Care Sheet for Bearded Dragons BreedingAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 3.75 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 04/16/2003 |
Main Category: | Lizards |
Sub Category: | Bearded Dragons Breeding |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | Anonymous |
Years Experience: | 15 to 20 Years |
Species: | Breeding Bearded Dragons |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | Just about all bearded dragons |
Sexing and Characteristics: | First you have to sex your bearded dragons to make sure you have a male and female. Males have larger heads and have a hemipenile bulge in the base of their tails. Looking under a males tail you will see two bulges on each side of the underneath of their tail with a dimple in between them. Females lack these bulges and in some cases have just a bump by the vent of their tails. |
Mostly Active During: | Day |
Substrate and Water Needs: | Caging for bearded dragons is fairly simple. I use either newspaper, rabbit pellets or desert blend. I supply a medium size shallow bowl of water, but rarely see them drinking from it anyway.
For the egg bin I use about a 10-12 square inch plastic bin about 10 inches deep. I prefer to use a rounded bowl but you can use whatever you have. I cut a hole in the cover of the bin to let the female dragon in plus keep the substrate in also.
For egg laying substrate I use vermiculite, and some people like perlite as well. I used other dirt substrates but I seem to end up fighting fungus and molds. If you use dirt make sure its clean dirt. |
Lighting and UVB: | I use a florescent bulb for uvb light and a couple of incandescent bulbs for heat, but in summer I reduce down to one bulb and a lower wattage. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | I keep my bearded dragons tempatures at about 80-85 degrees with a basking spot higher around 90. Night time tempatures in the room that the lizards are in usually dont go below 65. |
Heating and Equipment: | I use a undertank heat pad in one corner of the cage. |
Caging Provided: | I use a 38 gallon reptarium to house two of my bearded dragons. In cooler rooms or climates I would probably go with a glass tank of some sort instead. |
Diet: | Omnivorous |
Description of Diet: | I give all my bearded dragons leaves such as collard greens, chickory, escarole, dandilion greens, turnip greens, and watercress. I also give them fruits such as apples and occasionally I give them peas and sweet potatos.
During the breeding season, the egg bearing, and after egg laying, it is important to make sure your female has enough calcium, vitamins and minerals. Also giving her more insects that vegetables and fruit at those times. I increase my calcium intake to 4 times a week for my female and vitamins once. Or I use a vitamin/calcium supplement 3-4 times a week. Just dust them crickets. |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | I covered this above. |
Maintenance: | Maintenance for breeding bearded dragons isn’t all that bad. Just check the egg laying bins frequently. I usually wait till my female gets all crazy and basically paces the cage digging here and their. Thats when I place the bin in the cage, and usually I have the eggs layed within a couple of hours of then.
After the eggs are layed...move them to a plastic bin trying hard not to turn the eggs over. I usually make small dimples in the dirt to place them in and then place them in to an incubator that is regulated between 80-85 degrees. Check on the eggs and add a bowl of water to the incubator for moisture. Sometimes I also pour a small amount of water in the egg bins as needed to keep the vermiculite moist. If the eggs start dimpling in the first couple weeks then you may want to up the humidity...I usually keep my humidity in a large range of 70-90 percent humidity...depending on where the humidity gage is located in the incubator.
After about 54-80 days your bearded dragons should hatch...usually around 60 days. After they are born move the babies into a tank. Make sure they get water, they sometimes start eating right away, and sometimes they dont eat for a couple of days. Just make sure you keep them hydrated. Feed the babies 1 week or 1/4 inch crickets. Don’t feed them foods that are too big. Also leave small pieces of chickory in the tank with them to munch on. Dust crickets for babies just about every day with calcium, and twice a we |
Some Words on this Species: | Very cool pets. Easy to handle and acclimate. |
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