Male DRagon breeding Ages

Good Afternoon

I. v been keeping beardies now for about 5 years. I breed them in small numbers, nothing major. But was wondering what would be a good age to retire a male dragon from breeding. I'v read many articles and books but haven''t found one that says anything about this. They all talk about how they mature quicker then females and breed at younger ages,but nothing else. I have a 5 year old male that i stopped using 2 years ago, and have another getting close to 3 years now. I would hate to attempt to breed or purchase one thats to old. Then end up with babies that have problems. So far I haven't gone over 3 years with either male or female, just to stay away from this problem.

Thank You for ay info and Replies.

Breeding age

Hi Armando,

I find males start playing around sometimes but not always, in the 1st year. he 2nd and 3rd year are usually the most productive, but if you know how to keep them healthy they might breed in to their 5 year. After that I'm not sure because I haven't seen much breeding behavior past 5-6 and usually give my older dragons to friends when they're 8-9yrs old.
But concerning buying a breeder, I wouldn't buy one past 3yrs if you want to get a few good breeding years, and, you don't know about prior care and if he's healthy. Unless it's a reputable breeder or you can get a health guarantee.
I myself prefer to start out with juvenile to sub-adult, because the beginning of their life is important to their overall health, and you could condition him properly from the beginning to be a big healthy boy.
If you spend that extra year conditioning him, with a proper diet and supplementation, it could make a big difference in productivity, and his size and the size of his babies as well.
Same thing goes for buying females.

If I were you I wouldn't buy old males or females I agree with Gina sub adults are good to buy. I have had a male breed at 4 years old and after that I stopped breeding him. You shouldn't be worried about breeding problems with old males if he is healthy and not realted to the girl then you shouldn't have any problems.

Thank for the replies GINA and MAX. I haven't really used any past 3. It was a question that came to my mind the other day and never really had an answer to. But 3-4 sounds good to me. I still have my older ones but as pets only, my girlfriend doesn't want to get rid of them since they were our first ones. I think the oldest I'v purchased was a 10 month old no older. I agree on purchaing them rather young that way you raise them right from the start and you the greater part of their life history, rather then guessin.

We have bred up to year four as long as they are healthy. We unfortunately bought some sick dragons that spread it to our family dragons so they eventually passed and we had to start over and quit buying older dragons due to disease.

RulingReptiles said:

We have bred up to year four as long as they are healthy. We unfortunately bought some sick dragons that spread it to our family dragons so they eventually passed and we had to start over and quit buying older dragons due to disease.

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Wow who sis you buy those from? what did they have?
Max