Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of the Beardies is being constantly nipped at on the neck. One biting incident lead to the poor thing to bleed a little. Any ideas why they are doing this? Is it a mating ritual? There is a lot of room in the tank with 3 distinct basking areas.

Your help is much appreciated!!

>>One of the Beardies is being constantly nipped at on the neck. One biting incident lead to the poor thing to bleed a little. Any ideas why they are doing this? Is it a mating ritual? There is a lot of room in the tank with 3 distinct basking areas.
>>
>>Your help is much appreciated!!

The male bites onto the back of the females neck when mating, a rough male can draw blood. Not sure if this is what is going on with yours, but it sounds like it.
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

Do you know the exact sexes of the dragons you have in the tank? If a mix of male and females, this deffinitely sounds like mating behavior. Females shouldn't be bred till they are at least 15 months old, being bred younger can cause serious health risks for your female, including death. Females producing eggs under 15 months can result in calcium deficiencies, egg binding and other health risks. Not to mention it puts a real strain on her body which is still trying to grew. My suggestion is separate all three dragons either by moving two into separate containers or dividing your existing tank into three sections. You will also have to prepare for eggs in a few weeks (gestation is about 3-4 weeks with dragons, though the first clutch may take 4-5 weeks). Deffinitely start feeding all the females extra insects, salads and make sure she has a few extra calcium dustings on her insects to ensure she doesn't suffer a calcium crash while trying to produce eggs too young.

If you have more than one male, they can start fighting which can lead to injuries to one or both males and even death. Though the tank is quite large, it isn't large enough to ensure males have a large territory each, though separate basking and feeding areas does help prevent conflicts. With only three dragons in that cage and if two are male, that gives them only one female to fight over, which stresses all animals involved, her from being chased around by two males and the males conflicting for the right to mate.

Treat the bite wounds by washing them completely in clean water and add a bit of neosporin on the wound. Just make sure the antibiotic cream doesn't contain any pain killers as these can be harmful for your dragon.
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PHLdyPayne