Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello. i have breed beardies in the past, and i now have a new breeding pair. my male is a super orange x pure citrus and i dont know exacly what my female is, but she is red, orange, and blue. i have already breed them and my female gave me a second dead clutch of eggs today. my vet told me that he is not a year old yet... uh oh! i am very sad for my female for all the hard work she is doing to get these dead eggs out of her, and disapointed in my self too for letting this all happen!!! can someone please tell me some facts of what i should do and when would be a good time to try again, and what time of the year?

thanks so much! - homie, marge (my beardies), and addy (me!)

What do you mean by dead eggs?

Are they unshelled plugs? Or do you try to incubate and they just rot?

they are unfertile.

Younger males may not be 'ready' to breed, though they may go through the motions. If you already received two infertile clutches from this female after being paired off with the male, you really only have two options. One, put them together again and let them breed a few more times. This way the third clutch may have fertile eggs. Two: keep them separate and try again next year, maybe pair him off with a different female as well.

Another option is to have your vet do a sperm count on the male. Though rare, it is possible he is infertile.

Some dragons may need a cooling period as well (brumation). Not sure if you brumated the male and female or just put them together. Though in most cases, brumation isn't required to produce fertile clutches, some dragons may need it.

Only other possibilities I can think of is the eggs are fertile but are going bad for another reason. If they are not shelled sufficiently, the genetics of the offspring are not viable (hidden negative traits/mutations may be hidden in these two dragons and when combined, produce a lethal result, thus babies die in the shell before any major development). Candling the eggs should show veins though. Infertile eggs won't have veins.

As you haven't really indicated what makes you think these eggs are infertile, not much else i can guess on why they failed to hatch. Do they just look bad? Or did the collapse/mold in the incubator or just never hatched after incubating for over 75 days?
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PHLdyPayne

the first clutch molded up in the incubator and the second, they all looked like raisons, flat with really nothing in them.

thank you so much for the advise. i will like to breed them again for her third clutch but would it stress her out too much?

she may have a third or fourth clutch anyway...as long as she is of good weight, getting plenty and getting lots of protein and calcium (and d3) breeding her again with the male shouldn't stress her out too much. If she looks like she is loosing weight, not putting it back on quickly between clutches etc, then probably best to just let her finish laying clutches on her own, without further breedings.

Eggs molding in the incubater typically means they are infertile. Unless your incubation medium is too wet or used too much before but not properly sterlized to kill old mold spores. Shriveling up to raisons usually means the eggs are not getting enough moisture.

I suggest double check your incubator, make sure it is humid enough and you are mixing your incubation medium correctly. I believe it should be one part water to one part medium by weight, not volume. ALso make sure it is reaching the correct incubation temps (should be around 85F). It is always best to double check that which you can control directly. You can't control the male's ability to produce viable sperm, or even to do the 'deed' with your female etc.

If the third clutch turns out bad after double checking what you can, I suggest getting your male checked out. Or wait till next season and then, with the male being much older, see if she can produce fertile eggs. If not, then the problem may be with the male.
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PHLdyPayne