Breeding a Beardie and Egg Incubation

Breeding bearded dragons
It is proven that breeding your own bearded dragon can be done easily if you know how to do it properly because they bred very well in captivity. There are success stories you may hear from your friends, among the hobbyists community, on the forum or within your neighborhood.

Sexing bearded dragons
The first step of breeding your own dragons is that you need make sure that you have the male and female bearded dragons with you. There are many ways to distinguish the sex of the bearded dragons. The male will have head bobbing behaviors and female might have hand waving. However, one of the easy way is to check on the belly of the sexually matured dragons. You may notice that the male bearded dragon will have 2 large lumps on both side of the belly. For female, you hardly notice there’ll be any lump. If there is, it will a single lump at the center of the belly.

Healthy female bearded dragons
It is recommended to place several female bearded dragon with a single male dragon. Mating may be more likely with this combination. Make sure that your female dragon is sexually matured and healthy; at least 18 month-old, no disease and active.

Mating
During the mating, male will bite the neck of the female to position itself for sexing. If the biting is too serious, please remove the female to avoid injuries. After the mating, remove her from the male to avoid stress. Remember to feed the female calcium as laying eggs may need high calcium.

Eggs Laying
If the bearded dragons are successfully mated, the female will lay the eggs within 6 weeks. Thus, you need to prepare a egg laying box. The substrate used for the box should be a mixture of sand and soil which is easy for bearded dragon to dig for holes as nest for eggs laying. Keep in mind that the substrate should be deep enough to place the eggs, at least 4 times height of a normal egg.

Bearded Dragon’s Eggs Incubation
You may keep in eggs inside the box while removing the bearded dragon after she has finished on laying the eggs. Normally a clutch of eggs is about 15 to 40 eggs. She will be thinner or skinny once she has done the laying. Be sure that the box is air ventilated, and keep at warm temperature of 82 to 86 F.

Within 74 days, you may expect the born of hatchling. However, it is good practice to use commercial incubator to incubate the bearded dragon’s eggs.