Reptile & Amphibian Forums

is it okay to have a older female breed with a younger male and can they stay in the same tank?

depends on how old the older female is...she should be ideally 14-18 months old. Not sure when breeders here retire their females from breeding altogether, but I suspect it wouldn't be older than 3-4 years of age.

Any male dragon 6-8 months old should be capable of breeding but his size could make a difference. If he is substantially smaller than the female, he may become lunch instead of boyfriend. I would keep him within 6 inches of her length and 100g of her weight to be on the safe side.

One last point, other than for the mating part, male and female dragons shouldn't be kept together. The male's constant attempts to mate the female could stress her out severely. Also, if he happens to dominate her (either due to being bigger, more aggressive, or just more intimidating) he would be eating all the choice foods, depriving your female with much needed nutrician, especially if she is gravid. So, after housing for short periods of time to allow mating (if you really are serious about breeding and understand the cost and work needed to incubate, hatch, raise and find homes for 100 babies) over a period of several days to ensure fertilization. Once mating is done, separate the male and female and house both in appropirate sized tanks. The female won't need to be mated again that season as bearded dragons retain sperm for the entire breeding season and should lay anywhere between 1-6 clutches of eggs.