Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering how old do they need to be and what size.My male is 18inches and about 6 or 7 months old.
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Owner of:
0.1 Red Tail Boa,
1.0 Red Tail Boa,
0.1 Reticulated Python,
0.1 Green Burmese Python,
1.0 Bearded Dragon,
0.1 Leopard Gecko

I would personally wait the recommended 16-18 months for males, and definitely 18 for females. This is my opinion now, and the most consistent answer I received from many top notch, successful breeders who would not risk the possible problems involved with breeding to early. After hearing some of the problems that could arise, they were good enough reasons for me to wait the extra time. At 6-7 months your male is a nice size. Way to go!! But this does not mean he doesn't have much more growing, and internal development to go. I had 4 dragons both males & females grow until 14-16 months of age. They where very large young adults at 7-8 months old and continued to grow 4-5 inches more from that time. I heard of males going as young as 9 months with breeder Error, and they very may well be capable of breeding at 7 months, but with much, much greater risks to their health. The two main problems with breeding males to early I received as an answer from breeders, and my vet was the possibility of a hemipene prolapse, and lack of fertility in the younger males. Prolapses have happened with full grown adults, but is much more common amongst younger males that are still developing. A hemipene prolapse is the males sex organ getting stuck out and not being able to retract it. If unnoticed the male will drag it against the substrate and can cause major abrasions, and much pain/swelling. This might happen few and far between, but I would not risk it for any early babies that's for sure. It was enough of a reason for me. The risk of infection with a prolapse is very high, and is far to great to risk at least the male not being able to reproduce any longer, or on the other hand major infection which could spread and may cause death. I would recommend waiting 16-18 months for safety, and greater success.
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Mystical Dragons webshots pictures
Mystical-Dragons Website

n/p
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Owner of:
0.1 Red Tail Boa,
1.0 Red Tail Boa,
0.1 Reticulated Python,
0.1 Green Burmese Python,
1.0 Bearded Dragon,
0.1 Leopard Gecko

I feel through my own experiences( and breeder friends of mine) that deciding when to breed a dragon(or most lizards for that matter) is more a function of size than it is age. If your dragon has a good size and weight, and is in good over all condition, than I don't see why you should not breed him. I don't see how your male would be more prone to some of the problems mentioned than a 16 month old male the same size. I agree that a young small male might be prone to a prolapse if bred to a larger female. In the nine years that I've bred BD's, I have always used size and condition as the determining factors of when to breed my animals. I have never had a male prolapse and my females(usually between 10-12 months when bred) continue to grow bigger and stonger after ther first breeding season. I think when problems do occur it is more a fault of the husbandry practices of the breeder rather than the age the dragon was bred at. This is just my opinion based on my experience.
good luck
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me