Breeding / Reproduction Bearded dragons become sexually mature between one and two years old - but until then it is very hard to tell the sexes apart. In adults males head bob, display their beards and try to defend territory, but rarely arm wave. On the physical side, males possess a large vent opening, hemi penal bulges after the vent and enlarged scales before the vent (i.e. before is from the head down, so the enlarged scales are in between the stomach and vent). Females, on the other hand have a small vent opening and no enlarged scales or hemi penal bulges. The optimum age for breeding in bearded dragons is between two and five years old, but they can continue to reproduce for a couple of years after that, although success rates drop. Before reproduction bearded dragons must be conditioned for breeding. To do this, several months before actual breeding (in the autumn, say) you must begin to gradually drop the temperatures in the enclosure, and decrease hours of light in a day, down to around 9 hours of light, which will send your lizard into a 'semi-hibernation' when the animals are generally much less active and eat less too. Hibernation stimulates the development of reproductive cells in the bearded dragon, but unless the dragon is in perfect health, hibernation should not be considered as it will cause considerable stress and could lead to death in your pet. The cage temperature should drop to 24 - 28 degrees centigrade (76 - 82 degrees Fahrenheit) at day and around 18 degrees centigrade (65 degrees Fahrenheit) at night. Hibernation should go on for about 10 weeks, and then temperatures and daylight hours should slowly be increased again, up to summer temperatures after a few months. Feed your dragons as much as they will eat and add extra calcium than normal to the female's diet. You should notice more displays of head-bobbing and arm-waving, but make sure the male is not too aggressive; if the female has cuts or scratches - although a few small bites near the neck are typical occurrences during mating, so unless they are deep or infected, do not worry too much - or seems to be very worried by the male, split them for a few days. If the female becomes gravid, which happens a couple of months after breeding, she should be very plump and the outline of eggs may be visible through her abdomen. She will begin to dig into the substrate, and a nesting box should be placed into the enclosure. This should be at least 6 inches of damp substrate, vermiculite or soil for example, and could be placed in a cat litter tray or in a tub. The female should then, when ready, dig a hole in the box (hopefully!) and lay between 10 and 25 eggs, and she will then re-cover the eggs in the nesting box substrate. After laying will look lighter and flabby and should be feed food high in calcium. The female bearded dragon may lay up to five clutches in one breeding year, at 25 - 35 day intervals. The eggs should then be placed in an incubator - without being turned. They should be incubated at 29 degrees centigrade (84 degrees Fahrenheit) for roughly two months. A couple of days after hatching the bearded dragons should start feeding on lots of little insects. They eat a lot! How Dragons Breed If
you have acquired many bearded dragons and both male and female are present in the group,
you have to pay some attention to their breeding habits. Here
you will encounter problems right at the start. Is
Your Dragon A Male Or A Female Even
when you buy the hatchlings, it is difficult to distinguish the males from the females.
Some misleading
beliefs in
this respect are:
•
Males are larger than females
•
Males have a larger head than females
•
You cannot notice any difference between male and female
•
If your dragon’s head turns black during beard flaring, it is male; otherwise it must
be a female.
•
Female dragons alone wave there forelimb. Females
may have smaller head in relation to their body but this is not a conclusive factor to say
unambiguously that males have larger heads than females. Males
do display beard flaring more often than the female but the beard region of both turns
black. Both
male and female wave their forelimbs Sexing
Accurately Differences
do exist but you have to look in the right place to spot them. To determine correctly
whether your bearded dragon is male or female, you should examine the cloacal region, or
the underside where the tail meets the body. Even
this poses a problem when the dragon is very young. When
your dragon has grown to a length of about 8 inches, colacal examination gives the correct
answer to the riddle of the sex of your dragon. How
Many Dragons Can You House Together Incidentally
you should pay attention to the way you are going to house them.
•
Two male dragons in one cage
•
Two females in one cage
•
One male and one female
•
Many males and females. The
submissive dragon may then underfeed, get sick and die. The
dominant male can even kill its weak companion. In
the case of two
females also,
battles for domination ensue as they grow. In
either case, it is better to keep them in separate cages. You
may feel that the ideal situation is to buy and place only one
male and one female dragon
in a single cage. Even
this is not without drawbacks. To
begin with, the male and female you buy may have come from the same parent. They
will breed when they reach adulthood but in the wild, nature usually guards against such
in-breeding. In
a cage, you will not be able to prevent such inbreeding. Breeding
If
you choose to breed your bearded dragons (given the opportunity, they will breed anyway),
there are two general considerations you must think about prior to breeding. 1) The
animals you are attempting to breed must be healthy. This means they should have put on
weight and indicate no symptoms of disease. 2)
You must have at least one sexual adult pair. (It usually helps to have at least two of
the opposite sex.) You
should take adequate measures to ensure the female’s well being. Some
of the measures are: • First of all, take care that the female is not subjected to repeated mating by an aggressive male
•
Enhance
the supply of nutrients and supplements to the female.
•
Provide an
‘egg-laying box’ for the gravid female. Breeding
often requires a period of hibernation or brumation prior to the breeding season. What
some breeders do is they decrease the temperature for two or three months to provide a
winter season before breeding season. The basking spot should reach temperatures of
75°-80°F, with the ground temperature gradient from 65°-70°F. During the winter
nights, the temperature should be 55°-65°F on the ground. Bearded dragons can safely
tolerate temperatures in the low 50°s. After the winter cooling down period is over, you
can change the temperature back up again to their normal daily temperature, which signals
the start of breeding season. You
must take care to steer clear of inbreeding, especially among siblings. Breeding behavior
often appears violent. Head bobbing and black beards are among the breeding behaviors
associated with males (these behaviors are also typical of territorial disputes between
males). Females often perform arm waving and slow head bobbing. The male usually bites the
female around the neck to secure her and attempts to get the female to lift her tail for
copulation. Gravid females will get quite large and often appear lumpy. Feed gravid
females often and supplement it with calcium more frequently. The eggs can often be felt
in the female's stomach when she is close to laying. After the mating has taken place, you
should provide a laying box or a moist substrate area in the enclosure to provide a
digging spot for the female to lay her eggs in. Many breeders use laying boxes so that the
buried eggs can be easily removed for incubating. The female lays her eggs after a 20-30 day gestation period. Place the eggs
in a incubator. You should have moist vermiculite as the substrate When
the female lays her eggs, another dilemma confronts you: whether to discard the eggs or to
allow them to hatch and rear the babies. If
you choose the latter option, It involves:
•
Transfer of the eggs into suitably sized box, preferably transparent, with perforated top
•
Sand like medium to keep the eggs partly buried and
•
Thermostat equipment to maintain a constant temperature of 90 degrees F in the box.
SEXING BEARDED DRAGONS
The photographs and text concerning the
"sexing of Bearded Dragons" is reproduced with the help and kind permission of
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