boys and girls together
 

Hi there,
Apologies if this has been answered somewhere else on the site. I'm a complete beginner and got my first beardies last week from a reptile store near me. They are adults - male and female (Jake and Elwood) and the male is smaller than the female - and both seem pretty healthy. But I want to know if I should separate them. They were in a tank together at the store and seem happy together in their tank at home, although Jake has tried to mount Elwood a few times. She shakes him off without much fuss but I'm alarmed as I read today on other forums that male and female beardies should never be kept together because the females get stressed out.

I'd tried to educate myself as much as possible before getting them by reading stuff on the the internet and a couple of books, including the Advanced Vivarium Systems book. It said keeping a male and female together was ideal, as the males get lonely on their own but if you get two guys they fight, so I feel a bit of a fool if this is wrong. I obviously didn't do as much research as I'd thought and I don't want to hurt my beardies. Should I get another tank and split them up?

Thanks in advance for your help. Essexboy

YES! The male will eventually aggravate the crap out of the female when he comes into sexual maturity. My Drako was housed with his sister Aries since they were little babies but as soon as they both hit a year old WHAM! he would try to mount her, bite her nape ( back of her neck), he would flare his body out and circle her and everything he could do to make her submissive and be the under dog. As for the book telling you hty eget lonely..well they get lonely when they r in the mood! Lol :) but actually bearded dragons really like to be on their own knowing that they see any other dragon around them they take that other dragon as an intruder not a buddy to talk to. I would recommmend you to get a 55 galoon for both of them but it really depends on their size, I just recently bought a female from a member on here and she is way more buff than anythign but she is wide and fat in toehr words so I wen twith a 75 gallon instead. Just be carefull if you let them close to each other, when your not looking is pretty much when he might do something to her...or the oppisite, I had a german giant female that was just up to her last nerve with one of my males that kept bothering her and one day I made the mistake of putting them in the same crate to take to the vet and when I got there she had his head into her mouth.. my mistake but I cant blame her or him for it..just my irresponsible care taking...I wil lnever do that again, thats why if I take them somewhere or bathe them I do it girls with girls and boys alone by themselves!!! thats the number one rule I go by : BOYS BY THEMSELVES..ALL THE TIME! Hope this helps

i would defintley not keep them together because once the male gets bigger hormones kick in he thinks he's king and will force her to submit to him. i dont even like to keep females together becuse of the chance that one would hurt the other.

boys & girls together
 

Thanks for your advice guys. That's really helpful.