Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 1.2 year old female but she is only about 14" but she has a nipped tail. She only weighs 175-200 grams. I dont want to risk her life just to get some babie bearded dragons. But she has some amazing color. I just want to know.

I'd wait. I had one develop eggs last year at about 250 and sweated it out the whole time. Ideally she should be 18 months and >350 but sometimes we don't get a choice. They develop eggs on their own schedule (generally after brumation) not because of a male. Mine last year was housed alone.

so wait. My male is ready to go though he wont stopped bobbing his head lol but she is plump and has grown in quite a while and how do i get her to go into brumation?

She's still too small for Brumation. She still needs to grow more.

but my male should be brumate? he is 562 grams and 1.1 year old.

First off he would seriously hurt a female as small as yours. With that great a size difference he could see her as food.

I never brumate mine by choice they just often do it on their own though. Brumation (aka cycling, cooling) is often needed to get females to produce eggs. Most breeders brumate both sexes. But if your not looking to breed or maybe can't in your case then I wouldn't bother.

I have a female adult bearded dragon that i bought that should be here tomarrow so. i was wanting him to breed with both but i guessed she would be to small. But i just wanted to make sure that i was doing the bast this is posable.

I have 14 dragons right now. I have had many more pass through my house. The biggest lesson I've learned is that every dragon is different. In your situation, I would make some changes in an attempt to acertain why she is not growing properly.

I would first buy a weight scale that measures accurately in grams. Then I would track your small females weight as you try adjustments to your husbandry. I weigh and record the weight of all of my dragons every Sunday at the very least. Doing this is extremely helpful.

I would first get her into a larger enclosure. Lack of proper exercise could be a contributing factor. My dragons her size are already in their adult enclosures.(4'x3.5') I had groups of three 2 week old babies in 4' x 2' glass enclosures and they always managed to find their food etc. lol.

Next thing I would try is raising the basking spot temp. I would raise it until the SURFACE temp. is about 108-110. Then I would check that the ambient (air) temp. on the hot side is in the 87-92 range. If she spends most of the time out of the light then it is too hot and you'll need to back it down some. If she never moves from the basking spot then it's too cool.

Next I'd consider the food you are using. If you are feeding crickets, the maximum size for a 175 gram dragon is 3/4". So crickets with wings are too large and could be slow for her body to digest. Personally, I am feeding my dragons that size 1/2" crix. I have read, and it has proven in my experience that a dragon will grow faster with more small crix rather than fewer large crix. (costs more though) This is one of the reasons why most of my babies are over 200 in only 12 weeks.

Something else to consider is how you care for your crickets. Gut loaded crickets are far more nutritious. I often use cricketfood.com but Flukers sells a dry grain food that is sold in many pet stores. Either is fine. Forget about the orange cube cricket food, I tried it and it's no good. I use apples and a sponge for moisture. I change the apples and sponge every 2-3 days and refill the grain food as necessary.

Hope this helps.

You should also really recheck your husbandry. Some of my babies hatched 8/8/07 are heavier than she is.

Maybe you could post a picture of your setup and a description of temps, lighting etc.

she is in a 40 gallon breeder. she has 1 heat lamp that keeps the basking spot at about 103 she has to UV lighting. one reptisun 10.0 and a strip she can get about 4 inches away from UV and she is usually right there. she has fresh greens everyday. she has dusted crickets offered everyday and silkworms offord everyday as well. She also has a adult dragon fruit thing that some company makes she eats her greens and everything crickets are dusted. I just cant figuire out why she isnt growing.

You've had her the whole time? Have you had a fecaL done?

yah teice the vet says she is perfectly fine she just isnt growing.

It is possible the problem with her not growing is genetic. Do you have a picture of her? She may be a vettikins (inland bearded dragon x Lawsons (or Rankins) bearded dragon. These won't grow bigger than 14"

You did mention in another post that you are buying an adult female to breed with your male and it is only arriving in a day or two. I suggest you don't breed them right away...quarantee the new female from your collection. If she happens to be carrying a disease and is stressed from shipping/moving, she could have a flareup of coccidia which could be picked up by your other dragons. Also, you want your dragons to be healthy and at their best before breeding them

Brumation isn't necessary to produce eggs, but does increase fertility. If dragons don't go into brumation on their own, adults can be triggered into brumation by reducing daylight lengths (from 12-14 hours daylight down to 8-10 hours daylight) Just reduce daytime length by about half an hour a week till you only have between 8-10 hours daylight. Let nightime temps drop to room temperature (between 65-70F) Daytime ambient temperatures can be lower, around 75-85F but leave the basking temperature the same. Once you are at the minimum day time length and temperature, stop feeding a day or two before they start to spend more time sleeping. If either continue to remain active, feed as normal but the environment cues should trigger brumation.
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PHLdyPayne