Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About a year ago (after a year of begging and reading up on them), we bought my son (10 years old) a bearded dragon. I should say that my wife had worked at a zoo and spent much time working with and studying herps... My son took excellent care of it, with my wife's constant supervision. Unfortunately we fell into a problem we were not expecting - despite what our wonderful vet told us, he did not know much about herps. Spike died… as my son was holding him trying to care for him about 8 months after we got him - from a Repository Infection two days after are second visit to the vet. (that’s an image that I’ll never forget). It has taken us until a month ago to get any other herps. NOW we have a vet that DOES know herps and a ball python that is doing great. My son has been campaigning for another beardie and he wants to work into breeding them when he (and we) are ready.

My question is- since at some point we want to look into breeding and we are more comfortable with herps, then we were before (and know to not always trust a well meaning vet), should we go ahead and look into morphs? Is there a different in lifespan or anything else pro or con with them? Other than expense and coloring.
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

Breeding BDs is no simple task and should not be taken lightly. They can have complications from breeding that may be fatal or at least expensive (like egg binding, prolapse...) and with up to 60+ babies being born in one season, a lot of hungry mouths to feed 3 times a day and clean the cages 5 times a day. If your son is in school, who will do that? there will be no summer vacation or travels as someone will need to be there every day...

As to your question, color morphs are just BDs with different colors, that's it.
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Bennett

beardiedragon.com
Home of the Florida Orange

Once it gets to the point where we would breed them we would make sure we were prepared for the commitment to make sure that they were properly cared for. With breeding, it would be on a very small scale. We are very commited to make sure that all our animals are taken care of... though even with all the preporation with the beardie, we did what we thought was right believing our vet.
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

I think German Giants are great for adding to the gene pool. The offspring almays seem to be more disease resistant, Larger, and a little more aggressive. Just my .02 cents.
Wayne.

not sure about the more aggressive part but the rest sounds good! Thanks!
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

The quality and health of any dragon depends on the breeder. If you select dragons from the top breeders and make sure you get an unrelated pair you should have good results. The gene pool in this country is small since Australia no longer allows exports, so a lot of less then reputable breeders sell siblings as breeding pairs, which leads to deformed and weak offspring.

Morphs are just normal dragons bred for high color. Which you want to buy is really a personal preference.
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A mans got to do what a mans got to do. A woman has to do what he can't.

Mom to:

1 little boy born 7/19/04
2 male RES, born 1999
1 ribbon snake, age unknown
3 FBT, ages unknown
1 female bearded dragon, born 5/2002
1 male lab mix, born 5/24/03
1 female calico cat, born 6/7/04

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sig file edited 1/29/05 [phw]