Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I have two 5 or 6 month old beardies, one male and one female. Right now they are housed together and I would like to keep them that way. I have read that they may breed early if housed together constantly. The female will be a year old in April, so if I stimulate winter from about February to April will they wait until after that period to breed? In other words, will they breed during a winter stimulation if I alter when the season occurs? Secondly, I know to decrease the length of day, but I have read some sources that recommend brumation and some that say it isn't necessary. Does anyone have experience with both and a preference of one over the other? If I stimulate brumation, how cold should the temperature be? Thanks in advance,
Robin

Since you know they may breed too early if you keep them together, and want to continue to do so, let me explain.

You won't have any control at all over when they breed, no matter what you do with the temps.
The reason a female needs to be at least 18 mo. old is so she can fully grow in to adulthood before bearing eggs.
It takes a lot out of the female to produce eggs, if she must produce them before she is an adult, it robs calcium that she needs to build her own bones. You end up with a beardie that may never get to the size and health that she was meant to be.

Even as adults, most don't keep male/female together, only to breed and leave, wham, bam, thank you Ma'am.
Males can be very aggressive when they are in breeding mode. The female can get stressed, coccidia levels rise..sick dragon.
The other problem is, since the male can be relentless, you have a female that is producing clutch after clutch, wearing her down.

There are even medical problems in the male copulating too young. It can cause a prolapse, which can be deadly. Neither one are strong enough to mate before their time. It can be done, and has been.

After all my niceness, I have to say, we'd all think you really sucked if you kept them together...lol
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TheClassyLizard

Brumating won't keep them from mating while she is too young and even if you adjust the temperatures and amount of light, they may not brumate anyway. Also, they may not brumate for a full 4 months and even if they did, your female wouldn't be more than 10 months old and that is still way too young to breed her. There are alot of risks involved in breeding your dragons at too young an age. SHe could be highly stressed by the male always trying to breed her, the stress could leave her vulnerable to parasites and coccacia infections, cause her to lose weight etc. THe stress to her body for producing eggs can also run her down and a small dragon could go down hill alot faster than one who is older and with alot of energy reserves.

Most breeders recommend waiting till the female is at least 14 months old, 18 months or more being optimal. If you really care about the health of your female dragons and those of her offspring, separate them both now and wait another full year before breeding her. Also, a 40 gal breeder is rather small for two adult dragons, both should be housed individually in a 55 gal long (4'x2'x2') tank or larger.

Health concerns aside for your female, what about the babies? Are you prepared to incubate 20-30 eggs per clutch and a dragon can have as many as 5 or 6 clutches in one season for a potential of 100 eggs total? INcubation is just the first step in rearing baby dragons to an age where they can be found homes. They will eat thousands of crickets, need their own tanks (with up to 5 per tank to avoid over crowding and nipped toes and tails), vet checks and/or treatments, all the proper lighting for each cage etc? Also, if you don't sell all the babies, will you be willing to provide for these dragons till you do find homes or for the rest of their lives if homes cannot be found for them?

THink it cost nothing to feed these little ravenous babies? Just think this way. Each baby bearded dragon can eat as much as 50 1/4" crickets a day. Multiply that by a clutch of 20 babies and that's 1000 crickets per day. It would cost $15 per day to feed just 20 bearded dragons....and thats just the first clutch, expect 2 or more to hatch before that first batch is a month old. Then you are buying two sizes of crickets and greens or pellets etc. That $15 a day quickly adds up.

And to think, all this can be prevented with the expense of maybe $100 to build/buy a new tank for your female to live in alone.