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Well we were not 100% sure on weither or not my one Beardie was a male or female, but I know its definately a female now (if you catch my drift.. the deed was just done between them.. LOL) I was not really expecting this to happen and I'm not even sure that the female is sexually mature yet. My question is what exactly should I do now? They are housed in ~ 130 gallon tank that as far as I'm concerned is perfectly setup as far as temps and basking spots go, but I'm not sure what to do now as far as getting her to successfully lay eggs and possibly get them to hatch. Can anybody point me in the right direction as far as what I need watch out for or do for them to make this work? I have a lady that runs the local pet store that already said she will incubate the eggs at her shop for me, but I need to know what to do up until that point. Please help me! I'm excited and want to do whats best for my babies!

Okay first off seperate your male and female or at least divide the tank since it sounds like its big enough to put a divider in there because he won't stop at just one mating session and your male will probably end up hurting or killing your female. I know this from experience since my two were supposed to be females. I also know that its not good to breed them if the female isn't about 2 years old because thats a lot of stress on her body to lay eggs but since it already happened like with my pair then just make sure that she has plenty of calcium now before she lays her eggs. My female ate like a little pig up until exactly a week before she laid her eggs then she stopped eating all together until after she laid. Since I never knew when she was going to lay her eggs I had a big mound in her tank where she could dig herself a hole to lay the eggs in if I wasn't around when it was time. My female ended up laying 12 eggs but only 11 of them were good, now I have 10 babies that are eating me out of house and home. After she lays her eggs make sure that you feed her as much as she'll eat since she'll need to build her weight back up before the next clutch also make sure that you dust everything with calcium so that she'll have enough for her bones and for the next clutch as well. Sorry this is so long but thats what happened with my girl and I know that every beardie is different so now its a wait and see game.

Thanks! How hard is it to actually hatch the babies? I mean is it a process just like turning lights on and off after they are setup or what?

How old and big is your female?

If you are concerned she may be too young then you are going to want to be very cautious throughout this whole process. Beardies shouldnt be bred until they are two years of age.

For starters i would seperate the male and the female. For the time being you can just divide the cage but you are going to want to permanantly house them seperately from now on anyways, so start looking for another cage for one of them. Just to clarify, you are going to want to keep them seperate for a few reasons...1. if the female is too young to be bred safetly then you dont want another mishap like this to happen, if you are careful then she should be fine during this one, but repeated breeding for a young female (or any aged female) si very dangerous. 2. Housing one male with one female is never a good idea, the male tends to constantly want to breed and your female will not have enough time between mating to replenish herself and she will eventually become sick.

So anyway, for now you can just stick a divider in there until you have found a new cage for one of them. The Bearded Dragon Manual, by Phillipe De Vosjoli has a good section on beardie breeding. You want to keep your female full of good high calcium food. She is going to need extra calcium to properly make her eggs, and if she is on the young side she is still going to be using it to grow. So tons of calcium rich veggies, heavily supplemented veggies and bugs, and some pinkies and waxworms will be good to keep her weight up. I cant remember off the top of my head how many days it takes them before they lay, but that information is readily availble on just about any beardie website or in any book. You want to provide your female with a nesting box as well. I used a large cat litter pan filled with a mixture of damp play sand and potting soil. There are a variety of different nesting materials you can use. Once your female lays the eggs you want to transfer them carefully, without turning them, into the incubator. The incubation process basically involves steady temperature and humidity levels until the eggs hatch.

Another thing to keep in mind, you want to prepare for the babies ahead of time. Have several cages set up with several basking sites and hiding spots in each one. Its hard saying how many eggs she will lay, and how many of them will be fertile, but you want to be prepared. You will need to seperate the babies into small groups (ideally no more than 3-4 together in a tank the size of a 20gallon long). They will eat like pigs, so you will also want to order pinhead crickets in mass quanitity and set up tanks of those at your house. Feed the babies 3times a day and move them into larger tanks and smaller groups as they get older.

The best thing to do is do as much reading on breeding as possible, get some really good books and look at some websites and read read read read!

The other thing...after your female has the eggs she will need extra fattening and calcium enriched foods still for a little while as she regains her strength.

good luck!
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake
1.1 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Anerythristic Corn
0.0.1 Red Tegu
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

...since it sounds like you've housed these two together since they were young, how sure are you that they aren't related? Did you get them from different breeders and can you trace their parentage back a few generations to be sure? Most bearded dragons in America (assuming that's where you are from) can be traced back to just 3 major breeders about seven years ago. They are all realted to some degree, and there has been very little new bloodlines to work with since australia doesn't allow exporting, and importing new blood is rare.

If you cannot be sure yours aren't closely related, you may want to seriously consider not incubating those eggs.
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Amanda
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
1.0 pictus gecko (Nicodemus)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.1 ferreta (Playstation & Genesis)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

MMMMM, interesting point but if it seems a little far fetched that all bearded dragons in america come from only 3 bloodlines.
If this is the case then inbreeding is unavoidable isnt it?
Its not possible not to have related dragons if what you are saying is true. Im no expert on america because i am from england but it sounds like you need a few more beardies brought over to you, lol.

Not necessarily three bloodlines, three breeders. Each may have had more than one bloodline, but not enough to support the thousands and thousands we have today without a lot of inbreeding. And I know it sounds unbelievable, but I got learned this information from CheriS who I believe is one of the most studied and educated people on bearded dragon care and the genetics we have in the country right now. She has been working with dragons and top breeders for many years, and keeps track of the bloodlines we have, as well as any new imports we get.
If you want to read more on that and read some of her thoughts on the subject, there is a great conversation going on right now at another forum. I will email you the link if you like, just ask.

And you are correct, inbreeding is unavoidable to a certain degree. Like I said most of our dragons are related only a few generations apart if that, most people don't realize this before they put two dragons together. This is why we recommend serious breeders trace the bloodlines of their animals back at least 5 generations to keep it as diverse as humanly possible right now. Most casual breeders don't go to the trouble, and that is why the average size and overall health of our dragons has been in rapid decline lately.

Yeah, we definately need more dragons over here. Want to send us a few?!
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Amanda
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
1.0 pictus gecko (Nicodemus)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.1 ferreta (Playstation & Genesis)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)

I could send you some over but i dont know alot about shipping etc...
I have some hypo reds and hypo snows incubating at the moment that should be some nice colours. Just dont know about getting them out there and cost.
Visit my website www.gavsdragons.tk

To answer the persons question about incubating the eggs. I had a hovabator ready about two months before I knew that my female was gravid. I prefer to be safe than sorry in most cases. I took the eggs from my girl right after she laid them put them on perlite in those plastic meat containers with the red lids, I can't remember the brand off the top of my head. I even moved my eggs for three weeks when I went on vacation. Thankfully I keep the bearded dragon mannual close by so I can tell you the possible incubation time and possible laying time since I don't remember how long it took my girl to lay. The possible laying time is between 4 to 6 weeks and the possible incubation time is 55 to 75 days. I think it took my eggs about 2 months to hatch to the day from when they were laid. I incubated mine at a steady temperature of 84 degrees. You're supposed to incubate the eggs between 82 and 85 degrees. Its up to you if you decide to incubate the eggs or not but just remember that raising beardies until they're old enough to go to new homes is far from cheap and you better start looking for possible new homes now or you'll be stuck with a lot of mouths to feed.

Well I have been purchasing my crix from flukers on the regular now so that is going to be no problem. I have my fridge pretty much stocked as it is now with a bunch of diff leafys for the kids. As far as feeding them I wont have a problem with keeping up with them as my wife and I work 2 diff scheds (me during the day her during the night) so they will have constant care. I'm really excited right now and want this to happen, but at the same time I'm scared because I have never done this before and want to make sure its successful. Thanks everyone for the info!

btw does anybody know if this incubator will work for what I am looking to do?

http://www.bigappleherp.com/Reptile_Supplies/Product/Hovabator_Incubator_THERMAL_AIR_Flow_Model_752106P.html

thanks again everyone!

I was just kidding, I don't breed dragons personally. I like to leave it to the professionals, for all the reasons I mentioned.
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Amanda
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2.0 bearded dragons (Ocho / Domo-kun)
1.0 pictus gecko (Nicodemus)
0.1 kingsnake (Rio)
1.1 ferreta (Playstation & Genesis)
1.0 cat (Wally)
0.1 dog (Tima)