If you have a male and a female bearded dragon living together, it’s not a question of whether they will mate, but how to stop them and what to do next. This article provides tips on planned and unplanned reproduction, from egg laying and incubation to rearing the young.

It’s ridiculously easy to breed bearded dragons. Put a male and a female together and they will continue to mate until you separate them. As the female retains sperm in her body, she is likely to lay multiple clutches of eggs from one mating. Each clutch may have 20 to 30 eggs, and although two is the norm, there may be three or more clutches at 3 to 4 week intervals. Breeding bearded dragons is not something to be undertaken lightly.

Accidental maturation

If you accidentally have a male and a female, and are seeking advice because you think the female is gravid (carrying eggs), then before you rush out and buy an incubator, think carefully about what you are assuming. It’s very exciting the first time your pets breed, but don’t let your heart rule your head. You will need to raise the pups until they are 6 weeks or older, which takes a lot of time and a lot of money. If too many baby beards are kept together, their tails and toes will be cut off, and babies with missing parts are less likely to sell. To properly house the pups, you need to have a 2-foot vivarium for every 5 babies, so you can start to see where the expense is coming from. After 8 weeks, you will need to find homes for all of them; You could sell them to a wholesale pet store, but you won’t get enough money to cover what you’ve spent raising them. Selling each one separately as a result of publicity is rewarding as you get to know which homes they go to, but this takes time and in the meantime the young grow and eat. Bearded Dragon breeding should not be taken lightly, although it is a great experience.

If you are worried about money or don’t have enough time, the best thing to do in the event of an accidental mating is to freeze the eggs as soon as they are laid. This stops the development of the embryo and is the kindest way to get rid of them. NEVER throw them away with the trash; there is a chance that they can hatch in the garbage heap. It is better to stop the development of the eggs than to not be able to find suitable homes for all of them. Be sure to separate the male and female into different vivariums so they don’t have a chance to mate again.

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If you are seriously thinking of breeding your bearded dragons, you need to make sure you have an unrelated male and female. If you have color morphs, you’ll find it easier to sell them, especially if the babies happen to be a nice color. Breeders really enjoy experimenting with different color morphs, and will likely find a better market than someone selling “normal” morphs. The same advice about making sure you’ll be able to find homes for them still applies and it helps to do a little research first to find out what minors sell for locally. Even with color transformations (unless they’re rare), you’re unlikely to make a significant profit.

Incubation

From mating to egg laying takes 4-6 weeks. During this time, you should make arrangements for an incubator and also arrange for housing the hatchlings. You can buy incubators, or it’s quite easy to make one. Try and get a Styrofoam box from a garden center that sells pond fish, the kind they use to transport Koi Carp is ideal. Make sure you get one with a lid. If you buy other things there at the same time, you might get this for free.

You will need some vermiculite for the eggs to rest on and you can use cricket boxes as egg containers. Collect them, as you will need one box for every six or eight eggs. Depending on the method you are using, you will need a heat mat with a thermostat or an aquarium heater. Bearded dragon eggs need a high level of humidity. Method 1 involves placing the heat mat on the bottom of the incubator next to a large container of water. Method 2 is to fill the bottom of the incubator with about 4 to 5 inches of water and place the aquarium heater in the water. With both methods, make a grill (we used perforated zinc) to fit nicely over the top, supported by something like bricks. The accessory must be tight so that the hatchlings cannot fall into the water! You should try and set up the incubator a few days before the eggs are laid so that the temperatures stabilize. You should aim for a constant from 83f to 85f (28 – 29c).

When the female is about to lay eggs, place an egg case filled with moist sand in the vivarium. We encouraged our female to dig into her laying box by opening a tunnel in the sand so she would get the idea. It is best if the temperature of the sand is 28 °C (83 °F). We used a triangular cat litter tray that fit nicely in the cool end corner of the vivarium.

When the eggs are laid, they should be carefully placed on moist vermiculite in the cricket boxes. When you remove the eggs from the laying box, be very careful not to change the orientation from which they were ugly. Flipping an egg could kill the embryo inside.

Hatching

Put the boxes in the incubator and sit back and wait. Patience is needed now: the eggs will take 50-100 days to hatch. The longest I’ve heard of is 112 days! If the eggs are fertile they should be a nice creamy white colour, if they are infertile they will be yellow. A female’s first clutch is usually infertile. Some eggs may collapse during the first few days and must be removed. If all the eggs start to dimple, the humidity in the incubator is not high enough. Sprinkle with vermiculite, but don’t pour water on the eggs.

Keep checking the eggs regularly and remove any that are obviously not going to hatch. When hatching is imminent, the eggs will begin to dimple and gradually you should see a small head poking out. The hatchlings take up to 24 hours to hatch; don’t help them, it’s better to let nature do its job. Once one begins to hatch, the others should follow for the next 3-4 days. If there are any unhatched eggs left, leave them in the incubator; do not try to cut the egg to help the hatchling, almost none survive. If they cannot hatch on their own, it is as nature intended.

There are two lines of thought as to whether you should remove the hatchling immediately after it is out of the egg, or leave it in the incubator. I left mine on until the egg sac was completely absorbed after hatching. If you move them, watch out for any egg sacs that are still attached.

You can now move the hatchlings to their vivariums and start growing. They may not eat for 3-4 days, but they do provide smaller sized crickets and very finely chopped vegetables. They’ll soon get the idea! Nurseries for hatchlings should be plain and simple, with kitchen paper as a substrate and a rock or branch for basking. That way they can easily find the crickets to eat.

For the next few weeks, you will need to buy crickets in bulk and clean the hatchlings. Regular handling will help them get used to people. You should not think about finding new homes for the young until they are six weeks or older. When they move to a new home, it takes up to 2 weeks for them to get over the stress of moving and start eating again. A younger calf will not have accumulated enough fat reserves to survive this adaptation period. Of course, before you get to the stage of selling the first batch of hatchlings, the second batch will have already started to hatch!

Breeding bearded dragons is hard work, but very rewarding, but like raising any pet, it should not be taken lightly.