Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 2 bearded dragons that get along great and as rumored are great pets for my daughter (age 4). Her interactions with them are all supervised and I care for them (feeding watering cleaning, etc) Just recienty one of the B. Dragons started acting frantic and somewhat aggressive. Normally he is easy to handle, now he run frantically if your hand enters the enclosure. The other day I took both Dragons out for a little "yard time", which is a bordered area in my room with a good amount of room for them to run around, the dragon started tackling the other dragon, no biting or scraching, just tackling like a football player. He also started this thing were he bobs his head at everything. This seemed to start one daywhen my fiance tried to pet him. Which he has not tried since. Were is this behavior coming from???

How old are your dragons and do you house them together? What sex are they? (you can sex a dragon by placing it on a flat surface or your hand, facing away from you. Lift up the tail to about 90 degrees and check the area just before the vent, on the tail side. While twisting the tail slightly and gently from side to side, look at the area before the vent (again, tail side). If you see two lumps or a central depression, you have a male, if only one central lump, it is a female.

Dragons show aggression or aggressive like activity for several reasons. Territory, domination, mating behaviour, depending on the sex of each dragon and their age and relative size to eachother. It is hard to say what is going on with your dragons without more information about them.
-----
PHLdyPayne

I just adopted them from an unhealthy enviromnet about 2 months ago. From the recent owners info they are about a year or so old. I'm pretty sure they are male and female. Yes, I house them together and they were housed together by the previous owners as well, and they got themwhn they were very young. I know iguanas react differently towards females or males (humans) as they get older, do male B dragons react to guys differently as well?? I just checked on them a couple on minutes ago, and the male is laying ontop of the female as he nomally does, I don't think they are mating, but I have no idea. Could the interaction with my fiance, male, have sparked his mating and territoial behavior??

be certain they are male female. first of all, dont house a male or female together permanently. only house together if and when trying to breed. never put 2 males together, they will fight eachother for territory or for a female. id suggest getting them checked by a vet or someone with good experience with BDs to make sure on sexes and since they came from you say unhealthy environment a check up with a vet is always good idea.
its easy to sex your dragons youself when they are adults but if you dont know what your lookin for you wont be able to do it. you can always take some pics of the vent of the dragon and post them on here and ask everyone for their opinion. sometimes we can tell sometimes we cant, depending on qualily of pics. but id suggest a vet check would be better.

good luck
-----
Beach Beardies

3.3.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

Why is it a bad idea to house a male and female together???

overbreading the female is the main reason. the male will not stop going after her trying to breed. females can hold sperm in them and release it when they are ready to lay eggs. a female can lay numerous clutches from mating one time with a male. i have had 4 clutches all 25 eggs or bigger laid from them mating only once. the 4th clutch did not make it though from lack of calcium in the female cause she laid a clutch 3 weeks before.

you should start doing some research on kingsnake and other breeders caresheets. www.beautifuldragons.com is a great website to do research on, from housing, to nutrition, diseases, etc.

any more questions feel free to post on here most people are happy to answer
-----
Beach Beardies

3.3.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)

I've done alot of research on all my recent additions, but I had never heard or read anything regarding housing a male and female together as a bad thing. I will check out that web site. Thanks for the info

its not a bad thing, they do not hurt eachother. but when housed together permanently they will overbeard and that can and will end up hurting the female. she will be underweight, and the lack of calcium will not be good for her with overbreeding.

male/female can be housed together until the male is about 6 months or so, or shows signs of wanting to breed. then its time to seperate them.
-----
Beach Beardies

3.3.11 bearded dragons
1.0.0 Turquoise x Sunburst Veiled Chameleon
1.1.0 Sugar Gliders
0.1.0 Miss Queen Athena (Cat)