Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i just got a new male beardie and i put him in the tank with my female and he just ran over and pinned her down byh the back of the neck does that hurt or can injure her?

He is trying to breed with her...is that what you were hoping? As far as hurting,it probably does a little in normal mating,but some males can injure a female badly by dragging them around and shaking violently,sometimes knocking them against rocks and logs or the side of the tank. You should not keep them together...the females quality of life may be reduced drastically.Black beards are a sign of a male wanting to breed...in some instances a very stressed male or female[ or very ill] will display a black beard...but the males is much blacker,many times even extending to the upper chest and front legs.

Bearded dragons are rather rough when mating and at times injuries to the heck of the female can occur but for the most part injuries are uncommon.

It also wasn't a good idea to toss in a new animal just purchased in with an established animal, whether you were just intending to mate her or house them together (which isn't a good idea for many reasons) as any disease or parasite the newly introduced animal can infect your current animal. It is always best to quarantine any new animal for at least a month, with three months being better to ensure it is healthy and free of any diseases or parasites that could harm your other animals.
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PHLdyPayne

you dont usually know much about the care of the reptiles you get but i take care of these animals before i buy them cause they are in the pet shop i work at so i know if they're fine and what not.

Actually I knew alot about the care of the reptiles I get as I often spend months researching and reading forums like this one before even buying. My first reptile was a bearded dragon and I researched them for about six or more months, reading various websites, asking questions in this forum and a couple others. Reading other people's questions and the answers they received. In fact the very first time I came to kingsnake.com I read about two or three pages worth of back posts to see what was posted before.

I also bought several books on bearded dragons and read them, noted differences and asked questions on the forums... I also learned very quickly that pet stores are often the worse place to get a pet reptile from. Though there are some really good pet stores that have very knowledgeable staff who take proper care of their reptiles, many chain pet stores have out dated and completely wrong information on reptile care...tying the hands of staff who know the practices are incorrect. Unfortunately there were no good petstores around with knowledgeable staff to help ensure the health of the reptiles sold so I traveled the four hour drive to a reptile breeder to buy my first dragon. Well worth the extra cost and a day of travel, and she was still cheaper than it would have been to buy her at the local pet store, even if I included the price of buying my friend lunch for keeping me company on the drive.
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PHLdyPayne

Absolute bare minimum for quarantine in my house is 45 days. Three months is more like it. I hear "I just got my dragon and put it in with the ones I already had" all the time. Not sure what people are thinking. Proper husbandry seems to be becoming a thing of the past.

I would not use any dragon I have not had for at least 6 mos for breeding anyway. I want to see it and be sure it is what I want to add to my bloodlines.
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www.moonstonedragons.com

Quarentine also means that the dragon is in a totally seperate part of the house and is taken care of last after all my other dragons are finished.
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www.moonstonedragons.com

Separate side of the house...

because you have "free range" dragons lol.

Jeff
California Citrus Dragons

Yes, the best quarantine time is three months or more, with a couple clean fecals and a full vet examination. A separate room is necessary as well and as moonstone indicates, feeding/cleaning the new dragon last, even cleaning feeding bowls etc in a separate sink to prevent spread of disease.

It may seem alot of extra work and maybe 90% of the time completely unnecessary but dragons and most animals, by instinct, hide their illnesses as well as they can for in the wild, a sick or weak animal because the first target a predator will go for. Then there are some diseases that don't manifest any symptoms till its so far progressed the dragon gets sick and dies quite quickly, so even if the animal shows absolutely no sign of being sick, it can still be sick.

Also, a perfectly healthy dragon can become sick simply from the stress of being moved from the breeder/seller to the buyer's home. Stress can weaken the dragon's own natural resistance to internal parasites which can flare up. Often they don't need treatment, just quiet time in their new home to adjust and their body will slowly reduce the parasite load back to normal. Not always the case but it will depend on how long the dragon is stressed. Putting the dragon right in with another adds a new level of stress...even if the dragon behaves normally. It also exposes the established dragon to contact with the parasites of the new dragon (ie if it poops and the established dragon gets in contact with the poop before it can be cleaned up) can suddenly find itself with an influx of internal parasites, also it is stressed as well, with a new comer to its territory. Thus not only does the original dragon experience stress by having a strange dragon dumped into its territory and chasing it around to mate, while in a weakened state it can be exposed to parasites etc, making it more likely to get sick.

If neither dragon isn't in perfect health, the risks are higher. Or if husbandry isn't perfect to begin with complications could arise especially if your female now has been mated and if sexually mature enough to produce eggs, will have the added stress of egg production.

Nothing may happen but there are fatal diseases in bearded dragons, like the adreno-virus which can quickly spread throughout an entire collection from an otherwise healthy looking dragon. There have been people here who lost most if not all their collection to this virus because they introduced a dragon that wasn't quarantined. It wasn't all that long ago I read on the ball python forum, about somebody who bought a couple ball pythons and introduced them directly with him other pythons to breed and ended up losing not only the original animals he ordered, but nearly half of his ball pythons and some of his boas due to a very deadly and non curable disease affecting boids called IBD.
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PHLdyPayne