Thinking about breeding my beardies

What should i do BEFORE i attempt to "introduce" them. I have 2 males and 1 female. My dragons are super super calm and really love to be around people. Any help and or suggestions would be great. Thanks.

Well you need to prepare for lots and lot of babies. Females can mulitple clutch with clutches of up to 30. Babies need to be house in very small groups. So for a clutch of 30 you would need 10 enclosures. All with UVB and heat. And lots of tiny crickets. I would make sure you have all of that prepared first. Then you can start thinking about putting the parents together. Have you considered what you'll be doing with all of those babies?


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and by lots of crix, we're talkin 10-30 thousand a week, probably the hardest thing with beardie babies is feeding and selling

It was pretty difficult to sell 36 of our babies. We ended up shipping them to a wholesaler because we were going to be in the negative very very quickly. We won't be breeding again, especially because we don't have high end beardies.

Something to think about...

Bearded Dragons are relatively easy to breed but like the above posters said, they have large clutch sizes and can be hard to sell. I would recommend either setting up at least 5, 10 gallon tanks or a rack system (with overhead lighting) for the babies. The hatchlings will cannibalize each if they are overcrowded regardless of if you feed around the clock. Some clutches will have one or two "bullies" that will nip their clutch mates anyway and have to be isolation in their own enclosure. Due to their prolific breeding, the market has been over saturated and some of my area local pet stores are simply being given entire clutches of normals for free because of the expense of feeding and no buyers.

With that said, I would recommend getting a copy of The Bearded Dragon Manual for breeding details if you are still interested. Some people will adjust their light cycle and temperatures to induce brumation but I've never found it necessary. Make sure you're female is at least 350 grams although more is preferable. Up her feeding schedule and calcium dusting to make sure she is getting enough nutrients and vitamins to fuel the creation of possibly 30+eggs!

Thank you all you have given me something to think about. Hubby and i will discuss it then go from there.

It definitely is something to consider.

Getting them to breed is not the issue.... What to do with the babies is.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

I have bred hundreds and hundreds of beardies, like mentioned above you should have several contacts to sell them as they produce as many as 30 eggs per clutch and can do that 3-4 times a season during peak breeding years. I would keep my baby clutches in large deep plastic tubs with paper towels as substrate that needs to be changed twice a day. We don't give them water bowls as a clutch of babies will fowl the water in minutes so twice a day they are misted down with water, they will lick the water off themselves and anything else. Then we feed small crickets 2-3 times a day,not all will eat every feeding due to competition so multiple meals are necessary and of course greens with calcium powder and vitamins. A high UV bulb and climbing perches is always a must. I stopped breeding beardies because now they are bringing them in from El Salvador for pennies on the dollar and the market took a steep dive. Also when you work with snakes you get lazier because they are so much easier to care for then the constant attention and maintenance needed to successfully care for dragons.

Wow this helped me out a lot I also was thinking about breeding them but never mind on that...)

Is it wrong to control the amount of eggs you want to hatch? I was told i could do that...is that too much like playing God..deciding which ones live and make it and ones that don't? Controlling the population so to speak? I think i've decided against it.

I suppose you could... but then what's the point?

If I had "oops" clutches and had absolutely no way to supply feeders or rehome babies, then I would definitely consider culling all the eggs. I would also separate adult dragons because it didn't happen by immaculate conception.

To purposefully breed them and cull all but a couple because your friends want some beardies. No, I don't think that is right. They can buy or adopt, that would really help control the population.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aldebono

I suppose you could... but then what's the point?

If I had "oops" clutches and had absolutely no way to supply feeders or rehome babies, then I would definitely consider culling all the eggs. I would also separate adult dragons because it didn't happen by immaculate conception.

To purposefully breed them and cull all but a couple because your friends want some beardies. No, I don't think that is right. They can buy or adopt, that would really help control the population.

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Agreed.

I know only of 10 people who want beardies at this point...and my beardies are all separated not housed together! I think i've decided against it at this point!

The original question is how to breed them so here is how I do it.

Most full grown adult beardies will brumate (not hibernate) during cooler weather. During this period they will sleep for days to weeks at a time consuming very little food or water if any. I usually shut down my UV lights at this point as there is no basking. I use Mercury Vapor bulbs which also provide heat so it will cool down considerably. In their native enviroment many beardies will burrow underground to brumate and ride out the colder weather that why I always have a hide as some will brumate at weird times of year.

When they wake up they will be really hungry and this is when I begin my higher fat meals for breeding females with more worms, pinkies, vitamin supplements and always greens and crickets. I give them a couple of weeks of feeding and normal behavior and then pair my females and males and watch them closely. Depending on personalities and history I may leave them together long term. Many will be fine but there is always a chance you get a real violently aggressive male and then you need to supervise and separate after confirmed breeding. The breeding ritual is aggressive and males will darken their beards, bob their heads violently and charge her. Females will slowly wave their front leg and bob head slowly in a submissive manner. When the male attempts and mouts the female he will bite the back of her neck and may cause minor wounds. While this may disturb some folks it's totally normal. I myself have never had a beardie seriously injure another but I have heard of cases when aggressive males are left long term with a companion.

I did have a pair together that were fine for weeks but when the female is ready to lay she went after him. You can tell when a female is ready as she looks like she ate a sack of marbles. At that point separate her and have an egg box in her enclosure. The egg box needs to be big enough for her to get into and dig down. I use damp(not wet) top soil and sand mix and put it in a 12-15 quart tub with a small kitty litter pan as a top with a hole cut in front side for her to get in and out. I put it near the heating element and get it around 82 degrees or so. I also have a rock or branch out side the box so she can get in and out easily as the tub is like 5.5 inches off the ground. Lay boxes are 80-90% full with soil mix and the plastic kitty litterpan cover(taped on) will make her feel secure and control the dirt from flying everywhere when she starts digging and boy will she dig.

I incubate at 83 degrees and use a damp, not wet vermiculte mix. Then watch them hatch:)
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...halfwayout.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

The original question is how to breed them so here is how I do it.

Most full grown adult beardies will brumate (not hibernate) during cooler weather. During this period they will sleep for days to weeks at a time consuming very little food or water if any. I usually shut down my UV lights at this point as there is no basking. I use Mercury Vapor bulbs which also provide heat so it will cool down considerably. In their native enviroment many beardies will burrow underground to brumate and ride out the colder weather that why I always have a hide as some will brumate at weird times of year.

When they wake up they will be really hungry and this is when I begin my higher fat meals for breeding females with more worms, pinkies, vitamin supplements and always greens and crickets. I give them a couple of weeks of feeding and normal behavior and then pair my females and males and watch them closely. Depending on personalities and history I may leave them together long term. Many will be fine but there is always a chance you get a real violently aggressive male and then you need to supervise and separate after confirmed breeding. The breeding ritual is aggressive and males will darken their beards, bob their heads violently and charge her. Females will slowly wave their front leg and bob head slowly in a submissive manner. When the male attempts and mouts the female he will bite the back of her neck and may cause minor wounds. While this may disturb some folks it's totally normal. I myself have never had a beardie seriously injure another but I have heard of cases when aggressive males are left long term with a companion.

I did have a pair together that were fine for weeks but when the female is ready to lay she went after him. You can tell when a female is ready as she looks like she ate a sack of marbles. At that point separate her and have an egg box in her enclosure. The egg box needs to be big enough for her to get into and dig down. I use damp(not wet) top soil and sand mix and put it in a 12-15 quart tub with a small kitty litter pan as a top with a hole cut in front side for her to get in and out. I put it near the heating element and get it around 82 degrees or so. I also have a rock or branch out side the box so she can get in and out easily as the tub is like 5.5 inches off the ground. Lay boxes are 80-90% full with soil mix and the plastic kitty litterpan cover(taped on) will make her feel secure and control the dirt from flying everywhere when she starts digging and boy will she dig.

I incubate at 83 degrees and use a damp, not wet vermiculte mix. Then watch them hatch:)
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...halfwayout.jpg

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Thank you for the suggestions and tips.