Beardie company

[Cocky]

So my girlfriend bought me a beardie book which is really good and very informitive however. It has some intersting information on behavior.

It says that beardies are sociable animals that establish a heirachy and can get lonely especially males, the main rule to keeping them together is size and they need to be the same size, and have plenty of food available.

Beardies will get aggressive with eachother if they feel their is a lack of food, and as get older are less likely to fight, they may posture to establish dominance but should not hurt each other.

Also it mentions some soft substrate is required as rocks or sandstone can cause problems after a while as it can irritate and rub the soft underbelly and get infected, some horrible pictures of it.

Now this is completly the opposite to what people say on here, its written by 3 beardie experts after 10 years of breeding and raising.

Too much contradiction with beardies.

 

[bluebattosai]

I've seen people successfully keep two or three dragons together without problems. The reason why its recommended not to (from what I was told by a breeder) is if you can't get each dragon enough food at all times they will fight each other when food is presented in front of them. I was also told that they can get lonely if they were raised in an environment with other dragons for almost all their life, but can adapt. I don't know if it's true or anything, but the dragons he had seemed to be perfect health.

 

[Cocky]

Yeah thats what this book says, they adapt to living alone but are happier with company as they communicate and stimulate behavior.

As most nips and injuries occure when young due to overcrowding or not enough food as babies.

 

[diamc]

I have to totally disagree with what the book says about housing 2 beardies together. We have 2 males and 2 females and I honestly can't imagine any of them together. Two males (except babies) will fight to the death if housed together and a male housed with a female will want to breed non-stop not allowing her to bask, eat or do anything else that she wants to do. So, injuries do not have to occur because just because of overcrowding and certainly not from just babies that are not fed enough. These are just a few important factors but there are a LOT more reasons to not house them together, especially adults.

As far as using soft substrates, they can breed bacteria because it's impossible to remove all the liquid when they poop. I have had beardies for about 9 years and they were always kept on either non-adhesive shelf liner or slate tiles and none of them ever had any skin problems at all.

The problems with books is that they get outdated. Do you have any idea when the book was printed?

 

[Cocky]

thats why i said too much contridiction.

As people also will say the same about sand and other things, that never had problems.

Also tile is not rough so would reduce the risk anyway.

Its all risk, none is a definate.

And I agree many factors can contribute to injuries etc I just happened to mention a couple from memory.

Printed in 2003 so I guess things do get updated but the basics stay the same, it does have a good section on diseases and causes though.