Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought my two bearded dragons in August as babies. I have kept them together up till now in a 20 long tank, feeding them properly and havent had any problems until today when for the first time i saw one either attacking the other or looking to mate. Its beard was wide opened and its mouth was semi opened. it was snapping at the other and bobbing its headed so i separated them for a half hour or so. now their fine they are laying together but the one that got attacked looks a little scared its tail was shaking for a little. i cant determine their sex yet but my question is could this be that one is trying to mate or is this something else?

thanks for reading this long post

Females will usually fight to establish dominance.. they could hurt each other even if they're both females. Since you don't know the sexes for sure, you should separate them since a male may be trying to breed the female (and it's too soon) or 2 males could seriously hurt each other. Either way, it would be a good idea to separate them.

Those dragons should be separated now, and you should have a closer look at the wounds. They might get infected and cause a lot of trouble.

NEVER house two beardies together unless they are two females that show no aggresion towards each other. Even then, they might suddenly start to fight. Beardies do best on their own.

Deffinitely separate these two dragons. I am not sure what age they were when you bought them but by now, they are too big for a 20 gal tank. (estimating that they were at least 2 months old and 6" long when you got them. Being November now, that makes them about 5 months old. My dragon was about 14"long by the time she was 5 months old and I moved her from a 35 gal tank to a large 5'x2'x2' cage at 6 months old)

If they are the age I am guessing, males aren't really mature enough to breed so I highly doubt it is mating behavour. It is more like fighting due to space being cramped more than anything else. Separate them into 35Gal tanks each or even bigger, till you can be positive both are female. Then you can reintroduce them into a new adult size cage (I would go about the size of the one i made for my own bearded dragon, it's plenty big for two maybe three females easily).