Breeding Bearded Dragons

The bearded dragon is one of the most popular imported reptiles in the United States and the UK. They are popular because of their wonderful personalities and calm demeanor. They can now be purchased in many different colors or "morphs", such as, translucent, leather back, smoothie, citrus, fire, tiger, etc.

There are more things required than one might think to breed them. It takes more than just putting a male and a female together. First, for the highest clutch size, you will want to allow your female to brumate (you should know what this is if you plan to breed). This will allow her body to fully rest and be prepared for the rigors of breeding. Breeding can be attempted without brumation but it will significantly reduce your fertility rate in your clutches. You will also need to raise the amount of calcium given to your female 2 weeks prior to breeding and during the process of developing the eggs. This will help lower the amount of stress on her system by not requiring so much calcium from her. My suggestion with this is to use liquid calcium in conjunction with your normal dusting of live feeders. 1 oral injection of liquid calcium every three days will suffice to give her enough supplies to help in producing the eggs.

Preparations for Breeding

You will also need to have a few things setup prior to actually breeding. You will need to find a reliable supplier of crickets (as you will need large amounts of them once you have babies hatching out). A baby bearded dragon will eat around 100 crix a day. With an average clutch rate of 20 eggs or more you are looking at around 14,000 crickets a week, that’s right 14,000 a week. That’s why I said a very reliable supplier. You will not be able to go into your local pet store and order 14,000 crickets.

Another thing you need to have setup is an incubator. These are very important to setup in advance because you need to have a constant temperature/humidity level for rearing the eggs. The suggested levels for proper egg incubation are 80-87 degrees Fahrenheit and 80-85% humidity. The eggs will need to be in containers with a 50/50 vermiculit/perlite mixture that is damp (not soaked through just damp). You will also want to have at least in the works getting bins to keep the dragons in. You should not keep more than 5 hatchlings per bin.

Introducing the Male and Female Dragons

Now comes the easy part. Putting your male and female together. There are varying views on how to do this appropriately. I personally prefer to do controlled visits. Instead of just leaving them in a tank together 24 hours a day for a week. I put my female with my male 1 time a day for about 2-4 hours a day for one week’s time. This lowers the chance of your male attacking the female after the mating has occurred. The mating process itself is quite violent to an onlooker. The male will display at the female by bobbing his head, blackening his beard, flattening out, and quickly circling her. 1 of 2 things happens at this point. Either the female does a slow methodical headbob/arm wave or she will flare back at the male (this means you have what is known as an alpha female). She will fight back until he “earns” the right to breed her. In the end she will submit. He will jump on her back and bite the back of her head/neck a few times until gripping it. Then he will position himself to a point where he gets partially under her. He will do his business then she will walk away often with him still on her which is quite comical to watch. At this point you separate for the day. It can take more than one breeding for fertilization to occur. I prefer to still keep to my 7 day schedule just to make certain she becomes fertilized.

After the mating you will want to up her protein intake as well as the heightened calcium intake previously suggested. She will need the extra protein to develop the eggs properly. You will notice her stomach starting to swell and drop lower. She will gain quite a bit of weight. At some point (normally at a month or so sometimes sooner) she will go off food and start digging in corners at this point you will need to have a laybox for her so that she can lay her eggs. Below is how to setup a lay box.

Setting Up the Lay Box

First you will need to purchase a few things. These things are:

Now you will need to moisten the top soil until it is very damp but not wet. I like to create a 45 degree hole in one corner of the container, and I place the female head first into that corner. Her instincts will take over from here provided the top soil or sand is warm enough. Don't use vermiculite it's not that good for digging, and it's expensive compared to sand or top soil in large quanities... So save the vermiculite for incubation of the eggs...

Before the female is placed in the lay box you need to cut a hole in the top of the lid so the 40 watt spot light can shine down inside of the bin for warmth... I cut my holes just slightly larger than the diameter of the bulb, and the brooder/lamp fixture will rest on top of the lid...

Once that's all set, your female will dig for up to 2 hours before laying... But if she's not too picky she will lay almost immediately after finishing her first hole. Now she may dig "test" holes, where she might lay 1-2 eggs on one hole, and decide she doesn't like that hole. Then cover those eggs up and move on to another hole where she might lay the remainder of the eggs. So be sure to check all of the corners of the bin before deciding you have all of her eggs.

Caring for the Bearded Dragon Eggs

Now it’s time to transfer the eggs to your incubator which you should have already setup. Take your thumb and make small indents with it into the perlite/vermiculite mixture in your small containers and place one egg in each indent. Be certain not to turn the eggs from the way you pick them out of the laybox. Carefully place them in your container with the same spot being the top as it was in the laybox.

Now you have a 60-80 day wait on your babies. The eggs should swell to 2 or 3 times their initial size. You can do whats called candling the eggs to make sure they are fertile. Fertile eggs will have red veins and a red spot inside them. This is the fertilized embryo. You should not attempt this until at least 4-5 days after the egg was laid and you still need to make sure you do not accidentally turn the egg. NEVER TURN THE EGGS.

What you need to do now while you are waiting is let your female eat as much as she wants which I know it is against the normal adult care code. She needs it as she has lost a great deal of weight and nutrients (she will look extremely skinny). And look forward to more eggs in a month or 2. Did you know that? Your female can lay 3-4 clutches off of one breeding. Keep that in mind. You can end up with well over 100 baby beadies from one breeding.

Now its been 60-80 days and your eggs are collapsing. You notice movement. Do not help your beardies hatch this will severely injure them. They will take anywhere from 24 hours to a few days to get out of their egg. After they have hatched out you can leave them in the incubator for 12-24 hours then move them to the rearing tanks (that you should already have setup remember we talked about them earlier). For the first few days you will want to use damp paper towels as the lining on the bottom of the tank. This is so they don’t catch their yolk sack on something and pull it off. Once the yolk sack is absorbed you can use a normal substrate. Baby beardies need to be fed 3 times a day for the first few months. They also need to be soaked in a warm bath 3 times a week because the biggest cause of death in babies is dehydration.

Now if you are breeding your babies for resale (as I am sure you are) note that they should not be sold under 6 weeks old and 6 inches long. They are extremely fragile up to this point and very flighty. Most people purchasing from you will not be equipped to deal with a baby under this age and size. You should also give a care sheet with each baby to help the new parent care for your baby.

Well looks like you are pretty set. I hope this article helped to make you more knowledgeable on breeding. And gave you a better chance at succeeding. Good luck. Please post questions on the forum if you need to know something not covered here as I basically live there. Thanks for reading my long article.