Reptile & Amphibian Forums

He everyone. I'm new here and thank you for all of the great info I've read so far. It is a huge help!! I have what I think is a small female beardie and want to add a companion. My concern is if I have two of the opposite sex they may breed. I don't want them to because of space limitations. Is there any way to prevent them from breeding and still house them together?

Thanks!!

Wideglide

Nature will take over and they will breed..
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TheClassyLizard

If they do breed how difficult do you think it may be to give the babies away to a responsible recipient? I'd make sure initially they were in good care as long as possible but would eventually need to give them up when they outgrow a 75 gal.

That's a million dollar question. You really have no way of knowing if they are going to good homes. If you plan to "give" them away, it would be less likely that they would get the care they need.
After feeding hatchlings for 6 weeks and buying all the needed lighting, you'll not want to give them away. You'll want some of that money back. Babies eat ALOT of crickets.
Let's say you have 20 babies. At minimum those babies will eat 20-40 crickets a day. At 40, that's 800 crickets a day and 5,600 a week. It isn't cheap.
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TheClassyLizard

Wow! That's a lot of crickets. I think freezing the eggs would be the best option if it must come to that. That's unless, of course, I end up having more space. But then there's the issue of inbreeding. Hmmm. I'll have to put some thought into this. TX for the info..

The other problems with a female having clutch after clutch is her health. It can shorten her lifespan considerably.
Having a male constantly after her can alos cause stress, which can lead to a rise in Coccidia levels. Then you end up treating a already stressed dragon with meds that are hard on her system.
It's just not a good thing...
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TheClassyLizard

Buy another female.

If I knew for sure both were females I wouldn't be worried. I'm just afraid the sex may be mistaken and I do not want to put animals that have no choice in the matter in a bad situation. That's why I'm inquiring as to the difficulty of giving them away to a responsible recip.

Somewhat off topic, but my seahorses have fry every two weeks and I only raise every other batch. I ship out the fry to other hobbyists who have experience raising them. I'd like to keep them all, but a person only has so much room.

Especially on a forum like this, it shouldn't be hard to find someone to ship them to. I don't know if it's too stressful or not, but right after they hatch, bearded dragons have a yolk that they need to absorb. This might be a good time to ship them out.

Is is good for the yolk to be absorbed but an infant beardie should not be shipped during this period (1-2 days), nor should they be shipped for at least another several weeks.

If you do not want babies you can always freeze the eggs after they are laid.

>>
>>Especially on a forum like this, it shouldn't be hard to find someone to ship them to. I don't know if it's too stressful or not, but right after they hatch, bearded dragons have a yolk that they need to absorb. This might be a good time to ship them out.

Good point, Eva. I just hope it doesn't come to that.

np

That's what I figured. If shipment causes a lot of stress (I'm guessing it does) I'll drive the little beardies somewhere myself if it's not much more than 5-6 hrs. If someone reading this is near Elkhart, IN who may want them it would be comforting to know! Thanks for your replies!

I used to live in Elkhart on C.R. 18
Small world.. Near St. Louis now.
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TheClassyLizard

You DO understand that females can lay 6 clutches of eggs off of one breeding right? They can lay 20 or more eggs each clutch, so you are talking 120 or more babies. She will lay them 2-4 weeks apart. You would need incubators, and your home MUST be kept at an exact temperature so that the incubators do not get to hot. You have to keep your house at 78 or less all of the time. If your house heats just a few degrees for a few hours, and the incubator gets over 90 you have dead babies. And thats assuming that you give the babies away as soon as they hatch. Otherwise if is a full time job, they have to eat 3 times a day, and if you are late on a feeding you risk the babies eating EACHOTHER! This is not something you let casually happen. I spend about 6 hours a day caring for my babies, and I only allow 1 female to breed at a time.

In the long run it will cost you a thousand dollars less to take a dragon to a vet and get it sexed, then to raise all of the babies and find them homes...and I am not saying good homes, because to do that you can make NO profit. You would have to beg responsible people to take them... Unless your dragons happen to be JEWLS of the dragon world!! In that case you would lose several thousand raising 100 babies to 7 weeks old. Shipping alone is 30 dollars per box.
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MY Dragons!!

Definitely small. I live CR 17, just down the street from CR 18.

w
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~David - KDRKreatures
My Main Herps-
1.2 Bearded dragons (Ralph, Artemis, Cheech)
1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Chiquito)
1.0 Black Racer Snake (Chong)
2.2 Eastern Box Turtles (Athena, Mercury, Gizmo, Galapago)
0.0.2 Leopard Geckos (Nee, Unnamed)
1.0 Ball Python (Carson)

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