Skip to content
Shed & Bask

Bearded dragon · Leopard gecko · Ball python · Crested gecko

A central bearded dragon at rest, one of the four species this site covers

Expert species-correct setups for bearded dragons, leopard geckos, ball pythons and crested geckos

Enclosure sizes, UVB targets, basking temperatures and substrate - every figure cited to a published source, every pick scored against criteria we state as numbers.

See the enclosure picksHow we decide
pages at launch
95pages at launch
criteria-scored roundups
18criteria-scored roundups
products in the registry
31products in the registry
prices we quote on this site
0prices we quote on this site

This year's picks

The top pick from each flagship roundup, with the criteria it was judged against on the page. No price appears on this site - every figure is resolved at Amazon.

Start with your species, or with the hardware

Four species hubs for how demand actually arrives, and two system hubs because the hardware decision cuts across all of them.

An adult bearded dragon basking, illustrating the species this section covers

Hub

Bearded dragon

A 4x2x2 is the standard most of the hobby works to. The current published minimum is larger than that. Here is what the numbers actually say, and what to buy once you know them.

A leopard gecko photographed close up, illustrating the species this section covers

Hub

Leopard gecko

Floor space is the constraint, not height. The published adult minimum is 4.5 sq ft - more than a 20-gallon long gives you.

A ball python resting on a log, illustrating the species this section covers

Hub

Ball python

The enclosure should be at least as long as the snake. The idea that ball pythons want to be crammed into a small dark box is a myth the published guidance names as one.

A crested gecko on foliage, illustrating the species this section covers

Hub

Crested gecko

Arboreal, so height is the constraint. And the number most new keepers miss is the ceiling: sustained temperatures above 85 F cause heat stress.

A warmly lit glass terrarium, illustrating enclosure lighting

Hub

Lighting & heat

Wattage and percentage tell you almost nothing on their own. UV index at a stated mount distance is the number that decides whether a lamp is right for your animal.

Close detail of damp soil substrate texture

Hub

Substrate & safety

What the enclosure is made of, sealed with and floored with. This is the part of reptile keeping with the most confident advice and the least cited evidence.

A lizard in a glass enclosure, illustrating cross-species enclosure guidance

Hub

Guides

The cross-species decisions: what material to buy, how big it has to be, whether to build it yourself, and which beginner mistakes are expensive.

How this site is different

Published numeric criteria

Every roundup states its thresholds as numbers - minimum footprint, UVI target, basking surface temperature, thermostat requirement - and scores each pick against them visibly.

No price is ever invented

This site quotes no prices. Every figure is resolved at the retailer, which means nothing here goes stale or misleads you about what something costs today.

We say what we do not know

Where a manufacturer publishes no UVI figure, no service temperature or no certification, the page says so instead of recommending anyway.

No testing claims we cannot support

We do not run a lab and we do not pretend to. Picks are criteria-based evaluation of currently-sold products against published husbandry standards.

Read these first

The four pages that carry the site's argument.

Latest

Every page on this site · Atom feed

How this site is funded

Shed & Bask earns a commission when you buy through a link on this site, as a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Commission does not change what we recommend, or the order we rank things in, or whether we recommend against something. We quote no prices, so we have nothing to gain from a stale number.

Affiliate disclosure · Editorial policy · Methodology