Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi all

i have a male and female berdies. i put the male in with the female for about 3 weeks, if that.. then she had a clutch of eggs. could he be the daddy or did she save up stuff from before? so for they are fine eggs. i think they are fertile.

I don't understand the question. Was she only with one male? If she was with more than one male then there would be no way to say who the father might be. Could even be some babies from each male in a clutch. The small dragon I have was only with a male once and has laid 4 fertile clutches so far.

ok, my question is lol i had the female first and then i got the male . they were together for allmost 3 weeks. so i guess my question is... they did mate, but can she have a clutch from him in a 3 week time period? or would the clutch be from another that she stored? because i thought it took at least 4 weeks or longer to lay a clutch once they mate???????

So the female was never with another male? My confusion is when you got the female. Maybe I'm just thick. lol. But, I don't know if maybe you got her already gravid with fertile eggs. They don't store sperm from last year.

The females don't develop eggs because they mated. The females develop eggs and then they mate with a male. In the wild they only do this in the spring and summer. In captivity, breeders cycle (brumate) their dragons at different times to have babies available for sale all year.

When you put a female that wants to be mated in with a male she keeps her back legs almost straight and bends her front legs to bow to the male. This is her signal to the male that he is acceptable to her and wants to be mated. If you put a female in with a male that doesn't want to be mated she will keep the back of her body on the substrate and bow to the male.

In other words males that live with females don't mate them all the time and the females don't lay eggs all year. They only mate them in the spring after brumation when the female is ready. Otherwise, they just hang out together and most of the time his beard isn't even dark.

So I guess the answer to your question is that she most likely already was gravid (with infertile eggs?) when you put them together, he sensed that she wanted to be mated so most likely they mated. If the eggs are fertile and she was never with another male then that has to be the case.

The small female I have mated only once with my male on the floor since at the time he was way too big for me to put her in with him. It was less than 3 weeks till she laid fertile eggs but the eggs had started developing at least 2 weeks prior to her mating.

i believe she had had a clutch or two before i got her this year. i keep emailing him, but he has not yet responded. i didnt know they allready had eggs inside and then mate to fertilize them.. so anyways....since she had had a clucth earlyer this year,,,and was with mt male for about 3 weeks, my guessn is,,, it could be either males eggs right?

Yes. I'd agree with that.

Depending on how long ago it was when she last mated with the previous owner's male bearded dragon, she could have retained some of his sperm and added that with sperm from your dragon's male to fertilize this clutch of eggs.

In either case, incubate the eggs. It may be possible to guess on which male dragon was the father of each baby from their color/pattern but this won't be too easy. Even within the same clutch with just a single father, the babies can be quite varied in appearance.

To simplify things, you can just use your male as the father...especially if the previous owner has a much fancier male dragon than you do. Though to be completely honest, unless it has been more than a year since the last she was mated, it would be best to list both males as possible fathers...

After a couple clutches, you can just go by your male, by then any held back sperm would have been used up.
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PHLdyPayne