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Gocomo Heartmountain Rbo92 |
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Breeding facts
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| 11/15/05 12:51pm |
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Heartmountain View Profile |
Message To: Gocomo In reference to Message Id: 543609 Breeding facts
Sean |
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| 11/15/05 03:18pm |
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Rbo92 View Profile |
Message To: Gocomo In reference to Message Id: 543609
The bearded dragon Bearded dragons are considered to be a mid-sized stocky agamid lizard that have prominent spines along its sides and a large, essentially triangle-shaped head. Forming a sort of shield around the snout is a spinney jaw pouch which, when swollen, looks like a beard and makes any predator think twice before attacking. This wide-ranging species shows considerable geographic variation; its basic color varies from shades of brown, gray, and reddish-brown to bright orange. The ventral surface ranges from pale to dark gray, with white elongated spots edged with black. Mature males have dark "beards" which become black during courtship and breeding. Adults can grow as large as ten inches in body length or two feet in total length, including the tail. Males are larger than females. These lizards are native to Central Australia. They prefer semi-arid to arid woodland habitats. Time is spent both on the ground and in trees. They may be found perched on bush branches and even on fence posts. Bearded dragons are omnivorous and consume many types of insects, small vertebrates, and vegetation including fruits and flowers. Sexual maturity is reached at one to two years of age. Mature females typically lay clutches of eleven to sixteen oblong leathery eggs in early summer. The eggs are laid in nests dug in sandy soil and the unattended young hatch 3 months later. A bulky body and the habit of basking allows them to store heat, making it possible to operate at lower temperatures than other lizards. They can also survive higher temperatures for several hours, since they can regulate body temperature by evaporation. When intimidated, they flatten their bodies and stand erect with mouth gaping. The light-colored mouth lining, spines bordering the lower jaw and puffed-out blackish beard give a formidable appearance. This defensive display has earned these lizards the common name of "bearded dragon". Hatchlings The average digestive period for the bearded dragon egg is 60 days. When the babies emerge from their egg they are approximately 2 ˝ inches long from their nose to the tip of their tail. They normally start eating crickets and greens around the 3 - 5 day of existence. From here their rate of feeding increases to 3 - 4 times per day. Feed you young beardies as much food as they will eat but do not leave excess crickets in the cage once the lights go out. By the 4th week they average 6 inches from nose to the tip of their tail. Also around the 4th week the dragon will go through its first shed. Normally after this first skin shed the coloration of the dragon starts to appear. Young dragons are very inquisitive and are constantly aware of what is going on around their environment. When they are under 4 weeks age they are particularly fragile and should not be handled unless absolutely necessary. Keep their habitat clear of a lot of clutter to help avoid cricket hiding places. Crickets can do a lot of harm by biting the beardie while they sleep. We also do not like to provide hiding places for the beardie. Beardies need heat to digest their food which encourages them to eat and therefore grow. Subadult: Once they reach 6 inches the risk of problems with the bearded dragon greatly reduces. This is one reasons most respected breeders will not sell a dragon till they have reached 6 inches and have gone through there first skin shedding. Dragon go through a rapid pace of growth. The can average 1 - 2 inches growth every month till the reach their final size. The average adult size for a dragon is between 14 to 17 inches in total length. The German Giant can actually reach lengths exceeding 20 inches. We have a SandFire Yellow dragon that is over 20 inches from noise to the tip of their tail. Sub adults will slowly transition from eating crickets and mealworms to a balance diet of greens. Subadults are also very active. For the male their hormones seem to start taking over like it does for a teenage boy. Around 6 months all they seem to think about is mating with the closest female. At times they run around their cage like their feet are on fire. The female are content to eat and eat. They do this to build up their fat storage for the soon to come egg barring period in their lives. One last thing, juvenal dragons enjoy getting out of their cage and being held by their owners. Brumation and Breeding Brumation, often referred to as hibernation, is a must to breed bearded dragons. This can be accomplished at any time of the year though most breeders use the natural seasons and brumate their dragons during the winter months. Once a male and female are together, nature will take its course. You can induce brumation by lower the temperatures in the cage and limit the light in the cage to 8 hours per day. You need to step the dragon into brumation by reducing the daylight in their cage by by one hour each week till you reach the 8 hours of light time. Normally the bearded dragon will slow their eating to maybe one or two times a week. The length of the brumation period averages 10 - 12 weeks for most bearded dragon. Be careful to not overfeed your dragon while they are brumating since their metabolism has slowed and you do not want food to rote in their stomach. As the dragon come out of their brumation period the mating period begins. We recommend that only those individuals who are familiar with breeding lizards watch as it appears, and probably is, violent. Some breeders we have talked to say that the act of breeding in bearded dragons can best be described as a rape. The male will bight the back of the female neck so she can not get away and then uses his tail to lift the female’s tail to copulate. After copulation the female is ready to lay her eggs on average of 45 - 60 days. The female will store the males sperm and can produce numerous clutches from a singe interlope with a male. We have one female that lays eggs every 21 days. The female has nothing to do with her young once the female lays her eggs. This is one reason that so many breeders strive to hold back some animals each year and retire their breeders after 3 or 4 seasons. These retired breeder females will continue to make excellent pets for the remainder of their lives if cared for properly but probably should not be bred again in order to avoid, literally, breeding them to death. |
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| 11/18/05 06:38pm |
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