Breeding Bearded Dragons

One of the first things to do is make sure you have healthy, unrelated dragons, with qualities that should be passed on to future generations. You also need to have plans for homes for the offspring or outlets for sale of them. It is a sad fact that many people jump into breeding without thinking this through or understanding the expense involved. They often end up with struggling or dying babies, offspring that cost more to raise to a sellable age and other complication with the adults, especially gravid females that were too young to safely carry and lay eggs. One breeding can produce several clutches of 20+ eggs each.

Healthy babies are big eaters, needing to be fed several times a day of crickets, salads and pellets. One baby alone can eat 50-100 appropriate size crickets a day across 2-3 feedings, which is not cheap. If you are not prepared for the cost involved it is better not to breed than to possibly end up with babies who are eating legs and tails off each other because they are so hungry. One clutch will need multiple setups with heat, UVB and furnishings as they need to be separated into smaller groups as they grow in size to saleable age, which should not be less than 6 weeks/6 inches. Smaller babies can not be left with larger babies as the larger will start seeing the smaller ones as food.

Females should be a minimum of 18-24 months old for first breeding, that is when they reach full maturity. Personally we wait until they're at least 2 years old. While she is still growing and developing, she needs her nutrition for herself, not to support developing eggs, shelling and laying them. Younger than that you take a risk of compromising her health, having to have emergency surgery to remove eggs and higher incidences of failure to thrive babies.

Males can be bred slightly younger than females by a few months, but again, it should wait until they are mature. Part of their muscle development is to be able to retract the hemipenes safely to avoid damage and infection, plus young overzealous males can cause physical harm to your female.

Dragon do breed and recover better when they have completed a brumation cycle (aka a cooling period), awakened and resumed eating. This also lets you know all is well and they are ready for breeding. NEVER should two dragons be placed together without at least a 90 day quarantine period in your possession. I can not tell you how many times we have been contacted by people who put two together without quarantine, hatched the babies only to find out one parent infected the other and all the babies with a deadly virus and shortly after hatching the babies are all dying.

When they get up from brumation, if ready to breed, it takes little effort on our part. If you have had bearded dragons for very long, you know how all the boys are all the time! The girls will get that way also, some even jump on the males trying to mate them or other females they are in contact with!

We wait 2 weeks after waking up to make sure the females are eating well and properly hydrated. Put the pair you want to breed in a large enclosure or a room in the house. All you have to do is make sure the female is not trying to bit the male's leg or tail off and the male does not injure the female. It happens fairly fast. There is some courtship of males head bobbing and females waving and bowing, but not always. Mating appears rough when the male is grabbing for the back of her neck and positioning the female. The actual mating is short, often less than a minute.

Females can be very picky and males very determined, you may have to let the female see a few males and she decides if and who she wants to mate. Even if the female is not that interested, if the male is insistent, she might allow breeding, but a female snapping at a male is saying NO and its best not to push her then and wait till she is ready, even if that takes another year. A female constantly attempting to get away from the male is also another sign that she is not ready, and they should be separated. Even if the female is not ready, the male can constantly hound & harass her to the point where she becomes too stressed and parasites are allowed to take hold in her system. For this reason, males & females should also not be housed together on a permanent basis.

After they mate, just check the female for any breaks in the skin, put some Neosporin on and they usually are fine. Do not bathe or soak them for 24 hours, either the male or the female. her as you want her to retain the sperm and him since he can get infections easily. We put the males on paper towels for a few days, just so sand can not irritate them. You may see some bleeding in the males vent area right after for a day or two, nothing to worry about. But if it persists beyond a couple of days, you may want to seek veterinary advice.

If you have a male that is just not that interested, but the one you want to have offspring from, sometimes letting him see another male that is interested in the female will spark him into action. We have found that male pastels are a bit slower to breed when the time comes and also German Giant females.