Introducing a new bearded dragon

[mikek6508]

Good morning everyone. I am new to this forum and the beardie world. so please forgive me for my ignorace.
My question is, I have a female 5 month old 8 innch long beardie.( I think she is tiny for her age ) I recently purchased a 2 week old male beardie. When can I introduce the new male beardie to the female beardie ? I want them to cohabitate together.

 

[Onlymediocre]

Cohabitation is never a good idea, one dragon will be more dominate and can even injure or kill the other (this is why you see dragons missing toes and tips of tails)... they are solitary animals. In housing a male and female together,when adults, your female will be harassed and overbred. I would strongly suggest you read this post >>>> viewtopic.php?f=6&t=154908&hilit=cohabitation And if you intend to bred them its best to house them separately, and when they are MUCH bigger and older, you can put them together only until the deed is done, then you separate them again... Also LOTS of time and money go into breeding beardies...so def do lots of research on that b4 you make the decision to breed. You can also read this post on breeding >>> viewtopic.php?f=4&t=126455 and def browse thru the breeding section...

Please read thru the cohabitation post and see what a risk it is to house dragons together. I hope youll reconsider and house them separately. And yes at 5 months old your 8 inch beardie seems pretty small.. And a 2 week old beardie cant be but what 4 inches? They shouldnt even be selling them at 2 weeks old (or be able to say its a male, thats pretty small to try to sex). If you house them together now, your female will most likely dominate the small male, he will get hurt...or possibly die. Shes at least twice his size. She may even try to eat him. There was just a post a few days ago where a bigger dragon ate a smaller one in the er section>>> viewtopic.php?f=45&t=177653&hilit=something+happened.. And that was a 3 month old eating a hatchling. So def a bad idea putting them together...

For your 5 month old being so small... Did you just get her? or have u had her 5 months? If u just got her is it possible shes 5 weeks? Lots can factor into their growth, feeding, lights, temps...etc.. So if youd like to tell us about ur setup and feeding schedule we can probably give u some pointers to get ur little ones thriving

 

[wykd]

i agree your female is undersized, may want to feed her more. You put that 2 week dragon in with he girl who is most likely severally hungry she would eat him I suspect.

Cohabbing is doable only when they are same size/age and not sexually mature, and then they will establish a dominent/submissive role and the submissive one will stay stressed and unless they have their own basking spot will not get he heat they need. they will also get leftover food the dominant one didnt want so they will not grow as they need to etc... its a chain reaction scenerio, and agree not a good idea.

I would start fattening up your 5month girl. I have a 6week old that is bigger than your 5month... thats sad.

 

[vampy]

I agree with the others about not putting two different sized dragons together, but I also have another reason.

I am assuming you've been giving your female the proper care and feeding her enough etc. If that is the case, she probably has parasites which is why she is so small. I really recommend you take a sample to the vet and get them to do a fecal. If she does have parasites, and you put another dragon in with her, he's likely to catch them too.

If you've not got the right setup for her, then I suggest you work on this and make sure you do the same for your male so they are both happy and healthy.

 

[bunnyrut]

having 2 together is just a bad idea overall.

once they are sexually mature the male will want to mate with the female non-stop. they are horny little things. and they shouldn't mate until they are about 2 years old, but that doesn't mean they won't attempt it at 1.

the issue is that the male will continually go after the female, and since she can't get away he could end up killing her.

they are perfectly content being alone in their vivs.

 

[diamc]

Definitely would not put them together, not a good idea. Your female is very small for her age. How many feeders have you been offering her daily? Also, what brand & type of UVB do you have?