Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I want to purchase a baby male and a baby female. Should I house them together from the get go or should I have them seperately and when they are both of adequate size place them both in a new larger enclosure? Will different morphs be able to breed?

bearded dragons breed with bearded dragons regardless of morph.

it might not be a good idea to house them together at any age. If you do, one will not live as long as the other. It depends on which one is more aggressive. Some people can get away with it somehow. I believe that only 5% of dragons are suitable to live together. I have 2 females and a male and all three have their own cage. If you have a male and a female in the same cage, when the male reaches maturity, he will try to breed with her all day long and every day.

You could try it. I wouldn't try without having a second cage ready incase they fight. The worse thing about it is they may be fine together, but one day while you are at work something will happen and one may kill the other.

bottom line....its very risky to house more than one dragon in a cage, even if its a large cage.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

How do you then breed them if they cannot be put together? And when they do breed, they do the deed and then you take one of them out of the cage immediatly?

It is never good to house a male and female together when young, since males tend to mature faster than females and will attempt to breed her, causing stress etc. Also, a young female (ie under a year old) can still become gravid and producing young when she herself is under a year, is very stressful and hard on her body, with a higher risk of complications.

Two females can sometimes be housed fine together, in a large enough cage (for two, I recommend no less than 5'x2' of floor space). However, there are always risks of the following:

One not thriving due to dominance of other, resulting in stress, not eating enough, not getting proper basking temps or UVB exposure, thus growing slower and eventually being out paced by the cage mate (and if the cage mate grows large enough, may even eat the smaller dragon).

Aggressive behaviour. The more dominate animal may constantly attack the other, ripping off toes, tail tips and even limbs, and eventually, can result in the death of the other.

Spread of diseases. If one dragon picks up a disease or parasites, both animals will have to be treated right away, as cross contamination will easily occur. Stress caused by conditions above, can lead ot flare up of coccidia and other internal parasites that normally exist in a small but balanced amount.

Even if the females get along perfectly with no dominance issues etc. there is still the risk that a female will suddenly decide she doesn't want her cage mate anymore and attack her. It only takes a few minutes for a dragon to be attacked and loose limbs or be killed.

All this being said, it is possible to house more than one dragon together, but it should not be done by the first time owner, and a second cage should be ready just in case.

To breed bearded dragons, introducing the male to the females cage for mating is fine, typically a few hours to a couple days is all that is needed to ensure proper fertilization for several clutches that year. After that it is best to keep the males and females separate. Of, if you have large enough space, a male and 2-3 females can be housed together all the time. But again, you have to watch for signs of aggression and separate the females or the male if it becomes necessary.

Two males should never be housed together. Once sexually mature they can fight aggressively. A large cage big enough for both to have their separate territories, may be possible to keep two males inside (pretty much a cage nearly twice as big as the minimum recommended floor space of 4'x2' (so 16 square feet of floor space for two males which would be 4'x4' or similar)

Females should not be bred under the age of 14 months, though 18 months or older is recommended before breeding. Males should be about 12 years old or older.

I also don't recommend breeding dragons unless it is something you have seriously looked into and have the spare money for all the housings/food needed for hatchlings before they are old enough to find new homes (at least 6-8 weeks old or about 6-8" in length). Selling them to some petstore or wholesaler isn't a good excuse to breed in my opinion, as not all of these will take animals from anybody off the street. Some required vet checks to ensure health etc. Also, most petstores already have plenty bearded dragons available to sell in their stores.

Breeding dragons is not cheap. Nor is there likely to be a profit in it, especially in the first year. Babies eat alot and a single female dragon is very prolific, capable of having as many as 5 clutches a season (average about 3-4 but I have heard of females having 6-7 clutches). Each clutch can have anywhere between 10-30 eggs (average being around 15-20). Hatchlings can also eat as much as 100 crickets a day, each.

So, if we take an average clutch number with an average clutch size and each hatchling eats an average amount of crickets each day...you can easily be spending $30 a day on crickets alone. (3 clutches of 15 eggs each with each baby, once it hatches of course, eating 50 crickets each, means 2250 crickets per day.)
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PHLdyPayne

>>How do you then breed them if they cannot be put together? And when they do breed, they do the deed and then you take one of them out of the cage immediatly?

all it takes is ten minutes of "together time" and you'll have a sucessuful breeding. the together time is when the female actually shows interest in the male. watchout....its only one or two weeks out of the 52 that a female BD actually wants the male. but all it will take is one minute and the will connect and do their thing. if not....your male will try to mount, and the female will reject.....if this happens, don't keep them together...it willl only cause stress for your female.

the best time to breed is AFTER the females first brumation...aka her first hibernation....aka...the second year of her life.

don't breed siblings...not good...

breeding season depends on where you live....i live in buffalo ny. my dragons breed early spring and lay eggs around this time of year (end of may). breeding season is short, usually one to three weeks. You'll know when it happens after thefirst year. I've noticed that breeding season starts about three weeks after they wake from brumation. But then i cycle my dragons on a "normal" or my cycle of sleep with the seasons.

i hope this helps some more....just ask more questions!
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

Have to disagree with LdyPayne on a couple of issues.

It is hard to put adult dragons together regardless of sex if they have always been housed alone. If you have never had a dragon before I would get a baby male and raise him for a year before thinking on a grander scale.

But, to answer your question, it is easier to raise breeding pairs together. You can house babies through adulthood as long as they are and remain about the same size. (within 1 1/2" Of course you must have the proper setup so that there is not competion for resources.

As far as breeding. The female should be introduced to the males cage. She will recognise his territory and instinctively become submissive to him. If you do it the other way around, the male has no territory (his nature) and will have to fight the female to obtain hers. It's either the female into the males cage or both into a neutral cage. In the wild the female comes into the males territory.

....but this is what i do...

i've done all of my bd's breeding outside of the cage. I put them together in a large rooms where they have the ability to circle each other without cageware getting in the way. when the male "releases", the female soon will walk away...leaving the male "tired and motionless"....i then will return both dragons to there cage.

(i use the quotations to censorize this message)
b
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon