Easier to bring in a female or male?

[runningguy]

I don't have a bearded dragon yet, but hope to find a rescue or a dragon from a private individual soon. I plan on getting only one right now, but if I chose to add a second to the same enclosure later on would it be better to start with a male then add a female or female then male? Does it matter? Obviously two males would fight.

 

[sweetiepie9]

It's not recommended that beardies be housed together, there are always dominance issues and there can be attacks that can maim a beardie. It's a very controversial subject. Beardies in the wild are solitary animals, coming together only to mate. We have 5 beardies, 3 girls Sweetie 3, Angel 2, and Issy 15 mo; we have 2 males Lonzo 6 & Rubio 15 mo. None of them can be housed together, they would attack each other, nor can I have any of them out of their tanks together, the girls tend to attack each other and so do the males. The males are always ready to breed, so they can't be out with the females, as we can't afford to raise babies. So they all have their own tanks and are very happy, healthy & sure keep us hopping. I wish you luck in your choice, but it would probably be best to keep them separate, unless you're going to breed & raise babies. A friend of mine does breeding in a small way. She bred one of her males with one of her females, and the femaie laid 64 eggs in 3 batches, all from the one mating. That's ALOT of babies, you can see them in Photo Expressions under "Ms Tiggs and Private Blazes babies". They are all so cute, but a massive amount of work, especially when she has 9 adult beardies, too. They can produce an amazing amount of babies!

So welcome to the forum, there are alot of different opinions about housing beardies together or separately, you can find alot of threads about this subject all through this forum.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Hello and Welcome!

 

[runningguy]

Thanks for the replies. I just figured it would be fun to see the social behaviors of two together, but I have no interest in raising eggs now or in the future. I kept an iguana for several years and he did great by himself.

 

[fresnowitte]

I just figured it would be fun to see the social behaviors of two together, but I have no interest in raising eggs now or in the future.

Just having 2 in the same house and not in the same enclosure you can experience many of the social behaviors that you otherwise would not with only one beardie in the house.

BTW.....

Hello & Welcome to BD.org!

 

[sara24354]

Beardies are wonderful pets,but they do need to be seperated,it's just not worth the risk IMO.
I have 2 beardies each in his or her own tank. I have a male and a female. I have noticed somethings with my second beardie that I never saw with my first. EX> One day we had them both out my hubby had our girl and I had the boy,across the room from each other. My normally calm male(whom I was holding) started to turn his beard black and head bobbed and arm waved at everything for about an hour,I even got to catch it on tape. It was a wonderful experience,getting to see this behaviour because my female only black beards when something is wrong.....too hot or cold or hungry. I had never seen the bead bob or arm wave from her. I would never put them together though because she is about 3 times the size of my male and would try to make a snack out of him. Love them both and they have brought a lot of happiness to our family.