Reptile Cymru

If you are in the UK and ever visit Cardiff, in South Wales, consider stopping in to Reptile Cymru, a breeder and retailer, specializing in a wide range of captive bred snakes & lizards, and supplying all the equipment that you need.

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Care Guide - Breeding



Photograph by T.T

Breeding any animal is a serious under taking, and there are implications that you should consider.

Any breeding effect can result in pregnancy problems, such as egg binding. These problems may need your female lizard to be seen by a vet. You must be willing to take the responsibility for her health financially if required. If you do not have the money to see a qualified veterinarian if your animal needs it - do not go ahead with breeding.

Breeding can result in a large quantity of eggs. These hatchlings can consume a hundred or more crickets a day each. If you have 20 bearded dragons eating a hundred crickets a day, that is 2000 crickets a day! They will also need to be housed, with the correct equipment, and fed for at least 6 weeks before you sell them. Be sure that you have the space, time, money and resources to look after these fragile babies before selling them.

Finally, do not assume that you will immediately sell all of your young. Find out if you have a market locally be visiting shops and seeing if they buy locally bred dragons - the last thing you want to be stuck with is 20+ hungry mouths indefinitely!

Age

It is ideally best to wait until your bearded dragons are at least 12 months, but preferably 18 months until breeding them. Bearded dragons can be fertile from 6 months old - but this puts a big strain on the dragon and has higher risks of complications during pregnancy.

Mating

Mating occurs repeatedly, and a female can get very stressed if she is on her own with a male who is constantly attempting to mate with her. It can look aggressive, and vigorous with the male mounting the female, and often pinning her down by grabbing the back of the neck. An over vigorous male could damage a female, in which case they would need to be separated.

Head bobbing and blackening of the male beard is also a sign of arousal and display, whilst arm waving on the part of the female is a sign of submission.

Egg Laying

Egg laying occurs anywhere between 4 - 6 weeks after copulation occurs.

Your female will require a nest site to dig and bury her eggs. This is best provided with very deep warm sand. She will dig for some days before laying her eggs, and may seem extremely restless. In the days just before egg laying, her stomach will usually seem lumpy and you should be able to feel the formed eggs when you pick her up.

Incubation

Eggs are incubated in moist vermiculate at 82 to 84 degrees F and should hatch after 60 - 75 days.

Hatching

 

This picture by Hades Dragons shows a baby bearded dragon, just hatching!


 

Bearded Dragons can take several hours to come out of the egg fully and should not be disturbed during this time. It can take up to 3 days for them to fully absorb the egg sack after hatching, but after this - they should start eating baby crickets in large quantities!