Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I would like some advice, based on experience, as to whether female beardies would prefer to be housed alone, or with a 'room-mate'. I have read this site for quite some time, and have experience with individual reptiles, but have never had more than one at a time.

If I was to get another suitably sized female, would it enhance Elvis's (named before sexing) life, make it more stressfull, or is it really dependent on the individual animals involved.

Before you ask, setup should be sufficient, 80g tank, 48"x18"x24".

Any anecdotal evidence supporting pros/cons would be much appreciated.

Steve

To add another female would most likely cause stress in bothe animals, espically considering that you already have the one and introducing a new female into her "house" could piss her off and she could become territorial and aggresive towards the new roomie. Not to say you cant house multiples together, I have housed three females together at one time with no problems but the cage has to be big enough and there has to be enough individual basking spots and hiding spots for each.There we will be a pecking order regardless how well they get along and one female will always be more dominant then the other. If you are going to do it an 80 gallon take is very close to being not enough room for them to thrive with the least amount of stress I had a cage that was 6ftx4ftx4ft and sometimes wondered if that was enough for my three. If you decide to do it I would make sure to intoduce them in an open neutral area like your bed or floor on many occasions to get them use to seeing and interacting with one another rather then just putting the new one in the cage with the other one. Also make sure to quarantine the new female for a good 4-6 weeks to make sure she doesnt give any parasites or problems to your existing female. I know this reply kind of sounded dont do it but if you have a big enough cage and introduce them properly you can do it with minimal stress. Hope that helps.

Yes, it is doable, but a lot of people house multiple beardies together just for their own amusement, without thinking too much about the animals. Since you're actually thinking about what's best for your female, I'd say let her live alone. If you give her enough attention, that's all she needs to be happy!

Bearded dragons don't need to be in groups at all and tend to be alone in their own territories in the wild. You can house a couple females together but typically it's best to start keeping them together when fairly young. The advice already given about how to introduce two stranger to each other females is sound. The quarentee period should be longer though, at least 2 months, some recommend as much as 6 months since some diseases etc don't show right away. Deffinitely 3 months is a good balance between the low and high scale, including 3 clean fecals taken about a month apart. There are diseses like adrenovirus that don't necessary show up easily or can even be checked for before the dragon dies of it. I believe there is a test out now to check for this virus, but can't recall the name of the doctor who does it off hand. A search on adrenovirus here should bring up the name.

Also, the dimensions of the cage you have your current female wouldn't be a 80 gal tank. A 55 gal tank is 48"x24"x24" which is larger than the dimensions you gave for an 30 gal. Yours may be closer to a 50 gal. Unless it's not in imperial gallons. I beleive metric gallons are a bit smaller but not quite sure off hand.

ldypayne, thanks for the advice on cohabitation... a little confused on how you figure a 55G tank is 48"x24"x24" - I know depending on which side of the pond you are there is a 20% or so difference in the actual size of a gallon, but evenn then that would make my tank 89G in the US, (external dimensions), and something like 74G in the UK - to my knowledge there is also no such thing as a metric gallon - unless the EU has been busy at work on further changes since I moved to the states.

The following site helps in calculations.

Am I missing something??
Volume Convertor

I think that converter might be off. I put in the dimensions of my tank, which is a 40-breeder, and it says it's a 50 gal.

??
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1.0 Bearded Dragon - Telamon
0.1 House Cat - St. Stephen

1 Saltwater Aquarium
1 Freshwater Aquarium

Are you in Europe or US? 40G in UK is approx equivalent to 50G in US.

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1.0 Bearded Dragon - Telamon
0.1 House Cat - St. Stephen

1 Saltwater Aquarium
1 Freshwater Aquarium