Is Bearded Dragon Cohabitation A Good Plan?

[vampy]

I have never seen anybody house a single dragon in person, other than a hospital tank. i'm not saying they wont ever bite eachother or try to dominate. a very small number actually loses fingers and tail tips. we feed our baby dragons hundreds of roaches a day, they don't need to eat eachother. none of our babies or adults have missing parts. and rescuers can only go on what they're told, which is hear say, and who's going to say they're not feeding them?, all i can say is our experiences, we feed a lot, and we have no biting

How big are your tanks and how many do you house together? Do you have more than one basking spot or take any other precautions so they aren't vying for space? Do you sort them by age or size? At what age do you separate them?

Toe and tail nips are unfortunately pretty damn common in the population as a whole, when looking at beardies for sale you often see them with nips (though only occasionally with the sort of damage in some of the pics in this thread, fortunately)..the video posted a couple of posts up has a breeder talking about how several of his babies have nips, but then he does house a LOT together.

Basically I'm just curious as to what you're doing differently to other people so you can avoid this happening when others can't, cos my babies aren't going to be able to housed individually for a couple more weeks, and I'd like to make sure I'm doing all I can to avoid any issues...I've not seen any problems so far, but the moral of this thread seems to be that it can happen totally out of the blue.

I finally finished my big viv today though, and it just needs a couple of days to air out, then I'll be able to move a couple so I'll be down to 2 per viv until I find homes for the last 4.

 

[troyncindy]

we keep around 8 dragons per 20 gal long. one basking area. we separated them by size, they're fed dubia roaches four times a day salad every day and they get sprayed three times a day and bathed every other roughly, they can go three days if we don't get to them, but the cages need to be broke down and cleaned totaly every other day even though you're picking the poop up. when they poop, it still starts to stink if you don't clean the whole thing, we use baby wipes to clean the poops out. ( every time we walk by or smell something ) we use mvb bulbs,(have uvb meter so save the reptisun 10 lecture) it creates a large basking spot with real rocks to warm up from the mvb. we've had no trouble. a lot of people that post on here are rescuers. they're use to dealing with these animals at they're worst, it may seem like a lot of dragons getting nips to them, cause its all they see, they're rescueing these, a good dragon keepers dragon needs no rescue. as for fingers toes and tails, its not only bites that take them off. sheds that haven't been properly taken care of can account for many of those. people thinking dragons only need a box of crickets a month are the issue. them bug in a box crickets at pet stores, those are one meal, not a weeks worth ( if you feed crickets). we're currently getting ready to house three adult dragons in a 6'Lx3'Hx2'D enclosure with two basking areas. in the real world ( out of this forum ) more people do house them together than not. and stupid people shouldn't have any pets, ya have to use common sense, don't toss an 11" dragon in with an adult. even if the adult wasn't aggressive. it could accidently take its head off if they went for the same food. I can only speak from my experiences,

 

[RelentlessChaos]

When it comes down to it, it's just a risk, sometimes accidental one at that, (juveniles mistaking toes or tails for food). I doubt every single dragon in existence wants to & will pick a fight w/ another. If that was the case it would be WW2 in those youtube vids.

 

[Claudiusx]

Just a risk.. that has no benefit.

-Brandon

 

[diamc]

I have been following this thread and feel the need to share my experience of housing 2 beardies together (before I knew any better). One of them was just a little bit larger than the other and the pet store had told us that it was fine to have them share the same tank. Well, little Gizmo proved to us that he was not happy with that with his stressed out behavior. There was no aggression at all between the 2 of them but I noticed that when Sabrina was eating feeders, he would be standing in the corner just watching her chase and catch them, although he would grab some too. His colors were quite dark when in the tank but when we took him out, his coloring became much brighter and the stress marks disappeared. When we put him back in, he darkened up almost instantly. They shared the same basking spot, sometimes he even laid on top of her which she allowed with no problem. Other times, he would lay on the bottom of the tank with us eyes half opened or totally closed. Even though we ended up feeding them separately, she was gaining wt but he wasn't. After joining this forum, I found out what signs to look for as far as "stress" signs and I realized that he was exhibiting all of those signs.

Once we separated them, I couldn't believe the change in him, his colors were vibrant all the time, no more stress marks, his eyes were bright and he basked when he wanted to. He started gaining wt and was shedding almost continuously. It was obvious that he was now happy. I honestly believe that if we had left them housed together, that he wouldn't have survived and stress alone can kill as it can raise their coccidia level too high which makes them prone to other sicknesses.

We have had beardies over 10 years and will I ever house 2 together again, NO! I will also continue to NOT recommend doing it because I don't want any other beardies to go through what Gizmo went through, it's just not worth it. It still bothers me to think about how sad he looked and the body language he was showing me, I wish I had known about it sooner.

 

[talimo]

We have rescued two beardies and were told they were male and female, they have been housed together for almost 2 years and had no trouble. We have recently realised we think that they are both males and all of a sudden the smaller of the two has started a lot of head bobbing and it never went any further but tonight he grabbed the bigger ones cheek/neck and was trying to shake it. We have already gathered that they should be separated but can anyone tell us why this would happen all of a sudden after years of peaceful cohabitation???

 

[sweetiepie9]

There's no rhyme or reason as to why dragons that are find start to fight 2 years later. That's why I've never taken a chance & always have separate enclosures. You just never know, even though some breeders have their females together & their babies & have never had an issues, some have to separate some beardies from others because of this problem. So it's really hard to say but I just say, why take the chance? I'm sorry you've had to deal with this but separating them will be the best idea at this point. I know it's expensive to set up another enclosure with lights, etc, but it's for the best. I have 5 males, always have had them in separate tanks, makes for an expense to replace the UVB lights but it's worth it to have 5 healthy beardies. I do bring them out together, just to watch reactions but I'm literally right on top of them & it's never for long.

Good luck with your two boys, hope they do better separately.

 

[talimo]

Thanks for the reply I know people always say about reading up a lot before u get them but trust me when I say the split decision to take them was in their interest as they were both being housed in a 2ft tank and we couldn't leave them with someone who was keeping them like that. We have no probs in building/ buying a new viv and still have the 2ft as a temporary home until its finished just really upsetting when u try and help only to find out the info given was wrong and have to fix someone else's mistake thanks for the advice

 

[vampy]

If they ARE male and female, the head bobbing then grabbing onto the neck is part of their mating behaviour. Either way, it's not desirable behaviour, so it's good that you're planning to separate them.

And, if you rescued them from being kept improperly, you can't be totally sure it's the first time this has happened...it could well be that they fought in the past and the previous owner never noticed, they were just lucky enough to escape any permanent injury. Or maybe they were just so unhappy in the small tank they couldn't be bothered really doing much, and now they are being looked after better their natural behaviours are coming through.

 

[talimo]

Yeah I think they were very unhappy very grateful this was posted on here as its great to have experienced people giving advice rather than some website or pet shop who tells u everything will be fine with them together. They have already been separated and seem to be more relaxed already. Unfortunately for the short term our smaller dragon has to be in the 2ft tank we were given them in as we can't afford the new big tank until payday but plans are already in motion for a set up to keep the 2 large tanks on so hope they will be happy now! Thanks

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm just glad you were able to get them separated so quickly. There would have been dominant behaviour, which would cause fighting, too. So best they be on their own & have thieir own space. I'm glad they're both feeling better already!

 

[Brandonforty2]

I got two Beardies living together. Right now, I am trying as hard as I can to seperate them. My parents are telling me that "They are getting along now, end of discussion". Im going to ask for another tank for christmas. The beardies are four months old and getting along fine but I don't want anything to happen. Right now, Dave spends as much time as he can on my shoulder.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I'm glad to hear this, as it's better, so hopefully your folks will give you a new set up for Xmas, fingers crossed!

 

[SirWilliam58]

Germain, thanks a lot for this info. They didn't tell me this at the pet store, in fact they have several juvies in one cage. However I am printing this information and taking it to the pet stores I use and asking them to post it near the reptile area's. Beardies are such beautiful creatures and they need to be treated right.

William

 

[smergy]

i really dont understand why people comment on other people saying they are separating, omfg mine live together for when i got them and i come here and read, i have had mine for half a year now well about 5/6 months and not any problem, they are all eating, running around, playing like normal, and all healthy and have never fought so i must say and i hope people stop this discussion that well not every situation will end badly, if you as the dragon owner cant watch them, cant pay attention to when and what they do then yes separate them but if you have success then y would you separate them.

my point is this, if you got them together and your parents are right they get along, then maybe their wont be an issue if you look at the statistics there are just as many successes as there are tragedy, i am not saying that you shouldn't get the good advice some people give from here but frankly don't be a drone and say omfg this one site lots of people arguing over this i should listen to the ones against it.

if you read this whole post you will find videos and others talk, if the moderator didnt delete them of people saying its ok, just use your own judgement.+

the last thing i say is i do agree that if they arnt the right cercomstances then separate, and right i mean
same age/size, big cage, multiple basking/food, and most importantly not male male

mine cage is 5x2x2
male -draco
female 1 - hydra
female 2 - dymond
age - 5/6 months