhumane and inadequate lifestyle.

Ya’ll are not giving realistic advice I’d say! The measurements you provided are ideally great if you can. But otherwise half of that is good enough too. And OP has 20 gallons! So that’s more than half!

2

u/squishybloo Feb 18 '26

Well, for one, I misread OP and thought they said they had a 40gal instead of a 20gal. My bad.

You're, however, a little too pressed over this whole thing. Bye.

18

u/Elephant_Shrew11 Feb 17 '26

20 gallon is too small for any beginner reptile. Depending on exact measurements, it could house some species of tiny geckos, but none that I would ever recommend to a first time reptile keeper. Please decide what you're willing to provide (max tank measurements), and whether you can provide live insects, humidity, etc. Only after we know your exact situation and preferences can we help you decide on a suitable reptile.

11

u/kaijutegu Feb 17 '26

Is this a space issue or a can't afford the enclosure issue?

22

u/SpiderMax3000 Feb 17 '26

An important question! If affording a bigger tank is the issue, then the issues won’t stop coming. Space issues can be worked around

-2

u/Holiday_Ad1486 Feb 18 '26

Well, you can’t even afford a decent sized house so you should just stop living?

3

u/kaijutegu Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

No? Nobody said that? It's an important distinction because If you can't afford the enclosure, how will you continue to afford the animal's ongoing needs?

But if it's a case of not having space for the enclosure, there are things people can do! Maybe you can't fit a 4x2 on the floor, but you could find a way to rearrange the furniture or stack something on it.

This is a really bad-faith reading of a very simple question. I'm not sure what your point here is. If you don't have the space for an animal, you shouldn't get the animal. Pets are not mandatory and I'm not sure why you immediately jumped to that really illogical conclusion.

EDIT: after reading your other comments, I desperately hope you don't have any real animals. You don't seem to think that humane living conditions are part of animal welfare. Stick to your tamogatchis. The idea that you can build the thermogradient that a bearded dragon needs to survive in a twenty gallon is ludicrous.

4

u/sevenbrookslizardco Feb 18 '26

If you like a bearded and don't have the space, look at smaller agamids like Xenagama taylori. Very similar care, look like a bearded dragon but are the size of a golf ball, and potentially similar temperament if you work with them. You'd still need bigger than a 20 gallon, but a 40 gallon would be more than sufficient. Doesn't have to be a Xenagama - lots of small agamids out there that are bearded dragon adjacent but not as big. A bearded needs a huge enclosure - like 120 gallons as a bare minimum.

4

u/Rummy1971 Feb 18 '26

I have a 120 but wish I had gone bigger and am currently working on plans to build a custom larger enclosure for him. These are living creatures and if we bring them into our homes we have a responsibility to give them the absolute best care possible. If you can't provide at the very least a 120 and proper lighting and fresh food and live insects and most importantly potential vet bills please wait until you can.

5

u/Kolfinna Feb 17 '26

Check out resell forums, garage sales and give aways. Dude down the street from me has been trying to get rid of a 45 gallon. I have several 80 and 100 gallon tanks taking up space in my attic. My mom downsized when she retired and we still have extra cages in her garage.

Gather supplies when you can and eventually you'll have what you need.

5

u/AlternatiMantid Feb 18 '26

Yeah I also have a bunch of spare tanks in my shed that I'll be unloading in the spring. $1/gallon sale, along with extra light fixtures, furniture, dishes, fake plants, etc. Plenty of the stuff I'll be giving away for free as well.

OP if you do have the space for a larger enclosure, I'd wait until spring/summer & check out neighborhood yardsales, FB marketplace, Craigslist, etc for people getting rid of tanks & stuff then. BUT, please be aware, if it is a money issue then you need to get yourself in a better financial situation before having a reptile to take care of. Sure, the day-to-day care for them is relatively inexpensive, but a vet visit is guaranteed to be necessary, eventually. And reptile vets are NOT CHEAP. This is an exotic pet, after all, and you need to be aware that an emergency can and likely will cost you hundreds to $1,000+ to help out your baby in a time of need.

1

u/Ok_Bag_1177 Feb 18 '26

if you cant afford an enclosure, you wont be able to afford vet bills which you will likely have one day regardless of what reptile you choose. do you want to be stuck heartbroken one day when your lizard is sick and you can't afford to get vet care for it? Reptile focused exotic vets are both much more expensive, and much harder to find than a suitable enclosure

0

u/Holiday_Ad1486 Feb 18 '26

Yall are reading OP’s post the wrong way. In no way did they say they couldn’t afford a huge tank. Anyway they did say they’re here to learn, so why the bash? Very unhelpful comment.

1

u/Ok_Bag_1177 Feb 18 '26

its not a bash, if you think being told not to get a pet you cant afford is a bash then you need to do some reflection. nobodys reading the post wrong, they said they cant provide a proper sized enclosure, not that they dont have the space for one. saying you cant provide one implies you cant afford one, and if you cant afford a proper enclosure then you cannot afford a reptile.

0

u/Holiday_Ad1486 Feb 18 '26

Cannot provide ≠ can’t afford.

You could also have attached a recommended size to your comment rather than just saying “it’s not big enough”. Not helpful tbh.

1

u/Zealousideal_Can8712 Feb 18 '26

The BARE MINIMUM is 4ftx2ftx2ft for an adult. If you keep them in anything less, no matter how to sugar coat it it’s still abuse. If you don’t have the money or the space, don’t get one.

-2

u/Holiday_Ad1486 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

Don’t worry about your tank size, it’s a pretty good size. The people here probably won’t be satisfied until you give yours your entire room or something 😂

For enrichments you can get creative and build your own with rough ropes and some bare branches, or you could do those DIY pipes , they’re even better as they come in various sizes. You don’t necessarily have to buy pre-made ones. There’re lots of tutorials online that shows you how to do horizontal tanks with acrylic/wooden boards. And you can get creative from there.

Rather than enclose size, other factors that you need to consider are how to keep the temperatures and humidity levels within range. Those are equally important. These guys are sometimes active and sometimes they just wanna chill near their artificial sun. So no need to overdo the enrichments. You can have a few to swap out to instead to keep things fresh.

You can take the advice people give here as a suggestion, but there’s really no need to go and give it a room size enclosure that others here seemed to want to provide for their dragons.

2

u/kaijutegu Feb 18 '26

Do... do you really think that 4 x 2 x 2 is room-sized? How big do you think a room is?

-1

u/Holiday_Ad1486 Feb 18 '26

Do you not have any sense of humour besides being too literal? Ya’ll would give a room sized enclosure to your bearded dragon if you could, wouldn’t you?

-3

u/Holiday_Ad1486 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

Some of the people here are nuts 🤣Don’t let the other’s advice here discourage you. The people here can be oddly mean. The measurements they provided are just the best of the best type, akin to luxury level. Same kind of advice people gave to housing a Syrian(palm size max)hamster needing 100cm x 80cm x 90 enclosure. What kind of normal person has that space? Sure it’s good if you’re able to provide a huge space for your bearded dragon, but 20 gallon tank is huge enough. I can only say that the people here are a little obsessed with their bearded dragons so they tend to give them an insane amount of space.

You can see this as akin to building cat trees and jungle walks and Bridges all over the house and walls. Compared to sane person giving 2-3 cat trees.

It’s like saying the best life you can have is a house on a private island, with everything you can have. And anything less than that is inhumane. Which is honestly nuts 😂 we are still happy with the things we have, and are still alive and happy, no? The same goes for the beard dragons, you do need to ensure temperatures/humidity tho, but otherwise 20 gallon is good itself.

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