Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got ten three-month old bearded dragons one came in missing a foot, but it was long healed over. I gave two to a friend and now have eight, two per cage. I have them, a pair per cage, in ten gallon tanks with paper towl substrate and heat lamps and a repti-sun 5.0 bulb. I feed them three times a day. Greens an hour after the lights come on, crixs in the middle of "their day" and greens again at night.

Any way, I came home from school just now and one of them had both of his arms bleeding and one is broken, obviously violence from the other one. I moved the hurt one in with Stubie, the one that is missing a hand. Do bearded dragons do this a lot? Do I need to put each dragon in it's own cage (I would like to keep them togather if you guys think that I won't have any more problems)? I am going to keep the one that I know did it by himself. Why do they do this, they get plenty of food and are really well taken care of. Thanks for any help I can get.

Also, is there any thing special I should do for the hurt dragon?

You probably had two males together?..and you can't.
You said pairs, but are the sexed?
the one with the broken arm has to see a vet, you can't just let it stay that way in pain.
They all should really have their own tanks.
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TheClassyLizard

The older the dragon the more aggressive they may become towards each other... this can and will happen with any bearded dragons that are put together. Your biggest problems are:

10 gallon tanks are way too small for one single 3 month old dragon. Putting two in a 10 gallon is just ridiculous at that age. (that's not a shot against you just a fact for future readers - you didn't know) You need to upgrade your tank size. Bearded dragons are territorial at times and putting two dragons that age in a small tank with no room to get away with each other is just a recipe for disaster.

No heat gradient. Be extremely careful you have the proper heat gradient. if you have a high end heat bulb on the one side chances are the other side is not getting cool enough for them to properly regulate themselves. High temps can cause your reptiles to be extremely high strung due to overheating and pain and will cause them to flip out with each other. Prolonged exposure to too high temps will slowly cool them.

You absolutlely have to get that dragon with a broken arm to a vet immediately. You can't let it sit there and suffer like ChristyJ said. Please get it help right away.

You should separte each dragon immediately and upgrade their tanks as soon as possible. I don't know how long or big your dragons are at 3 months, but if they are even remotely at the proper size they need to be in something much longer.. if nothing else for the proper heat gradient.

And to answer your other question, it is still possible even with the proper light, space, heat, food, and everything else that a dragon will fight with other dragons. it happens. there is no way to stop it if it's going to happen unless you keep each dragon separate.

We had a pair grow up together, no problems ever as hatchlings. At about 2 months of age (these were two females) i happened to look in their cage one day and they were scrapping like two boxers.. each up on their hind legs going at it with each other.. i was shocked. swiped one out before any damage occured but if i wasn't there we could have had a serious problem.

brandon
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Dragons by Nature

What size tank should they be in? A 10gal seems like plenty of room. The basking spots run about 95 and the other side of the tank is about 80. What should the temps be running?

That's good if the cool side is 80.. that's just about perfect. Make sure you get a basking spot of around 105 or so I think would be good at that age, with a warm end in the high 90's.. but that sounds pretty good as far as temps.

Cage size really depends on how large they are. Do you know how long they are? Most people recommend a 20long or so for hatchlings. We keep out juvies in custom made rack system that measure 24" long by 15" wide by 12" high. It works real well for us for dragons under 12" or so. After that it's best to upgrade to appropriate size cages.

Sorry to hear about the attack, forgot to mention that in the last post. We had a biter go through and nip a bunch of dragons and bite two toes off of two dragons and it was SO frustrating. We did everything right, and it still happened. There were only 5 or 6 dragons in a cage 30" long by 17" wide and the dragons were less then 5". For whatever reason, the one dragon went renegade and did all that damage in a matter of less then a 2 hour window. It's incredibly frustrating.

brandon
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Dragons by Nature

10 Gal tanks are small for two dragons, much less just one 3 month old dragon. When I bought my dragon she was about 3 months old and 8 inches long. I kept her in a 35 gal tank. I would upgrade to at least that size if you plan to keep two per tank. Or, for cost cutting, the large rubbermaid containers (112L)would do till you build/buy adult enclosures (55 gal minimun for single adult dragon, bigger for two).

Another thing I want to mention, is your feeding schedule. Greens are great, but you need to feed more crickets (or other insect food) at this young age. They need the protein more than the greens. You should feed them crickets twice a day with greens twice a day, at least. Dust crickets with suppliments (multi vitamine and Calcium) at least one feeding every other day. That could be one reason why these dragons attack eachother, they may feel they are lacking in sufficient protein, though in this case I feel it 's more crowded conditions causing the problem.