30/11/2015
QUESTION AND ANSWER SUBMITTED BY MARVIC (MALTA)
We received a message from an owner of 2 bearded dragons locally. Asking for help, after they realised one of their Dragons was stressed!
Question from Marvic:
Andi 2 bearded dragons jajxu go vivarium wihed, mara u ragel u ed naraha mux posta, hin kollu ticaqlaq u qisa qeda puffed gisimha l hin kollu. Ed nisuspetta li tista tkun gravid. Ma tajnix wahda kif nkun certa u xnista namlilha filkas uwx pls?
House Of Dragons Malta's Answer:
To start off, Bearded dragons should never be housed together, you may find information out there saying its okay to keep females together or one mMale and a female. The truth is there have been many cases were co-habitation has caused severe injury, were Dragons end up with missing limbs. I have also talked to people locally where one of their dragons ate another dragon, although this was because of size differences. Bearded dragons are calm and friendly creatures, but like all animals they can fight especially from our example Marvic gave us, where a male and a Female are housed together. The Male might be showing signs and trying to breed with the female, whilst the female is not ready to breed, causing a huge amount of stress to the female. If the female is gravid (full of eggs) the chance is that they are fertile, since a Male is housed with her. Ideally a lay box should be prepared with moist coco fibre or sand, the female should be placed in a largeplastic bin with the substrate prepared, with about 1 foot of depth (minimum) provided with UVB lighting and a heat lamp on one side. A sign a female is about to lay is that she will stop eating about 1-3 days prior to the laying and she will start digging and scratching restlessly in her vivarium. the female should be left in quiet to lay eggs. after she's ready a nice bath should be given together with some electrolytes to rehydrate and water. she should also be fed and placed back in her vivarium on her own to rest and warm up. I suggest the female is placed in the lay box for a while and that another vivarium is ready and prepared, so that after she lays if thats the case, both dragons are separated from each other. dont hesitate to ask questions.
Good day to all of you and your scaly Buddies :)
Thanks,
HOD House of Dragons Malta
