Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any one have any tips on beardy breeding...
*sighs*

sorry for the sarcasm on the board, its a common question that comes around, and its always beardy breading
breeding beardies is far more involved then just throwing a male and female together and voilla.. you have eggs. its takes a lot of time, effort and love to raise baby dragons. im sure some breeders here will be able to expand and give you their personal experiences as far as breeding goes

i do know it takes a lot of money and a lot of time, and more then likely you will loose money your first year before you make any gain at all, the market is really over saturated with this phase, that phase and the other, you really have to have something special , there are so many hobby breeders out there, be ready for a whole lot of competition. anyhow, hopefully some others will be able to help ya out, good luck!

-----
reiko
photos

Rieko is right. I thought I'd jump into breeding and make some big bucks, but I didn't realize how much money and time and care it takes to do this. Granted it is rewarding to watch them hatch and raise them up to sell but it is very involved and costly.
I just spent 80 bucks at the vet yesterday on a sick hatchling. I've also already spent well over 100 bucks on crickets alone and i only have 14 hatchlings that are only 5 weeks old! I didn't really have any other expense this time because I had already spent the 200 bucks on incubators from my breeding last year and the lighting I had that cost me 60 bucks was left over and the cages 50 bucks and so on and so on...
Just something to think about if you really want to do this.
Robert Wood

Didn't mean to be nasty. I was just in that kind of a mood(which I assure you I am over now). I can't really help you. I know how to bread, I don't know how to breed.

What the other state is soooooo right. You need to walk before you crawl, start with reading online care infomation from breeders.

Right now you have one female, I assume she is in peak health and has traits that you think should be passed to another generation. That you have the income (approximately $700 and time Average 4 hours a day that clutches of babies will take to see them to saleable age and that you have a place for 20-100 babies to go once you have them to that age.

Now, once you are sure you have the above, along with a good Vet should you have bites or damage from the male and female together or to care for any problem hatchling you have, now you need to find a quality male or rasie one that you are absolutely sure has no close genetics to your female (you don't want a clutch or several for genetically damaged babies).

As for the male.... you can buy one already mature, but then you need to quaratine him for minimum 90 days to make sure he has nothing he is passing to your female. Some people will dump beardies that are ill or they know are exposed to a problem. Once the 90 days are past and you have a Vet clean bill of health, you can put them together if he also has traits that you think should be passed to another generations (he will need separate housing for the quaratine and AFTER, as it is not wise to leave them together ongoing.

Have an incubator on hand already approx $50, and don't forget at least 3 other full set ups for the babies when they hatch (we use at least 5... with lights, tank, fixtures thats another $300 minimum, but more like $500.

So you will have 2 for the adults and a minimum of 3 for the babies....... you've gone from 1 for your female to at least 5 full set ups

Now, providing you have not incurred Vet expenses and everything has gone perfect, once the eggs hatch you are ready to order about 10,000 crickets for them over the next several weeks til they are saleable plus the greens and pellets if you feed them. So that will add about another $400 if you have a good source and can get them cheaply.

There, that should get you started OH... and the people you thought would buy those beardies... about 1/2 will back out AFTER the beardies are here, so have a back up plan and more crickets on hand.

So that will be about $1000 minimun, plus the cost of a quality male to get one clutch out the door if there are NO problems or Vet bills