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I wanted to find out a little bit more on the German Giants. How big do they get vs a regular beardie? I had not really heard anything about them before this forum and can not find much information on them.
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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

Author: CheriS
Date: Fri Nov 28 22:36:13 2003
Subject: Beardie History 101

p. vitticeps also called Inland bearded dragons because they come from the interior of Australia are found in the Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory Areas of that country. The ones from the further west area of the Northern Territory are longer, larger overall and heavier bodied that those found in the others with the ones in north-western Queensland being the smallest.

The majority of bearded dragons in other counties had come from the Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia areas through Tasmania.

A large group of the bigger boned p. vitticeps was brought to Papua, New Guinea from the north west area of the Northern Territory (Papua New Guinea is Northeast of Australia and closest to this area). From there they made their way to Indonesia, the Netherlands and finally ended up in Germany.

The Germans at that time were one of the leading areas of the world in herpetology outside of Australia. Recognizing they had a unique line of bearded dragons, but still vitticeps, they selectively bred those larger dragons to keep that size and heartiness in them.

They are called German Giants, but the Germans did not make them, they occurred in nature. But we do have the Germans to thank for preserving that line and their careful breeding of them. They take very seriously inbreeding and avoid it in their reptiles, preferring more to seek out health and vitality than colors... they had an advantage also in that there was a good size gene pool to work with from these.

I have talked to one of the people that received several of these large boned dragons and one of the females he got, a large dull brown female, never laid eggs under the count of in the 40's and had clutches in the 50-60's.

Kevin Dunne, of Dragons Den, a few years ago had a large female that laid eggs in the 60's also, I think it was 68. I suspect (do not know) that female probably came from this line also

Below is a German Giant adult female with a 1/2 GGxpastel adult and a regular adult vitticeps, you can see the bone structure and growth difference. The smaller one is around 400 grams.

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www.reptilerooms.com

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Message Link: http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=261388,261553
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Bennett

beardiedragon.com
Home of the Florida Orange

Great information! Thanks! It sounds like that would be a good way to go. Now all I have to do is find a good breeder, the one I got my last one from isn't breeding anymore.
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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

This past January I took in a German Giant rescue--she was in bad shape but has made a wonderful recovery! She weighs about 600 grams (still putting weight on) and is just over 22 inches long. She is between 3 and 4 years old.

I also have an 'average' size male (Super Orange). He is around 18 inches long and just over 300 grams. He is 2.5 yrs old. He looks like a juvi compared to her!

Our female is definately a "Giant" compared to our male. I'd like to get side-by-side pictures but our male gets so stressed out when he sees her! We have no intentions of breeding them--so I'll have to figure out another way to make a picture comparison.

I have a German x orange male. I got him from Weis reptiles. He is large and tough. Lots of head bobbing. Zero health problems also. Had him for almost 5 years.
Wayne.

I also have an Orange German Giant/orange flaming tiger. Got him from www.mybeardeddragons.com Hes very healthy, eating all his food and very active.

heres some pics

http://community.webshots.com/album/338066305XwhUvB

np
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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

thanks! =)