Saying that the only way to keep beardies happy is to house them in pairs goes against everything I've ever learned about them. I am experienced too, and I've spent a great deal of the last three years researching proper husbandry for them, and I've never until now come across anyone other than pet stores or breeders trying to make an extra sale take the position of "beardies need to be housed in pairs or they aren't happy."



Trust me, my two males are very well cared for, get lots of attention, and are living the life of luxery. They are not suffering because they don't have any other beardies to hang out with. There are dozens and dozens of people on this forum who house their beardies alone and all these animals are loved, happy, and thriving. To say that keeping them alone is cruel is to accuse about 80% of this forum of cruelty, and you won't have very many folks here agree with you.



I'm not going to continue arguing with you on that subject, I've said my peace. It's obvious I won't change your mind, and you certainly are not going to change mine so let's leave it at that.



I only have one last thing to say.



You say when someone houses a male and a female together they should be prepared for breeding in the first place. While I agree whole-heartedly, that just isn't the case. Far too often people house a male with a female with absolutely ZERO preparedness for that sort of thing, and when it happens they have no clue what to do about it. I've met a guy who would allow his female to become gravid, only to let the eggs die because he didn't care to raise them. I've met people who had a brother and sister housed together that were inbreeding and didn't think twice that it might be a bad thing. I wish that people would be responsible and prepared for that sort of thing, but they just aren't. It is up to the people who know better to educate them. To tell them housing males and females is perfectly fine, while assuming they already know all the proper responsibilities that go with it, is the reason those terrible things happen in the first place. It doesn't take but a few extra moments to give some words of advice on the subject so that they know what to expect.
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Amanda

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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)

0.1 kingsnake (Rio)

1.0 ferret (Playstation)

1.0 cat (Wally)

0.1 dog (Tima)

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