Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Why does my female, which is quite smaller than the male, always like to cling onto the male either for basking or for sleeping. She always likes to be next to the male, but I never seen any mating behavior. She always lets the male eat first and everytime I go near her she always tries to protect herself next to the male.

I raised both from baby age to now, which is about a year old and probably came from the same clutch. Does my female frillie see the male as a big brother??

That is very typical behavior for frillies and nothing to worry about.
I do have to say though, if you have siblings, you may want to separate them so they do not inbreed.
Dana

Is inbreeding a bad thing? I was actually hoping to breed them when they get a older.

Inbreeding is bad because it focuses both good and bad traits in the genes. So lets say that there is a genetic defect in one of the parents but it does not show. When you breed your two togather half the babies my end up with out legs! That is just an example, more than likly it would not result in damage to the animal, just to frilled dragons in general. Think about bearded dragons. Years ago when people frist started to breed them babies hatched out about 5 times larger than they do now. This smaller size is caused by inbreeding. Any way, you might want to seperate them any way, because she is two young to breed and may get egg bound if they do breed.

Yes, and sibling inbreeding is the worst kind. You are likely to have weaker babies that are really not good to put out on the market. The genetic wall in reptiles is a lot closer than mammals.
Dana

Most "CB" reptiles you see for sale are inbred. There isnt much research out there that actually proves inbreeding is bad for reptiles. I don't support it, however if you have a pair, I wouldn't worry to much. Just make sure both are physically healthy and ready to breed.

I'm going to disagree. I think that what has happened with the Bearded dragon market is proof enough that inbreeding has serious effects. Veileds too. Inbreeding NG frilleds (and many other species) can be 100% avoided since there are so many imports, so it is not true by any measure that "all cb animals are inbred". It is my opinion that we should try to avoid it at all costs.
Dana

sorry, you said "most" not "all". I sure hope that is not true.

Think about it though, with all of the beardies, and veilleds floating around, you would need to recieve one or the other from a different part of the country just to be semi sure the bloodlines arent close. I Guarentee most of them are.. Unfortunatly I can see the same thing happening with frills. It's a sad reality..

Are you breeding frills?

Yes, I think it would be a shame for frillies to go that way.

Yup, I have been working with and breeding frilleds.

dana

I do agree with what you're saying... Alot of the time it's hard to distinguish wether or not you DO have clutchmates. I feel that is the biggest problem when choosing wether or not to breed your animals. Many people will go ahead and inbreed anyways, this is why I offer the advice of making sure the animals are in top notch health before even attempting to breed.

And what I mean about not knowing if you have clutchmates is when buying from a store, or an importer you just never know 100%. So i'll also recommend purchasing your frills from a known breeder. Good luck.

male eating first is just dominance, hes in charge. They have their own pecking orders. Are you 100% sure you don't have two females? males are usually quite solitary, sitting higher up away from the females until season.