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| Bearded DragonEnclosure Selection Health Feeding BreedingThe Decision to Breed Selecting a Pair Mating Gestation Incubation Hatching Juveniles The Decision To Breed... The decision to breed Bearded Dragons is not one which should be made lightly. The pair, eggs, and hatchlings need extensive care and attention to ensure good health and ultimate success. Gravid females need to be well cared for, eggs will need an appropriate incubator and all hatchlings will need separate enclosures. The long term costs are great and there is little money to be made in re-selling them. Unless you are considering full scale commercial breeding you are almost certainly going to lose money. Breeding beardies is more about the love of reptiles than the money. Things to consider before you start: - Do you have the money to offer proper care to the hatchlings? - Can you commit time to feeding and looking after multiple reptiles? - Do you have the necessary experience to deal with anything that might happen? - What are you going to do with the babies? If you’re still willing to give it a go, let’s get started! Selecting a Pair Of all the things you need to breed successfully the most obvious is a male and female pair. Sexing the animals is relatively easy. Males will have a v shaped set of enlarged pores just before the vent which are not present in females. Just behind the vent, there will also be two prominent bumps on males. These are the hemipenes, which are the male reproductive organs. Again, these are not present in females. Mating During mating the male will align his vent with the females and grab hold of the back of her neck with his teeth. He will then evert his hemipenes and his sperm travels down these into the female. It is possible for a female to store sperm, so one or two matings will allow fertile eggs to be produced for the whole season. Stored sperm will fertilise eggs for up to about a year. Gestation Following mating females will begin to produce eggs. You may begin to see them forming within and you will often feel them as small marble like lumps within her. These will gradually grow in size until the eggs are ready to be laid. Usually you can tell if laying is imminent as the female will become restless, wandering around the enclosure and digging in the substrate. At this stage provide a suitable lay box, which can be a large container filled with moist sand. She may also stop eating, or eat substantially less. Failure to provide an appropriate laying site can result in egg binding, which can prove fatal if not corrected. Check carefully for any signs that laying has taken place, such as disturbed substrate. Eggs should immediately but gently be removed to a suitable incubator, being careful not to rotate them. The developing embryo will have attached itself to the inside of the egg at the top, and inverting the egg at this stage will result in the fluid within the egg drowning the embryo. Fertile eggs will have a very faint pinkish hue after a few days, and "candling" the egg with a bright narrow beam will accentuate this. You should be able to see a ring of pink on the top surface of the egg. Use a water based marker to mark the top of the egg so that if they become dislodged you can correct them, hopefully before any damage is done. Further indications that an egg is fertile will include a chalky white appearance developing across the surface of the egg along with hardening of the shell, while infertile eggs will remain soft and start to collapse on themselves. Incubation Incubation temperatures should remain between 82-85Fat all times, and the only realistic way to achieve this is to construct an incubator. These can be simple homemade affairs, such as the one described here or here or you can purchase one made for chicken eggs such as the Hovabator. It is not yet known for sure whether it is possible to incubate for sex, which is the process of selecting specific incubation temperatures to yield mostly males or females. Humidity plays an important part in the incubation process. Too low a humidity will result in the eggs drying out, while too high a humidity can induce mould. Use a reliable humidity gauge, preferably digital. The ideal range would be somewhere between 60% and 80%. Incubating eggs in a suitable container such as a margarine tub, with small holes punched in the top or sides. An incubating medium should be used which holds water and prevents the eggs drying out, as the growing embryo in the egg will draw water from the surrounding air as it develops. The most popular medium seems to be Vermiculite which is commonly sold in garden centres. According to the Bearded Dragon Manual by Philippe de Vosjoli, the ideal water content for the medium is 6 parts medium to 4 parts water, measured by weight. Incubation can take between 45 and 55 days, depending on the temperature. Naturally, the lower the temperature then the longer they will take to hatch. Eggs must be monitored carefully for drying out, mould, caving in and, nearer the end of the incubation period, hatchlings. Hatching Immediately prior to hatching, the eggs will become indented and the dragons will pierce the shell themselves using a special tooth on the end of their snout. Resist the temptation to help a dragon which appears to be struggling, it may take them some time to work their way out and they may well stop for a rest. Opening eggs when they are not ready will kill a hatchling. As the dragons emerge remove them to suitable enclosures and ensure that they haven’t damaged or moved any of the other eggs in the container. This is where the marks you made earlier come into their own! If any eggs have been dislodged, correct them immediately. Juveniles Juveniles should preferably each have their own enclosure, but if this is not an option it is acceptable to keep two or more in groups of similar size. They should be fed a highly supplemented diet of pinhead crickets. Water must be available in a small dish, while misting the inside of the container occasionally will improve shedding
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