Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well I'm kind of a new Dragon owner. I aquired two dragons a year and a half ago. One died from suffocation. It dug under a rock and got stuck over night. Anyways, the other one was fine. But for some reason I could not make out the gender. From what I saw it was a female. 3 months pass and I buy a male that's smaller than the other lizard. Time goes by and he surpasses my older lizard in size. So I'm thinking definately a female. Well year goes by, these two fight every now and then, but they also sleep on top of each other once in a while. Well today I purchased a female. Almost a foot long. I put her in the tank with the two. Of course all along I'm thinking two females and one male. Well both the older lizards start going bezerk. Bobbing, Black beards, both snapping at each other while the female is waving at them. I got curious and finally had to determine WTH was going on. I pulled up a sexing comparison picture off the net. And after staring at it's butt for 10min I finally figure that ya the female is really male. Just want to get that off my chest cuz I feel stupid. I probably should get rid of one of the males. So things don't get real dis oriented.

Um, you shouln't have been housing them together anyway because the male would be trying to breed the female 24/7 and that would cause stress then she'd stop eating an ddie and a small beardie like tha t shouldn't be housed with the bigger ones. How big is your cage?
Matt

Well the two males have been housed together for over a year now. Then I added the female today. She's a pretty good size. All 3 of them are in a 75 gallon tank. Should I remove one of the males??

Unfortunately, housing multiple beardies is always risky business. Two males will fight, sometimes to the death. A male and female will constantly try to breed, stressing the female and sometimes causing her to stop eating. Even if she isn't overstressed by mating, are you really prepared to deal with all the eggs and hatchlings? Two females can occasionally get along fine, but sometimes they will fight too and have to be seperated.

When it comes to my pets, better safe than sorry. Maybe you will luck out and get a pair that does ok, but even then they will undoubtedly still be better off by themselves.
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1.0.1 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

Well, the two males get along just fine. They've been together a little over a year. Now that there's a female in there. What do I need to do? It sounds like the female shouldn't be in there at all. Do I let her breed once and then seperate her from the males? I pretty new to this.

If you want my personal opinion, it would be best to seperate all three of them. The males may seem to get along ok, but you said yourself they have fought a few times, and all it takes is one good bite to cause a life threatening injury. Even if they got along ok before, they consider each other competitors now that they've been exposed to a female. I think the overall well-being of all three will be better if they all have their own enclosures. This is the conclusion I've come to after reading the opinions and experiences of the members of this forum for quite a few years.

Also, I wouldn't recommend breeding the female to one of them until you do all your research long and hard. If you are new to this like you say (and if you didn't know about quarantining your lizards then I believe you are), then you aren't really prepared for the enormous challenge of successfully breeding, incubating, and raising hatchling beardies. I've been keeping them for 2.5 years and even I won't jump into that yet.

I do wish you and your lizards the best of luck no matter what you decide to do about this.
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1.0.1 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

I appreciate your opinion kephy. Maybe I did jump into the breeding deal too quick. I really want to have 2-3 of them in the same tank. But after the female exposure the males will probably be out for blood like you said. I'll keep a close eye on them. And I'll be preparing another tank for seperation. Again, thanks for the honest response.

I think most experienced dragon owners will tell you that the best chances of housing 2-3 together happily is if all of them are females. Even then there will always be a chance of dominance issues.

Good luck to you, keep us posted how they are coming along.
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1.0.1 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.0 ferret (Playstation)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I feel bad for neglecting them by having lack of knowledge. I did pick up a book the other day. Hopefully that'll give more than the feeding and watering knowledge of them. I need to find out where a vet is around here too. Never thought of having to do stool check even though they're running around happily. I'm going to watch them with the female tomorrow and see what happens. I'll be in the room most the day. So I'll be prepared to pull them apart if things are gonna work out. Thanks again guys!! I'll keep yall posted on my progress. =)

First and foremost you should have quarantined the new dragon. Not only have you figured out the sex but you may have just subjected your two current dragons to any disease the new one may have.

What you really should do is read up on the care of these animals. You say you feel stupid? There's a good way to make sure you don't feel that way again and at the same time not screw with your dragons wellbeing. Remember they don't have a choice but to live in the home you provide for them. They should not be considered only there for your entertainment as they are living, breathing animals just like yourself.

Ok, sorry, I just had to get that out and I hope some of it sunk in. Anyway, you can still get things straightened out if you haven't just infected your beardies with the new one, just do some reading. Here is a good place to start as well as care sheets such as this one.

Caresheet

Good luck and I wish your dragons the best!!!
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Rob Talkington

number one:
as wideglide said, you didn't quanantine, not once, but 2 times you've risked your other dragons health by introducing new animals without quarantining

number two:
when you bought the second dragon(after the one died), you bought one smaller, you need to cage similar sized dragons together, though most do better as singles

number three:
you put a 12 inche female, who at that size could be no where near ready to breed unless she's missing her tail or something, you don't know if she's healthy enough to carry eggs yet and you put her in with 2 bigger dragons

number four:
75 gallon tank, is marinally big enough for two dragons...certainly not enough space for 3

you'd think in a year and a half of ownership, especially if you were planning to breed you'd do a little more research and find out the facts before jumping further in......first clue you didn't have a male and female was that she hasn't laid eggs yet....

In short, buy 2 more tanks and seperate each one of them....get fecals done on all 3 of your animals....3 times, at least 2 weeks apart, you need to make sure they are healthy and free of parasites before breeding them for sure and it should be done anyway, if you bought them all from the same petstore, they may be related as often pet stores buy from the same breeder over and over which means you shouldn't breed them anyway, if you decide to breed, make sure the female is old enough and large enough.......we all make mistakes, but now that you know, you can do the right things and not risk your dragons health
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Tracey
Tracey's Beardies
www.beardiecrazy.com

Well after the first one died, the newer one I bought wasn't that much smaller than the other guy. They get along just fine.

Quarantine? For how long? I've been reading off an on about these lizards and I haven't seen anything about quarantining newly acquired lizards. Nor have I seen that you can't have your female with the male constantly. I figured they would mate, he would leave her alone to lay eggs, etc. I'm just new to this, and I really enjoy these guys. I hope I can get things straigtened out. I may just take the female out and put her in a 20 I have. And let the guys stay in the 75 since they get along like brothers. They eat out of the dish together, they sleep together. I personally don't think that's an issue. However, I do feel a since of urgence in neutralizing the female in the tank situation.

I don't know what you have been reading, but it does not sound like it is from very reliable sources. I highly rec. this caresheet. I t is divided into different topics. Breeding and raising young beardies it not something that you just leave them alone and you end up with healthy baby dragon to sell. There is a lot of work and money involved. I have been a exotics vet tech for 12 years and I am not willingto undertake breeding dragons. It is not something to be entered into lightly.
Reptile Rooms Care Sheet

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Stacey

Quarantine should be done for 2-3 months with at least 3 clean fecals done at least 2 weeks apart.....besides parasites, there are some deadly viruses out there that will kill your dragons. Any new reptile or any kind should always be quarantined from existing reptiles......you can get one that looks healthy but is not and then you have 2 or more sick animals instead of just one.

Yes, they will mate and he will want to mate again and again, I have only ever had one male that I could leave with females full time and I have many. It stresses the females and is not good for them in general.

Your males may not get along now either....once exposed to a female, their breeding behavior should continue and therefore they will need to be seperated on one could be injured.

Again, if your female is only 12 inches, she is also now where near breeding age or size anyway.....

I'll repeat again, you need 3 tanks....if the female is only 12 inches....she'll be fine in a 20l for a week or two while you aquire her an appropriate sized tank......

Seperate them all, get fecals done, make sure they are all healthy.....parasites don't often cause them to show symptoms for awhile so they may appear healthy and may not be. Make sure of your females age and don't attempt to breed her until she's much larger.
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Tracey
Tracey's Beardies
www.beardiecrazy.com

As Tracey said. The female sounds too small. Females should be about 18 months old and a good weight, 300-350 grams minimum, IMO.
The female dragon is probably not even a year old.
Many, many people have said not to keep male/female together. They don't just breed once and move on. That is why they are housed seperately. The male can stress the female buy breeding and breeding. Egg production robs them of calcium. It's especially bad for a young female, because they need the calcium to grow their own bones.
Another thing, one encounter can produce 2-3 clutches of eggs.
that can mean 50-80 hatchlings for you to care for.
Most people only put m/f together to breed and then they go back to their own tanks.
About your males..There will probably be a day when they really tear eachother up. And they can do some damage!!
Quarantining: Always, always quarantine. If your new dragon has parasites, which is very common, you've exposed them all.
P.S. I'm just trying to inform you, not get on you. It does sound that you need to do more research. And yes, you are right in thinking that you need to get that little girl out of there. Can you imagine? She's in a strange place and thrown in with two strange males!!!!!
She should have been in her own tank and allowed to settle in for a few months.
A large Rubbermaid will do..please get her out of there.
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www.classylizard.com