It's also
expensive - in our
Our guide to successfully breeding and raising healthy beardies.
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Bearded Dragons are
relatively easy to breed from compared to some other species, and are
generally prolific breeders. This may go some way towards explaining
the huge popularity - there's never a shortage of babies around! It
does have some downsides though - whilst species such as Leopard
Geckos lay eggs in pairs, leaving you with only a small number of
offspring to care for at any one time, Bearded Dragons typically lay
clutches of 20-25. With a high fertility level, it will be a full time
job to properly care for all of the hatchlings.
Starting with the basics, in order to breed Bearded Dragons you will need a male and a female. The female should be at least 400g, in good health, and ideally over 18 months of age. Age is less important in the case of the male, but he should be large enough to pin the female down, and old enough to be sexually mature. Don't breed from Dragons with deformities, don't breed Dragons whose health is questionable. Don't casually inbreed siblings - if you bought your Dragons from the same shop, there's a pretty decent chance they are related. If this is the case, try to find another Dragon, preferably from outside of the local area, or from a breeder who can tell you where the bloodlines of the Dragon originated from.
If you've only just got your Dragons, let them settle in first. The last thing a female needs when she's stressed from a move is to have a male jumping all over her, then to have her hormones raging in response to getting pregnant (called "gravid" in the case of reptiles). All new arrivals should ideally be quarantined for 3-6 months - unlike mammals, the slower metabolisms of reptiles mean that problems can take several months to become symptomatic. A strict quarantine will help protect the rest of your pets from any illnesses that the new Dragon may carry.
Male and female Dragons should normally be housed apart, to prevent the male stressing the female and getting overly aggressive. A female who is constantly dominated and mated with is likely to be stressed, and it's possible that she will produce more eggs than her body can safely handle, due to the constant mating. This, combined with the stress of being regularly attacked by the male, can take its toll on her.
You may find that you have more success
when breeding if you
When Dragons are introduced, it doesn't normally take long before the male is showing aggression towards the female. You are likely to see a lot beard darkening, head bobbing, arm waving, and biting. It is normal for the male to bite the back of the female's head to pin her down, as in this photo:
If you notice the female biting the male, or the two of them circling each other or biting each others tails then separate them - this is aggressive behaviour, not mating behaviour. It's quite common for a female to end up with small cuts and missing scales around the back of her head. As long as these aren't excessive you don't need to do anything - as long as the male is removed after a week or two, they will heal in time.
Once mated, a female will usually lay a clutch of eggs around 3-4 weeks later, followed by at least one more clutch with 3-4 weeks between clutches. She will usually eat a lot more than usual during this time. It's not uncommon for a female to lay 75-100g of eggs per clutch, and then to put this weight back on over the next couple of weeks in preparation to lay the next clutch. We feed our gravid females at least twice per day to make sure they are getting enough energy, and we add a little extra dust to their food to ensure they have enough calcium to produce the eggs. Nutrient deficiency may be one of the causes of hatchling deformities, so it's important to make sure your female gets everything she needs whilst she's producing the eggs.
I use washing up bowls with damp sand in for most females, and also have a dedicated "breeding cage" for fussy females who want to create a more elaborate nest. The female will usually start scratching around the cage a few days prior to laying, and will often go off her food. They will dig a hole in the damp sand, then reverse into it to lay. Once she's done, the female will fill the hole back in and smooth the sand over. you may not even be able to tell she's been digging, except she will look a lot skinnier:
Once the female has been confirmed as gravid or has started scratching around a lot, remove the male from her cage. It's not good to her health to force a female to keep producing eggs - egg production and laying will take a hell of a lot out of her. Allow her a year to recover before attempting to breed her again; forcing a female to live as an "egg machine" can have pretty serious consequences for her long term health.
Eggs should be incubated at 82-86f. Don't turn the eggs during incubation, as this can cause damage to the developing embryo. Be careful when uncovering and removing the eggs as they are quite fragile. The eggs should be places in tubs in the incubator. Perlite and vermiculite are both good incubation substrates - I personally prefer perlite as it allows better airflow around the egg.
To prepare perlite, put around a 1" deep layer into a tub, then add around the same volume of warm water. Leave for 20 minutes to soak, then drain away all the water, leaving just the warm, slightly-damp perlite:
Once in the incubator, a condensation line will form. The ideal humidity for Bearded Dragons is when the condensation line is at or slightly above the top of the perlite. Make sure there is no condensation forming on the lid of the tub - drops of water landing on eggs can damage them.
Place the eggs into the tub, and half-bury them with the incubation substrate. Fertile eggs should be a pinkish-white in colour, and be plump and firm. Infertile eggs are usually a pink or yellow colour, and are soft and often partially deflated. These are fertile eggs, after around a month of incubation.
At 84f, the hatch time is usually around 8 weeks, although in some cases it can be anywhere from 6-14 weeks. Babies will usually make a small hole in the egg (termed "pipping"), then will poke their heads out and sleep for 12-24 hours to recover before they attempt to hatch.
Once out, they need leaving in the incubator for 24-48 hours in individual tubs on damp kitchen paper. This will allow them to absorb anything left of their yolk sacs into their bodies. Some will nibble on greens at this time, but insects should not be offered yet. Failure to do this can cause slow growth. Babies are very small and fragile when first hatched - be extremely careful when moving them into their cages.
Babies should be housed
in groups of 5 at the most - any more than this and you run the risk
of toe and tail nips. Despite what some shops and breeders might try
to tell you, toe and tail nips are not "normal" and most are
preventable. They are generally caused by overcrowding babies and
underfeeding them. You may have the odd baby which ends up being
nipped through bad luck or its siblings having a poor aim, but having
the majority of the clutch missing body parts usually indicates that
all was not right when they were being raised. Babies need a complete
setup like adults do (the same temperatures, same lighting etc), but
the cages can be a little bit smaller.
Babies will usually begin to eat when they are 3-7 days old - they sometimes develop the "stalking" instinct a day or so before they get the "catching and eating" one, so don't be too worried if you see babies following crickets around but not eating them.
You should feed newly hatched Dragons on 2nd instar crickets and a mixture of finely-chopped greens, then move them up to 3rds when they are large enough. Babies should be fed at least twice per day - dust one feeding per day. They are growing quickly and will have voracious appetites! Babies typically go to the toilet once or twice a day - with 5 to a cage that soon mounts up, so they need cleaning regularly. I normally mist my babies every couple of days - if you are using enclosed cages, it would be a good idea to put the babies into a separate tub to mist them, to prevent the humidity getting too high.
Bearded Dragons should not be rehomed until they are 6-8 weeks of age - with only 3-4 weeks between clutches of eggs, this means that you are likely to be looking after two, possibly three clutches of babies at a time. With 20-25 eggs per clutch, this is a lot of babies to be housing, feeding and cleaning out each day.