Consider enclosure design also. I keep all of my Beardies in outdoor enclosures, and we are on the coast in Queensland. I think natural sun and rain you cant replicate. So we have to keep them dry, I do this by finding an old or defective plastic water tank and cutting it into rings with no bottoms. I then just place them on the top of the ground and put about 4-5 inches of hardwood chip and pea gravel mixed at 1:1 or 2:1 woodchip:gravel. This allows any rain to drain away quickly and keep them dry. I also place an old door in for them to hide under while at night and during rain. A plant for some part shade, and then some structure, rocks and logs.
The trick is to keep them as dry as possible and dont let grass grow in the pit as this raises the humidity within the enclosure. Place the pit on high ground also if possible.
I have kepted beardies for 3 years now and this will be first year breeding. These guys like their sun so place it where it gets a lot and mainly morning sun. Watch out for realy hot days, the door has an air cavity in it and insulates the heat from ground very well, and frost type winter, you may have to move them indors if it gets to cold at night during winter. Just look at their natural environment for temps. A cover over the top is only required to stop people, cats, dogs, birds etc from getting in. My pits are about 500 - 600 mm high and 3.5m diameter and are plastic 5500 gal water tanks cut up. Beardies wont dig their way out either if you keep the substrate depth at least 5-4 inches. If you need to cover the top just use poly pipe arched over the pit in a cross and put bird net over that. Watch that the plants you put in dont fall over cause the lizards and easily climb up the plant and out if it is over the pit edge.
I keep 2 shinglebacks and 2 Beardies in each pit
Central Bearded Dragons (Viticepts) are full of colour like the female on our ID photo.
Hope this helps.
