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Fighting or Wooing?!!!

Faithfultiger

Faithfultiger

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New to the forum and could do with some advice please....

We've had our beardies since December 04 and believe they were about 8mths at that time - so they will be just about 2yrs old right now.

There is definitely one male and one female and over the last couple of months or so the male has started to become more 'aggressive' towards the female, displaying with his beard jet black and bobbing like crazy. She doesn't respond much, occasionally changing to a very salmon pinky/orangy colour with some small bobbing. Generally though, she just tries to keep out of his way! :bolt01:

Just in this last week though he has got worse and is throwing himself round the tank :nuts:, even displaying at us through the glass and she has got a small (about the size of a scale) wound on her bottom lip at the left hand side just in front of the eye area. It has looked just like a bruise until today when it looks like a couple of the scales have come off and it's quite red and raw.

It's ok when we're here during the day to take them out for a while (they like to sit on the windowsill) and when they're out he's fine and leaves her alone, but when we're at work all day I have no idea what they're up to!

I think the questions are: Is he being aggressive, nasty or is he being amorous and would it help if we found a 2nd female of similar age to add to his harem?! (the viv is 4'x2'x2').

Any suggestions or help gratefully accepted!

Thanks
Manic Mandi!
 
im not sure but i dont think thats normal. with my beardys (they are about 7-8 months) and one of them is really alot bigger than the other one is so i have to keep the tank separated but my tank is to big so there is not a divider for it, but you could go to your pet store and get one but try not to get it clear becasue the male in your case will probibly stress out the female so paint it if you have to i put a smaller tank inside the bigger one. but if that does not work out for you, you could put a smaller tank inside the bigger one. (i hope this helps but before you go with my information get more information to make sure that this is a good idea because i am not exactly sure it is agressiveness but pritty)
 
Faithfultiger said:
I think the questions are: Is he being aggressive, nasty or is he being amorous and would it help if we found a 2nd female of similar age to add to his harem?! (the viv is 4'x2'x2').

Any suggestions or help gratefully accepted!

Thanks
Manic Mandi!
Click to expand...


Hello and welcome, Mandi!!!

I would guess he's "in the mood". It's not uncommon for a male to bite the female and cause a wound like you described. If you don't want them to breed and don't want to risk further harm to your female, separate them. It's possible he has already bred her though.

Adding a second female usually does little good in calming down a horny male. He'll just end up attempting to breed her as well. Also the 2 females could end up fighting with each other.
 
beardedboy said:
ya ok my info was rong sory lol
Click to expand...

No sweat, we all have to learn somewhere. With bearded dragons a lot of people have will have a lot of diffrent opinions on the same topic.

A lot of the times you just have to see what works best for you and your dragons. I tried a million diffrent things and million diffrent suggestions before I got found out worked best for me. I still try new things that other members suggest, some work, some don't.
 
Well that is kinda what I thought but wasn't really sure, not having kept beardies before. I'm not worried about the breeding and tbh had hoped originally that we'd got one of each - the next thing if/when she does lay, is to try to hatch them although the local herp shop have said they would be happy to help.

We just came in from being out in town and he was sitting dozing quietly in his tree and she was the one who was going mad running round the tank (and still is!).... seems like they take it in turns to have their mad-hours (plural!). I just hand fed them some locusts and mealworms, making sure that they had the same number as each other. They've both got very healthy appetites still despite the shop saying that they would stop eating us out of house and home when they reached about 1yr! He has definitely grown a bit more than her - although they're still very similar in length, his head is a lot wider and the base of his tail is thicker. I just put that down to him being male though.

We gave them a bath this morning. Bit of a shock for them when they first went in and they both tried jumping out but soon settled down and lay with their bellies flat on the bottom... they even both started drinking the water, which was a bit of a surprise as we were told not to give them a water dish as they would get all their fluids from the salad/veg in their diet. Wondering whether to give them water now too?

Geez, I seem to have so much to say about them don't I?!! It's probably because we don't actually know anyone else who has one and it's nice to find people with a common interest. Think I'll put up some pictures - although I do already have a load of them on Webshots here http://community.webshots.com/user/faithfultiger if anyone wants to take a peek.


Oh btw, we also have 3 female lep geckos, 1 white spotted gecko, 5 barrel skinks, 1 berber skink and the 2 beardies!).

Sorry to go on.... and on.... and on ;)

Now you can see why my 'other' nickname is 'Manic Mandi'!! hee hee
 
Giving them a bath is a good way to let them get water. Just make sure that the water stays clean and fresh. Mine always poop in the bath water and after that I drain it and start over fresh..... :hehe:

I bathe mine about once a month and in between I mist them and the enclosure with a spray bottle every other day or so. They will drink the water that you spray on their heads and the water you sprayed on the walls of the enclosure. I don't put a water bowl in the enclosure either. They always poop in it. :rolleyes:

Btw, your dragons are beautiful. Be sure to check out the other forums too. The leopard gecko forum here is bangin.
 
beardedboy said:
how do you give them a bath i have never herd of doing that
Click to expand...

If the dragons are small you can run a sink of warm water and let them soak in it. Just make sure that their feet can still touch bottom. Never walk away from them, they sometimes jump out. Also, if there is more than one they will climb on each other and possibly stand on another dragons head and drown it. With bigger dragons it's the same thing. Just use a bath tub instead of a sink.
 
Er yeah, they do like to poop in the bath!! It seems to relax them (when they get used to it that is!) but then it's a battle to get them out without them dragging it with them...

We tried misting them but they seemed to really hate it so gave that up - will give it another go though, I'm sure they'll get used to it.

beardedboy said:
how do you give them a bath i have never herd of doing that
Click to expand...
We run the bath so it is tepid and only deep enough in the deepest part to go to the tops of their legs when they're standing up. As the bath has a slope to it, they can choose the depth that they want to sit in, with the shallowest end having very little or no water at all.

Let them have a play in it for 5-10mins. We dribble a little water over their backs (but not their heads) and just watch them to see that they're ok. Never leave them unattended, even for a second, a disaster wont wait until you're there to see it!

It's something we've always done with our other lizards 'occasionally' but will certainly do it more often with these guys.


Rebel Dragons said:
your dragons are beautiful
Click to expand...
Why, thank you very much. I've just been checking out your website, some really good info on there. I'll bookmark it and go back to see when you've put some more stuff up. Meanie is very yellow coloured - I've seen quite a few photos of the different colourations but I've never 'actually' seen one. I think Millie's colouration is quite striking when she's in the right mood but Spike is pretty bland really!
 
Thanks for your compliments!!! I am having a hard time uploading pics since I moved to a new host. I'm still working on it though. :)


I got Meanie from www.MyBeardedDragon.com

If want to see some AMAZING colors visit www.Dachiu.Com Vickie and Rob have dragons that I could only dream about having!!!
 
An interesting development today.

After doing A LOT of reading up on mating, substrates, laying etc etc I went out today and bought a shed load of 'play sand'. The substrate that all our lizards have (bought from the repti-shop we got the BDs from) is a little like very small wood-chips. Having read about impaction etc and watching Millie 'digging' in it but not getting far as it wasn't deep and they'd just end up with a bare floor I thought I'd try them on the sand instead. I have just this afternoon put in 2-3 inches and then replaced the furniture, although in a slightly different manner so that it gave her room to dig in the back corner if she wanted to.

They've only been in it about an hour and I just got called in. Millie has already dug a huge hole and is sitting in it staring out with Spike sat on his log above watching her. I doubt very much whether she's already gravid but maybe she's practicing?!

I'm wondering if perhaps she wasn't being receptive to him before because the environment wasn't to her liking.

I also bought some vermiculite and have started looking at setting up an incubator 'just in case'.
 
holy mackerel!
you may have eggs on the way.

how exciting for you.
she could be practicing.
how old is she?
also, when she is finished with her hole, if there are no eggs, get her out and feel gently on her belly. you usually can feel the hard knots in the belly.
( becareful when you look for eggs! you dont want to move them much until your ready to incubate.)
 
We 'think' they're both almost exactly 2yrs as we were told they were 'about' 8mths when we bought them in Nov04.

We've been taking her out of the viv fairly regularly over the last couple of weeks and I haven't felt anything, also her belly is quite flat so don't think there's anything there just yet.

Just got home from work and there is another dig site.... lol
 
Trust me, you will know when she is gravid. Torwards the last week or so her stomach will feel as if there a 25 marbles in it. :hehe: It's awesome felling the eggs like that and you'll never forget it.
 
I am excited at the prospect but equally very nervous 'if' she does lay with regard to incubation, hatching and the first few months of life.... not really sure we've got enough room for them tbh as our only remaining tank is tiny and I use it as a 'sick' tank if any of our other lizards needs seperating out from the rest for a short period.

There is the possibility of putting our Berber Skink in with the White Spotted Gecko (they have been roomies before but Whitey isn't a very nice companion!) but would rather not.

Thing is, I know this needs thinking about and arranging NOW before it's too late!
 
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