2 New Dragons

[crazymum]

Hey all. My boyfriend and I just each got a baby bearded dragon. His from a pet store and he named it Spike. We do not know the age of his. we think roughly 2 or so months. My dragon we got from a young girl that has 2 adults and breeds them. He is 3-4 weeks old and is so tiny.

We are wondering when is a good time to introduce them to each other and how????? right now we have them in the same 55 gallon tank but there is a divider up seperating them from each other. Spike keeps *waving* when he goes close to Gizmo's side. What does that mean also??? It is a cardboard divider so they cannot see each other, just smell and feel through the sand....

any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank you
Holly and James

that is a picture of Spike. we guess he is roughly 2 months. any help on that??

 

[ashesc212]

Hi - congratulations on your new beardies. The pic is adorable.

A few things:
The hand waving is usually a display of submission, that they will not hurt whatever they are waving at.

Are you planning on housing them together? That is not a good idea. All beardies should be housed by themselves.

Also, it is important that you remove the sand and replace it with a better substrate such as paper towels or that green felt-like substrate. Sand can cause a beardie to become impacted.

What are you using for a UVB light and heat lamp?

 

[crazymum]

we are using a 10 uvb and a 150 heat lamp for the bigger one and the lil one at the moment we have just the heat rock. and the 10 uvb as well. yes we are planning on housing them together. Gizmo's parents are both together and we slowly introduced to each other. So we are wondering the best method to do that.

We are curious why everyone says not to house them together, yet you see so many bearded dragons housed together.

 

[LJean]

Hello and welcome! Congrats on getting your beardies!

There are a few reasons not to house them together.

If they are male and female, the male can constantly try to mate with the female causing her much stress. Too many clutches/mating can cause health issues with the female. Also, mating too early can be disastrous.

With two males, there is a good chance there will be fighting over territory resulting in one or both dragons seriously injured or killed. We have seen it here on the boards.

Two females may get along well enough to house together. They will need to be in a very large viv with multiple basking spots though.

Size difference in beardies can be an issue too. The smaller one may be intimidated and be too stressed to eat etc.

 

[crazymum]

well at the time being we more want them together just so that they are not lonely. As they get older we would seperate them or keep them together if it is a male and a female. which is what we are hoping for.

right not also i have another question. my bfs beardie will lie on his basking log with his back legs flat against his side is that normal????

 

[LJean]

Oh yeah. Oscar will lay with not only back legs back by his side, but the front ones too.

 

[crazymum]

ok so it is normal then? i thought maybe it was from being sick or whatever that word is that everyone uses. Im still really new at BD's as we have only had the bigger of the 2 for a week on sunday

 

[LJean]

Yes, beardies can sleep in the stranges and most uncomfortable positions.

 

[crazymum]

Thats interesting to know. Spike likes to go and hide under the plants whenever I go out there. He does not seem to like me much. He always puffs up at me but not to James. So I stick to my lil Gizmo. He loves to have me pick him up and hold him. He will fall asleep in my hand.