Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have a 1 yr. old large coral male bearded dragon and a 6 month old male. The other day they were both on the carpet and the bigger one started to nod his head and then got on the smaller ones back and bit him. TODAY the big one was out running around and looked up at the little one. He nodded his head and the little one started to... wave his arms at the big one. Can anyone tell me what is going on?

I think it's something like this:
Nodding their head is saying: "I'm bigger and badder than you are."
Waving their arm is a sign of subordinance, so basically he's saying, "Yes, you are, please don't bite me!"
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~Melissa
1.0 Ambanja Panther (Diesel)
0.1 African Hegdehog (Kaimah)

Yes, that's breeding behavior, your bigger bit on the neck.. normal.
The head bobbing shows their interest, the waving really isn't a social response, more over it waves off aggression from the males,
You might notice if the smaller one doesn't want to be breed quite yet, it'll wave rather quickly rather than the normal slow steady motions.

What concerns me, is that you said the smaller bearded is a male.. sure it's not a female?

I know larger males will head bob to smaller males trying to show off during breeding season (Figured it out this weekend),
possibly in confusion and in the high "arousal" of the season... but to take it further biting the neck.. and the smaller male waving his arms, that's not something I've seen before, I didn't even know males knew to do that motion. thought it was a female thing.

Get it confirmed about the smaller's sex, I understand males will set up dominance, but that sounds like breeding behavior.
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2.4.1 Leos
1.1.13(eggs) Beardie
2.0 Burm
0.1 Common Boa
0.0.1 Sand Fish
0.2 Desert Tortoise hatchlings
Wish for: Candoia Sp, Frilled D, BTS

We had a 1 yr. old male w/ some kind of bone disease that we put to sleep this weekend but he did the same thing to the 6 month old "male". I was thinking maybe it IS a female and was sold to us as a male but was wondering if this is breeding behavior. If so, the male is VERY interested but our other "male" is too small to have babies. We will go have it sexed - I was unsure of the arm thing. It's VERY slow and he/she alternates arms each time. Maybe our coral will make beautiful babies someday!

Slow is normal behavior.. apparently the smaller one isn't putting up a lot of a fight for it, and may even accept the larger male later on.. Good to have them sexed.. I understand it's difficult to decide the sex at birth, or for some months since they're not temp sexed like some species.

Heh... that makes me curious, anyone know when you can sex them? I've got hatchlings coming up soon.. of course I'll keep them for the first 6 weeks to establish them but after that I wonder when I can sex them.
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2.4.1 Leos
1.1.13(eggs) Beardie
2.0 Burm
0.1 Common Boa
0.0.1 Sand Fish
0.2 Desert Tortoise hatchlings
Wish for: Candoia Sp, Frilled D, BTS

Do you know of any web sites w/ information about breeding them?

Google Bearded Dragon Breeding

The only stage you need to really prep for is the egg laying..
And that won't be for a while
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2.4.1 Leos
1.1.13(eggs) Beardie
2.0 Burm
0.1 Common Boa
0.0.1 Sand Fish
0.2 Desert Tortoise hatchlings
Wish for: Candoia Sp, Frilled D, BTS

Keep the dragons separated for at least another year. If the younger dragon is female, 6 months is deffinitely too young to breed her. Mounting can also be a form of dominance behaviour between males, I know it is for many other animals, just not 100% sure it is with bearded dragons.

You can sex a dragon at 6 months and be almost sure what the sex will be. One way to do it is to place the dragon on the flat of your palm or a table, left it's tail up at nearly 90 decree angle, and rotate the tail slightly to one side and the other, while looking at the base of the tail before the vent. (tail side of vent, not leg side). If it's a male, you should see two bulges, if female there will be one central bulge.

If you have 2 males in cage at that age I would imangine the bigger one would really be trying to hurt the smaller one. Which makes me think the smaller one is a female. As longas the bigger one is only biting aorund the side of the face they should be o.k. With bigger beardies I have found that males have dots on their 2 back legs and females don't.

I'll disagree with your comment on the dots.
The enlarged pores you're seeing can also be seen in females.
Also a note on Hemipenal bulges, curious enough my female seemed to have them.. I was at one time unsure of her sex.

The only true method of sexing would be to pop the Hemipenes.. I'm not sure how well Probing would work on Lizards (Don't know if it works at all)
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2.4.1 Leos
1.1.13(eggs) Beardie
2.0 Burm
0.1 Common Boa
0.0.1 Sand Fish
0.2 Desert Tortoise hatchlings
Wish for: Candoia Sp, Frilled D, BTS