ok breeding confusion?!?!?!
 

OK I was told and have lived by the rule that u should never ever breed a female till she is at LEAST 18 months.....but on dachiu www site they have females that breed at 8-10 months?????


http://www.dachiu.com/care/eggrates.html


I don't understand someone shed sum light plz

too young for sex?
 

I have bred beardeds several times. My very first dragon I ever had I bought as a baby. I bred her (on accident) @ about 9 months. I got 24 eggs and 100% success. I have bred others that young as well and got great clutches out of them. I guess what I am saying is Yes you can breed that young but some people would rather not. I am getting back into breeding them and my new rule of thumb is 12 months or older.
Sorry, I just like the Smilies.

Brian S :toiletcla :uzi:

Oh! I can answer this!

Please take note that the listed egg rates are from 5-6 years ago and were posted purely for informational purposes.

There were a few March-April females that grew phenominally well throughout spring, summer and fall - unfortunately, we dont have the records of lengths and weights on them anymore.

Back to the point - They chose to put themselves into brumation around Thanksgiving time and when they came around, displaying the typical characteristics of a female that is ready to breed, we placed them with their partners. These females were bred at the age listed and laid eggs approx. 4 weeks later. Keep in mind, we did not intentionally cycle these females, they decided to stop eating and hide/sleep.

Throughout the year we usually have a few females who reach 17+ inches and decide to cycle whether we plan on it or not and we also have the occasional clutch of eggs that develops unprompted - the last incident always resulting in infertile eggs. Once we see that a female is either dropping off or cycling randomly we adjust their schedules.

If a female wants to brumate, we try to put it off til they are 10 months so that breeding will occur at just over a year.

If they dump a clutch of suprise infertiles, we introduce them to a male. They are going to lay eggs - fertile or not. If 3 clutches are coming this season, then youre going to get 3 clutches this season no matter if she's bred or not. Id rather have fertile eggs if the female is going to go through her breeding cycle. We dont usually cage these females with the males, just introduce them for copulation purposes and remove them to their own cage.

There are many theories as to what the best age to breed a dragons is. Some say over 300 grams and other say no younger than 18 months. Its really a personal choice. We shoot for 12 months+ but it doesnt always happen that way. The best thing you can do is keep a close eye on your dragons and do what you feel would be best for them.

Good Luck.

There's always inherent problems if you try to make any animal fit into a nice little box when is comes to husbandry. Exceptions are the rule, and rules of thumb are little more than vague guidelines.
Take each animal as an individual. Some will mature earlier, some later. My methods of raising babies may provide very different results than yours. The point is don't structure your breeding program based on what other people say is right. Let the animals tell you what they want to do, that's the best way to see success.
Just as Vickie said, if the dragon decides she's going to brumate, then let her. She knows better than we do and just because she isn't at what we believe to be the correct age doesn't mean she isn't fully capable of producing a fertile clutch of eggs.
I raised beardeds for 9 years or so and I can back up Vickie's comment that they will produce eggs when they are ready, whether bred or not. This is not invariably true, as I have raised females who died of old age and were never bred because they displayed traits I did not want to pass on. Additionally, I have seen that an unbred female who goes on to produce a clutch of eggs has an increased chance of problems with the clutch, egg binding etc.
The point is it makes no difference what the "experts" say. Your animals will tell you everything they want, if you are paying attention.
As far as the 18 month rule, based soley on my own experience, this is usually going to be too long. If raised under optimum conditions nearly all females will be sexually mature before 18 months of age. By optimum I mean raising the babies under conditions that result in maximum growth rate without compromising the health or well being of the lizard.
From my observation of the methods of some breeders though, optimum conditions are not always provided. It's not that their methods are not adequate, just that they could be realizing a better rate of growth and production if some changes were made.