Multiple dragons in the same cage?

I guess this is the right discussion category. I have a 6 inch probably female and a 9 inch male right now in separate cages they are growing out of quickly. I have read the care sheets and know your not suppose to keep males in the same cage or a male and a female in the same cage, but you can keep two females in the same cage as long as their is no "competition" (please let me know if this is incorrect). I am planning on building two 4'L x 2'-6"W x 2'H cages, one for each. My question is, if I get another female maybe two could I keep all three of the females in the same 4'L x 2'-6"W x 2'H cage as long as their is no "competition".
Awaiting your replies,
Bubba's Daddy

I would not keep more than 1 in a tank. Unless you can be there supervising them all the time, I have read too many horror stories about what happens when more than 1 beardie is housed together. I would not take the risk, but that is just my opionion.

bearded dragons should only be housed together to breed and even then your supposed to take the male out after theyve mated. some wont tolerate each other to begin with so mating isnt even an option.

i would advise you to buy a seperate enclosure for every single bearded dragon you bring home. this way theres no competing over food, basking areas or high spots.

also, 6" and 9" are pretty small but the male is bigger than the female. something bad could happen so quick you wouldnt have time to do anything. when theyre that little their limbs can come off easily .

It's hard to say, so much depends on the personalities of the dragons. For instance, there are a few here who have had success keeping 2 females together for their whole lives without any problems, but there are just as many (or more) who have had to separate female pairings because of problems that came up. I brought home 2 baby dragons, sisters, on the basis that I could keep them together without any problems. It was only a matter of months before one sister was dominating the other and I had to separate them. I kept the dominant dragon and now she's a very laid back adult, you'd never know by her behaviour when she's on her own that she can't be kept with others. Basically there's an inherent risk when you try to keep dragons together - if you do decide to try it, be prepared for the worst case scenario and have a separate home ready in case you need to separate the girls.

Suprised nobody has mentioned this but 2-3 in that size cage, absolutly not. That is way too small for multiple beardies of any sex. I think that there are times that you can house 2 females (of the same size) together and it works out. Myself personally, I wouldn't take the risk because if something happens, herp vets cost an arm and a leg. Good Luck with whatever you decide.

Good point, I missed the enclosure size. 4' long x 18 inches wide is considered the minimum size for a single adult dragon by many here (a 40g breeder at 36"x18" being absolutely bare bones minimum, and too small by many's consideration), while 4'x2'x2' is considered ideal for a single dragon. To attempt to house multiple females then, you'd be looking at something even larger to ensure that they both have enough space to themselves as well as to fit multiple basking and feeding areas to reduce/eliminate competition between animals.

I currently keep a male and a female together, they get along perfectly. More than likely it depends on each dragon's individual personality.

I took in a male/female pair whose owner was moving and could not keep them. I did separate them for a while. Believe it or not... they did better together than apart. I waited a while to make sure it wasn't just relocation stress... but these beardies prefer being together and are happier together. They eat better together (no competition that I've seen), they are more active. And they just plain look happier together. I still intend to watch them closely and I do have a spare enclosure in case one becomes dominant... but so far, these two seem to want to be together. I do think individual dragons are different, and I also think that in most cases dragons should be housed individually. But there seem to be exceptions to the rule.

Ugh…..I’m going to say this nice. I know that everyone has a lot of different opinions when it comes to BD’s and many times, more than one opinion can be right. I appreciate that people are going to do what they think is best for their BD’s, but there are A LOT of issues that come into play while attempting to house a male/female pair. Are either of you sure that your BD’s are not siblings? What do you plan to do if your female lays eggs? How can you be confident that your male is not over breeding your female without watching them 24/7? They can totally snap one day and attack each other after living together seemingly very well for years. If you don’t already know, it is seriously expensive to have to take an exotic animal to the vets.

There was a member on here not long ago that housed a male/female (for like 3-4 years) together with the same kind of sentiments that you have expressed. She said they enjoy/love each other’s company and were fine together. One day the female attacked the male out of the blue and I believe (don’t quote me, it was a little bit ago) the male had to have his boy parts and I think most of his tail amputated. It was horrible for the owner and she felt very responsible.

So point being, you might want to reconsider. If you don’t want to reconsider, that is fine but I really wish you would not advocate male/female BD’s living in the same enclosure on this forum as 98% of the members on here would never agree with that idea. We get a lot of beginners that come and read here and I would hate to think that they would try to do this based on your words and then have a serious issue.

This was meant in the nicest way possible and you guys can do as you choose, but there are very few members on this board that would advocate housing dragons like this.

Thank's a lot guys, BD.org is awesome and ya'll always help me make hard decisions. I've decided to make two separate enclosures 4'L x 3'D x 2'H one for each so I can be 100% sure there will be no trouble. When I get another dragon I will make another identical enclosure.

Bubba's Daddy

Thor's Mom":a5117 said:

There was a member on here not long ago that housed a male/female (for like 3-4 years) together with the same kind of sentiments that you have expressed. She said they enjoy/love each other’s company and were fine together. One day the female attacked the male out of the blue and I believe (don’t quote me, it was a little bit ago) the male had to have his boy parts and I think most of his tail amputated. It was horrible for the owner and she felt very responsible.

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Hey Thor's Mom just wanted to let you know the member's name was Ambulance, and yes you got it correct the genitals came out of the cloaca and would not go back in and had to be amputated. Poor guy...

Oh yeah, Ambulance. I knew it was something like that. All I could think of was Emergency, so I guess I was kind of on the right track. Thanks for the reminder. So yeah, I'm remembering better now. I don't think they had to amputate the tail, it was just the genitals. It was bad though and I remember that she felt horrible about it.