Curious

[MsCarter]

Hello all, I currently have a female bearded dragon and am interested in getting a male in the future. Even though I know females can display the same behaviors as males, I've never witnessed my female head bob or black beard. I'm curious to hear from those with male and female beardies. Is there a noticeable difference in the behavior between the two? If so do you think it's do to the gender difference? And at what age do males begin head bobbing and black bearding? Wondering if this is puberty related or something only older dragons do to display male dominance

 

[kingofnobbys]

Hello all, I currently have a female bearded dragon and am interested in getting a male in the future. Even though I know females can display the same behaviors as males, I've never witnessed my female head bob or black beard. I'm curious to hear from those with male and female beardies. Is there a noticeable difference in the behavior between the two? If so do you think it's do to the gender difference? And at what age do males begin head bobbing and black bearding? Wondering if this is puberty related or something only older dragons do to display male dominance

Rex my big 4 year old girl sometimes headnods and blackbeards.

Usually the blackbeard means she's not happy about something. Her headnods are slow and usually come with alternative arm waves (at our boy beardie - was Puff (her sibling), now our teenage (11 month old) boy Toothless) .

Boys get very animated in breeding season when they see / sense there is girl around, mad dashing about , virtually headnodding their heads off , blackbearding, becoming obsessive about the girl and even socially inappropriate behaviour towards shoes , edges of carpets/rugs.

If you have a boy and a girl , keep them separated at all times , else you are likely to wind up with batch of eggs.

 

[MsCarter]

Haha that is great info thank you for your feedback. I still have a Little while before I'm going to get a male (even though I want one so bad). I'd like to wait for my girl to become an adult first so that she's eating a little less before bringing in a new mouth to feed. I love seeing the males strut their stuff and head bob, it's hilarious. But I'll definitely keep them separated I'm in no way even a little ready to take on babies

 

[kingofnobbys]

Yep , incubators are pricey too.

Plus it would take good organisation to have enough quality bugs on hand when even one clutch of eggs start hatching.

We made the mistake once of letting George and Mildred have a joint free range time on the floor. Never saw George do the deed , but knew it had happened as Mildred looked like she's been roughed up and had bite makes on her neck.
A few weeks later she was eating us out of house and home and starting to get fat looking. Several weeks later she was enormously fat and she went into labour , gave birth to 6 adorable babies.

Was fascinating to watch her give birth 6 times and she was great mom for several weeks later , always staying close to her babies and guarding them until I re-commissioned the three 100L rearing tubs and put the babies in these.

 

[MsCarter]

I bet they were adorable.i would love to breed just to enjoy the babies and the experience. But I'm in no way educated enough in that area nor am I able to financially suppprt that many beardies. I'll leave that to pros lol

 

[kingofnobbys]

I bet they were adorable.i would love to breed just to enjoy the babies and the experience. But I'm in no way educated enough in that area nor am I able to financially suppprt that many beardies. I'll leave that to pros lol

I wound up keeping the babies until they were about 6 weeks old and were all pigging out on the bugs and vegs and greens and softened pellets , then arranged for their adoptions by friends who had children .
Was very hard parting with the little cuties who I made sure were all mega tame. I doubt I'll ever become a breeder.

Though I might let my BTS pair breed or maybe Rex and Toothless one day because I think it would be magical for my 5 year old grandson to witness little baby BTS being given birth to or for him to see some baby beardies hatching.... something he'll never forget seeing and I'm sure he'd be amazed and spellbound by it.

 

[MsCarter]

Absolutely! That would be so educational and engaging for him to see. I would love to witness it myself. Sounds like you really took care of the babies that's how every breeder should be in my opinion, make sure they are healthy, well fed, use to being handled and ready to go to their forever home first. Good for you

 

[Phurba390]

My big male will Bob at everything during the breeding season. Outside of that, he only puffs and bobs when he sees my female.

My female will do push-ups to him if she wants to mate. If not, she sucks her beard in, tilts her head straight up to the sky and waves. I have never once seen her actually bob or black beard,but my male does it quite a bit.

In my experience females are generally more chill, and males a bit more active,but still very sweet.

It all really boils down to the individual beardy though. There are rules of thumb but they each have their own personalities.

 

[MsCarter]

Thanks for your response. I had always heard that males are usually much more active. For this reason, as well as the thought of eggs ?, I wanted my first beardie to be a male. I picked out the biggest baby thinking "oh that's definitely a male" but little did I know that means absolutely nothing lol. I later discovered I have a female which I wouldn't trade for the world. But I would like to experience the male side of things as well. My female is now 6months old and while she will puff up over just about anything ?I have not once seen her wave, head bob, or black beard. She's also extremely entergetic. It is so bad I actually double checked a few nights ago just to be sure she is not a he lol.
I love a lot of the common male behavioral traits it's so hilarious seeing videos of them head bobbing haha. It's good to gain insight from people who have both a male and female so thank you for that. We are going to begin building a custom enclosure within the next few months and get my female settled in to that, than I'll begin exploring different breeders in search of a male