Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is it too late to introduce males to females?

BDs can breed year round depending on their age, location and enviornment. Most breeding is done in the spring. My BDs are slowing down now and getting ready to call it quits for the season.

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Bennett

beardiedragon.com
See us at Daytona, booth #73
Home of the Florida Orange

hmmm, I'm getting a 2 year old girl in next week. She hasn't laid eggs this year. I am told she had 3 clutchs last year. Now I am trying to decide whether or not to let my male visit her or wait until next season. My male is certainly willing to give it a go. LOL

Not much of a choice, you need a 90 day quarantine period on all new animals if you want to practice good breeding ethics. That puts you in winter. You can put them together but they would be better of going together after brumating.
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Bennett

beardiedragon.com
See us at Daytona, booth #73
Home of the Florida Orange

The extra time will help my new girl to get used to her surroundings. I know everyone recommends a quarantine period, but is it really necessary when animals are coming from top breeders? And if I choose not to quarantine, it is unethical?? Please excuse my questions, I am new to the BD world. I don't mean to be impertinent, I just want to understand the why's and what for's. I know a sick animal can infect the entire colony, but if I am buying from reputable breeder, isn't it a very slim chance their stock will be sick? is the selling of sick dragons a problem in this hobby/business/industry?

It doesn't matter where the animal comes from. the shipping and the change of housing can cause stress. Stress can and does increase parasites in a BD. That elivated count may only last a month or so. By introducing 2 animals the additional stress can increase stress even more. When one animal has to treated for coccidia or other parasites it is hard, dealing with two is even harder because one animal will reinfect the other constantly. A quick story, I got a BD from a quality breeder and upon opening the box did a fecal right away. The coccidia level was a bit high but within a week had reduced itself dramatically with no meds or treatment. At the end of a month it was almost gone, again with no meds.

There have been problems with yellow fungus as well as adnovirus and either of those can wipe out (and have) a colony.
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Bennett

beardiedragon.com
See us at Daytona, booth #73
Home of the Florida Orange

ah, I get it now. I hadn't thought about the additional stress involved with receiving a new animal. Thank you for answering my questions. BTW, you have beautiful dragons!!

There are many causes and transmission factors in dealing with parasites and mites. It can come from the water, from crickets as well as flare ups of existing problems. While ethical breeders check their BDs for parasites when they see a problem, it may not be readily aparent at the time of shipping. If I order crix online and get a batch infected with nasties that get fed only a few days before shipment, the repricusions wont show up until after the animal is in his new home. I have never had a problem with buying from responsable breeders but I quarantine all my new animals for 90 days regardless. I did WIN a free BD from flukers that had YFD and because of my quarantine program I was fortunate not to loses my colony, just the one animal.
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Bennett

beardiedragon.com
See us at Daytona, booth #73
Home of the Florida Orange

I run a nonprofit rescue organization, and I know checking for parasites would be beneficial. Usually we only take newly surrendered herps to the vet if there appears to be a problem, but checking fecal for parasites sounds like a good idea for a lot of new arrivals. How do you check and what do you look for?
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Jesse Rothacker
Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary
Find out how YOU can get involved in reptile rescue...
www.forgottenfriend.org

Hey Jesse,

I also run a nonprofit reptile rescue. We do all of our own fecal testing. We also sell all the supplies on our website, including the microscopes. It's a great investment and has saved us hundred this year so far.

We check all newly rescued reptiles for parasites by doing a fecal float. If I find something that I can't match to my parasite ID chart, then I take the slide to my vet. That rarely happens anymore. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy. The only thing I can say is that I wish I would've learned to do my own fecals years ago when I started rescuing. I could've saved thousands in vet bills.

Good luck and let me know if I can be of any help.

Hugs,
Veronica
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Beautiful Dragons

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Signature file edited; [phw 8/31/04]

Thanks Veronica,

I will deffinitely look into that. Our rescue sort of barely scraped by for the first year making due with what we had, and had to go outside the rescue for a lot of help. Now that we've had a chance to do a couple fundraisers and learn a few things along the way, we're upgrading a lot of the care, etc we can do right at the rescue.

The fecal is deffinitely something I've been meaning to look into and I'll bring it up before the board to see how soon we can get approval for the spending.
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Jesse Rothacker
Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary
Find out how YOU can get involved in reptile rescue...
www.forgottenfriend.org