Posted by:
PHLdyPayne
at Tue Feb 28 12:07:27 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by PHLdyPayne ]
there is two ways you can do it. you can buy an adult female, one who is reaching her prime breeding time, say about 12-15 months of age. as it is best to quarentee any new animals at least three months to ensure they are perfectly healthy, pass 3 fecal tests [one per month] and have at least one full vet examination to make sure she's healthy, is at the right weight and bone density for breeding. once quarentee is over, she would be 15-18 months old, which is perfect to start breeding her. then you can introduce her to the male for breeding and once they have copulated several times, can put her back into her own cage. this makes sure she isn't stressed out too much by the male trying to constantly breed her, stealing her food or best basking areas etc.
the second way to go about it is to buy a baby dragon and raise it up for 12-15 months before breeding. the advantage of this is you have more time to prepare for the hordes of babies you will have to incubate, house and feed till they are old enough to sell to new owners. the initial cost of breeding bearded dragons is high, the cost of extra cagees, uvb lights, basking lights, food dishes, water dishes, cage furnature, initial vet check, suppliments and crickets, makes the first year breeding deffinitely profitless. also, you have to know ahead of time how you will sell all the babies. as a healthy big female bearded dragon can lay a 100 eggs in her first breeding year, that is alot of homes to find. i am not trying to discourage you from breeding bearded dragons, but want to make sure you are aware its not an easy task to do. the cost is high, especially during the first year when you have to buy all the basic equipment, incubators, cages, etc. to house roughly a 100 dragons at a time. then there is the expense and efforts needed to find homes.
if you are prepared for all the expenses and have several plans about how to find homes for the babies, then deffinitely go ahead and breed some bearded dragons. getting a baby female bearded dragon and taking the year or more to raise her up to the proper breeding age will give you more time to collect the supplies you need for breeding etc. if money isn't a concern, then getting the older female and after quarentee, introduce her to your male [providing she is at least 15months old] to start your breeding project, would be one quick way to get started. though adult females are not too commonly available from breeders, many do keep holdbacks which they may be deciding now to sell, either because they no longer have space, changed their minds about adding the extra breeding female, decided to get out of the business, she didn't color up as well as they expected, etc. checking the kingsnake classifieds certainly will be one way to see how many young adult females are available now.
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PHLdyPayne
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RE: can I add another beardie.. - PHLdyPayne, Tue Feb 28 12:07:27 2006