Male hatchling or what?

[Caters]

So I still don't have the lizard yet nor have I ordered insects for breeding them but I was wondering, when I get the lizard, should I get a male hatchling if possible?

Not that I wouldn't love having a female, it's just, the egg situation I would likely have every year once the female is over 2 years old. Some might get reabsorbed while others might be laid. And I did research on parthenogenesis and it turns out, bearded dragons are a lizard known to go through parthenogenesis(so in other words the eggs are self fertilized). So yeah, I might get a few fertile eggs from a female that hasn't been bred with. Not that it is common, it is just known to happen.

And if I do get a few fertile eggs, should I just throw them out with the infertile eggs since I don't have enough room for another bearded dragon?

So I am thinking that maybe I should get a male hatchling(obviously at at least 2 weeks old) so that I can get a strong bond with the lizard and not have to deal with the ovulation situation every year. But then I would have to feed and supplement frequently at first with the feeding being 3 times a day until 3 months, twice a day until 8 months, and once a day after that and the calcium being 5 times a week and multivitamin being twice a week until a year old, then the calcium being reduced to twice a week.

So should I get a male hatchling if I can despite the frequent feeding and supplementation required for hatchlings? Or should I get a female hatchling and just deal with the egg situation when it happens?

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

Sometimes females don't even lay eggs, however if you really don't want to deal with the possibility of egg laying then probably go for a male. However you should probably just go with the hatchling that you like the most and has a good personality.

Also personally I'd wait till the beardie is at least a month old or more before buying it, a 2 week old bearded dragon is very very fragile and whoever is selling such a young animal probably has no idea what they're doing, especially if they're shipping it. However any experienced breeders out there please correct me if I'm wrong about that.
I just know from research that babies are very fragile and small, only about 3-4 inches when they hatch out, sometimes 5 inches in length. Babies get dehydrated pretty fast, and they need a lot of insects at such a young age that if they go off feed it's probably not the best.


If you want you can take a look at this small feeding guide I made which may help a bit in how to feed and give you a bit more of a variety of foods to choose from for feeding.
All life stages eat 10-20 bugs a feeding.
1-4 months 3x a day.
4-12 months 2x a day.
12-20 months once a day.
20+ months twice a week at the least, every other day at the most.

Staple feeders - Crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, silkworms, black soldier fly larvae, dubia roaches, turkish roaches, possibly earthworms.

Treat feeders - Waxworms, hornworms, superworms, mealworms, butterworms.
Wax worms - once a week, 4-5 max.
Hornworms - every other day to every two days, 4-6 max.
Mealworms - every other day to every two days, 5-10 max. Only for beardies above 6 months.
Superworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max. Only for beardies above 12 months.
Butterworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max.

Daily greens- Turnip/collard/mustard greens, endive, and kale if added to a mixture of the other staple greens mentioned.
Fruit once or twice a week - Banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, red raspberries.
For more food items -
http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded ... ta.php#veg
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

You want two supplements at the very least, a calcium and a multivitamin.

Generally beardies below two years need calcium 5x a week and multivitamins 2x a week.

However beardies above two years or at two years of age need calcium only 1-4x a week with
multivitamins 1-2x a week.
This depends on how your adult beardie is with diet, health, just laid eggs, is laying eggs, etc.