Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello,
A couple days ago I introduced my female beardie (approx. 1yr old) to a new male beardie (approx. 2 yrs old). the male likes to chase the female around and bite her tail. I noticed a slight cut with some blood on the female's tail. I was wondering if this is normal behavior? Also, I know beardie's tails do not grow back, but will a cut on the tail heal of the tail is still fully attached? Please let me know.

Thanks for the help

Seperate them. Your new male is either trying to breed w/ the female or is being very aggressive and teritorial w/ her. You said your female is about 1 year old, although your female is sexual mature, you shouldnt breed her until she's at least 18 months. Any earlier than that could result in deformed eggs or babies.

If the wound on her tail isnt too severe, she should be fine. apply neosporin to the wound at least once a day to prevent infection.

Keeping the two dragons together will only stress the female, so its in your best interest (as well as hers) to seperate them asap. good luck, and keep us posted.

Breeding too early will more likely result in a very sick or even dead mother. If she is bred too early the stress to her body could cause her severe problems. I could cause her to develop MBD and she is much more likely to have problems with impaction.

Dragons are not social animals. They do not want to live in groups. Please seperate them. Even if you WANT them to breed at some point, they should only be introduced for short periods for mating but housed seperatly. Dragons DO NOT live together in the wild, and a male can and will kill a female that is trapped in a tank with him. In the wild a female will breed and then RUN away. When trapped in a tank there is no where to go. SHe will get harassed until she is stressed out and stops eating. Chances are she will also be gravid, so she will be NOT eating AND producing eggs. This leads to a VERY VERY sick female dragon.
-----
____

Signature file edited; oversized banner removed. Please update/correct. [phw 9/6/04]

Amen!

IMHO to many folks see the displays of a buch of hatchlings or juvi's and think dragons can be in groups like dogs or cats.

and then there are also the photos of a group together and new dragon owners do not understand or know that this is *NOT* how they are kept all the time, that the group was together just for a while and then seperated.

that you can sometimes find 2 or 3 females that will tollarate each other but that is a fluke not the normal setup.

BTW: take a look at large herps like Gators and Crocks...
they will share a sunny place to bask for a while...
but when food is to be had they will fight over it...
and males will fight males for rights to breed the femails in the area.... same rules for our BD's .... they have only come to tolerate us due to our size and that they found we are not a threat to them.
-----
This space reserved for future use...