Breeding

I’ve been trying to breed my bearded dragons and they seem to give each other signs that they want mate but the problem is that I have sand as my substrate and is wondering if the sand is the problem.

While I myself use sand, it's not recommended and actually discouraged. So, unless you want to get repetitively "educated" on the substrate topic, I'd switch to something like tile. As for the question, I don't think that should be a problem. Do you have a lay box?

Yeah I have a laybox why?

HI, since their are so many variables(such as if your female isn't submitting by arm waving) so here, this search will bring you to some helpful forums and a reptile magazine post which also mentions a lot, see if it matches up with what you're doing. https://www.google.com/search?q=why+my+bearded+dragons+arent+breeding&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

The sand should be removed regardless of whether you're breeding your dragons. And this isn't me "beating you up" over the topic, it's me trying to save you a lot of money, time, and heartache, as loose substrates in general are not only dangerous to Dragons, but they are totally unnatural...The Australian Deserts they come from contain little to no sand at all, they are hard, rocky terrain with vegetation, so why would you want to make your Dragon live in a totally unnatural environment, regardless of the health issues they cause? Also, everyone thinks of Bowel Impactions as the main issue with loose substrates because Dragons lick everything, and while this is a huge issue, it's not the main risk you are presenting to your dragons by keeping them on sand...It's the fact that Dragons are so very prone to chronic Upper Respiratory Infections, Skin/Scale Infections, and Eye Infections when they live on loose substrates, as they harbor and breed all microbes including bacteria, fungi, parasite, protozoa, etc. So the bottom line with that is that it's just a totally unnecessary risk that you are putting your dragons in the middle of.

As far as it being a barrier to them breeding, if you have to ask that question, that tells me that you are not prepared to breed them in the first place. Sorry, not trying to be rude or condescending, but it's the truth. There are already literally thousands of baby, juvenile, and adult Bearded Dragons of all morphs and colors all over Craigslist and other sites, in every state, every town, because people think it's a good idea to breed their dragons. Unless you already have homes for potentially 30 babies per clutch, times 2-3 clutches per mating, so potentially 90 baby dragons from one breeding session, then beware.

Hm when a female is pregnant, can you feel the eggs in her stomach?

Are you prepared to feed and house 30/60/90 babies for three months minimum? We're talking literally thousands of dollars here. If you're planning on selling you won't even make a fraction of your overhead back unless you are breeding legitimately high end morphs, which you're not.

AsianKido":244t73mh said:

Hm when a female is pregnant, can you feel the eggs in her stomach?

Click to expand...

As I understand it a lot of times you can. If you can't feel them it doesn't mean they aren't there though. An x-ray or ultrasound may reveal eggs that aren't apparent in a manual exam.