Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was recently looking at a bearded dragon site and saw German Giants for sale. I have never heard of that before. If anyone knows more info on them or has one i would very much like to see pics and hear more about them.

hey,

i'm no expert but i've heard of them before....there supposidly a variation of the standard bearded dragon developed in germany....the supposidly bigger than the normal ones....other than that i dunno much....hope that helps

carbonatom13

I believe that they tend to be bigger in size, but not necessarily longer. They also generally have larger clutch sizes and can be a lil more fiesty. With that said, they don't generally get larger quicker, but they grow more slowly.

p. vitticeps also called Inland bearded dragons because they come from the interior of Australia are found in the Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory Areas of that country. The ones from the further west area of the Northern Territory are longer, larger overall and heavier bodied that those found in the others with the ones in north-western Queensland being the smallest.

The majority of bearded dragons in other counties had come from the Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia areas through Tasmania.

A large group of the bigger boned p. vitticeps was brought to Papua, New Guinea from the north west area of the Northern Territory (Papua New Guinea is Northeast of Australia and closest to this area). From there they made their way to Indonesia, the Netherlands and finally ended up in Germany.

The Germans at that time were one of the leading areas of the world in herpetology outside of Australia. Recognizing they had a unique line of bearded dragons, but still vitticeps, they selectively bred those larger dragons to keep that size and heartiness in them.

They are called German Giants, but the Germans did not make them, they occurred in nature. But we do have the Germans to thank for preserving that line and their careful breeding of them. They take very seriously inbreeding and avoid it in their reptiles, preferring more to seek out health and vitality than colors... they had an advantage also in that there was a good size gene pool to work with from these.

I have talked to one of the people that received several of these large boned dragons and one of the females he got, a large dull brown female, never laid eggs under the count of in the 40's and had clutches in the 50-60's.

Kevin Dunne, of Dragons Den, a few years ago had a large female that laid eggs in the 60's also, I think it was 68. I suspect (do not know) that female probably came from this line also

Below is a German Giant adult female with a 1/2 GGxpastel adult and a regular adult vitticeps, you can see the bone structure and growth difference. The smaller one is around 400 grams.

-----
www.reptilerooms.com

HI
THANKS FOR THE INFO. WOW THAT GERMAN GIANT IS BIG!! I WAS WONDERING DO U KNOW OF A GOOD WEBSITE THAT SELLS GERMAN GIANTS? I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO CHECK THAT OUT AND MAYBE BUY ONE. THANKS FOR THAT INFO AGAIN.

Hi
so it could be a dragon i buy here could a giant german type?
r must i go to germany??

byeeeeeeee

No, You may be able to get them in the Netherlands. Just do the best you can to make sure the bloodline is true and has not been crossed with anything else.
-----
TheClassyLizard

but none of that group stayed there, they went onto Germany, But since, I am sure some of the line has ended up all over the world.

Just make sure when someone advertizes or wants to sell and they state GG, that it is one, ask to see the parents. They are very distinct in their appearance if they are pure GG, they look like monsters dragons compared to a regular and their heads are MUCH larger, their bodies are thicker and stocky, even for the length of them.

Some of the crosses are nice size too and healthy. Many breeders are adding GG line into their established lines to improve the health and size of the dragons, and they classify them as ggXcross. I agree with this as we need to do something to bring back the strength and heartiness of the species here.

Those breeders I know that are crossing them into their lines, are getting some fine babies.
-----
www.reptilerooms.com

Whaaaa, I want a GG so bad, but am leary of buying online. Anyone can say it's a GG..
-----
TheClassyLizard

And I will make sure you get a GG offspring, the girl in that picture and the irridescent male we have, we plan on breeding this season. She is 2 1/2 now, we waited as she was still growing herself. She is zonked out right now sleeping her brumation
-----
www.reptilerooms.com