If not, please refer to one of the many bearded dragon care books mentioned earlier. Assuming that you have a sexual pair one male, one female of mature dragons, reproduction may take place regardless of what measures you take. However, if your goal is to produce the maximum number of viable, healthy babies while placing minimal stress on your breeders, special actions will need to be taken.
First and foremost, it is essential that both your adult dragons are in prime health. The male should be at least 18 months old, and the female closer to 24 months old. While some dragons will mature and become capable of breeding earlier, doing so may prove harmful to them over time.
Both animals should have ideal body weight, well hydrated, and show no signs of disease prior to conditioning them for breeding. To further ensure that breeding occurs, the lizards should be subjected to a pseudo-brumation, that is a brief period of time typically from mid December to mid February where both temperature and photoperiod are altered. This action simulates the brief winters that these animals would encounter in nature.
The process not only triggers behavioral breeding activity, but the reduced temperatures seem necessary to induce spermatogenesis in males. During this period of inactivity, basking temperatures should be reduced to around 80 degrees during the day. Night temperatures may drop to as low as 50 degrees, but around 60 degrees is not only sufficient, but slightly safer as well.
In addition to reduced temperatures, the photoperiod should be altered so that the animals receive roughly 10 hours of light and 14 hours of darkness. This is an approximate opposite of what they should receive during the rest of the year.
Most bearded dragons will show reduced appetite and activity during the winter months, even if the above actions are not taken.
But as mentioned earlier, to ensure viable sperm from the male and receptiveness from the female, these steps are highly recommended. It should be noted that during their winter cool down, bearded dragons will behave very differently than normal. They may eat very little, spend large amounts of time in hiding, and refuse to bask.
These are all normal behaviors. Water should always be made available, and food may be offered occasionally, but there is no need for concern as long as the lizards appear hydrated, and exhibit only minimal weight loss. By mid to late February, environmental conditions should be returned to normal.
After a few days of higher temperatures and longer days, bearded dragons will regain their appetite with a vengeance. During this time, they should be fed heavily, especially the females who will have to support egg development in addition to their own metabolic needs. Calcium supplementation is also particularly important during this time. Typically within a month of being returned to normal conditions, the keeper will begin to see courtship behavior in the lizards.
The throats beards of male dragons will darken to nearly jet black. They will also exhibit head bobbing and an obvious interest in their female counterparts. Females will respond to the head bobbing with similar motions, coupled with a rather entertaining arm waving behavior, suspected to be a sign of appeasement and receptiveness to mate. The actual process of copulation may appear brutal by human standards.
The male dragon will chase the female around the enclosure until she fully submits. Male bearded dragons bite the neck of the female during breeding to ensure that she does not run off prior to the act being completed. Copulation will likely occur numerous times over a period of a few months. Pay close attention to the condition of the female lizard.
If the dragons are housed in too small of an enclosure, or if the male is simply over zealous, she may not be able to escape his mating attempts and become stressed. Typically large enclosures, visual barriers logs, rocks, etc. Actual egg laying occurs 4 to 6 weeks after a successful mating. Gravid carrying eggs females will become very plump prior to laying.
In fact, in many cases the outlines of the eggs may be visible through the females abdominal wall, resembling marbles. As the eggs grow inside of her, she will begin to eat less and less, usually fasting completely for a few days right before laying. When a female bearded dragon is ready to lay her eggs, she will begin searching for a suitable spot to deposit them.
She may be observed digging at the corners of the enclosure and seem hyperactive. At this point, a suitable place for her to deposit her eggs should be provided, and the water dish removed from the cage. Some keepers opt to simply place a box or deep pan of moist, sandy soil into the enclosure. This is a popular and proven technique, however, with this practice, there is still a chance of the eggs being laid elsewhere in the habitat, in which case they will likely desicate and perish before they can be retrieved by the keeper.
A second option is to procure a plastic tub or similar container with an 8 to 10 gallon capacity and a secure lid. The container, which will become the egg laying box, should be filled nearly to the top with at least 8 inches of moist, sandy soil. The soil mixture should be damp enough to barely clump when squeezed. As soon as digging behavior within the primary enclosure is observed, place the female into the box. Typically, instinct will take over, and she will dig a burrow and lay her eggs within a few hours.
If the eggs have still not been deposited after several hours in a lay chamber, the female should be returned to her normal enclosure and the process repeated the following day. Most bearded dragons lay their eggs in the afternoon or early evening, and if possible, place the female into the lay box during this time of day. Do not touch them anymore as soon as embryo starts forming. You can use Tupperware containers that are first filled with vermiculite.
The Tupperware containers are what you then place in the incubator. Vermiculite is mica that has been expanded by hot temperature. Some people use it in gardening. It is good for incubation because it has a good resistance to mold. It also holds water well. Other items that you could use in the place of vermiculite include perlite, damp soil, and even products that are designed for just the purpose.
Vermiculite is however more widely accepted. Get a Tupperware bowl that has the cover with ventilation holes in it. Put the vermiculite in the bowl and mix it with water. The water should be enough in the vermiculite but not such that it drips when squeezed. Make sure that all the eggs are individually placed into the vermiculite.
It should be buried halfway into the substance. The Bearded dragon eggs will get a bit bigger. Almost double its original size during incubation. Monitor the eggs regularly throughout incubation. Check the incubator temperature every day and Humidity levels twice a week. Condensed water on the lidos sign that that 5heres too much water.
Remove the lid for about twenty four hours to restore the moisture to an acceptable level. Dimpled or collapsing eggs are however signs that the eggs do not have enough moisture. Add ordinary water to the vermiculite of it is too dry. Try not to get water on the eggs though. The bearded dragon eggs will become white as the incubation progresses. They will also grow bigger to nearly double their original size. This is a sign that the eggs are viable and will produce healthy lizards.
Any other color other than white in eggs could indicate damaged or infertile eggs. You should not take them out however except if they father mold and are at risk of infecting other eggs. Remove the mold infected egg gently and watch the rest. Your bearded dragon eggs will hatch. The time it will hatch however depends on a number of factors such as temperature and humidity. Most dragons eggs take about sixty to eighty days to hatch though.
Do not touch the lizards. This point is critical in their developmental stage. They need to get a feel of the environment. Maybe they also need to gather as much strength as possible before they emerge. You should prepare multiple enclosures or cages now. Do not keep multiple bearded dragon babies together. They may fight to the death.
Get a gigantic enclosure if you absolutely have to keep multiples. Leave the lizards to emerge on their own. Do not pull or prod a baby bearded dragon from its egg. Healthy dragons will make it out on their own within two or three days of the initial opening of the egg. A gravid female bearded dragon will result in unfertilized eggs or an infertile egg and they will never hatch.
The extra care you give your pregnant bearded dragon should be the same as if it had a fertile egg. While most bearded dragons wait for a year or older to mate and produce offspring, but infertile pregnancies can happen much younger. Note: Some bearded dragons are completely infertile and never lay eggs at all. There is no way to predict this. Another big difference between fertile and infertile pregnancies is a non-mated pregnancy only lays one clutch where the mated pregnancy may lay more.
We have a separate post on how to tell if bearded dragon eggs are fertile to add to the information in this section. Get our pet owner's guide for bearded dragons and help your special friend live its best life. Click Here To Learn More.
Is your bearded dragon pregnant?
0コメント