Sexual Maturity

[ddma]

at what age will my beardie show signs of sexual maturity? he's almost 5 mos old. and how will i know ? will he head bob?

 

[Ethelia]

Hi there,

Well in terms of head bobbing that tends to vary from dragon to dragon. Alot of it seems to be seasonal.
Ruben got SERIOUS spring fever this year. He was around 8-9 months at that stage.
He was pacing all over, banging the glass, black bearding, chasing things. He was a mad man from dawn to dusk quite frankly.
It was two long weeks of zero peace and quiet.

In terms of maturing sexually alot can be to do with their surroundings.
Ruben had seen my youngster Miso on numerous occations (too many to count) from when she was a baby up till recently (5 months) and had never even blinked in her direction. Then one day out of the blue Miso was out in her bath infront of his viv (frosted sides) and she managed to jump up and hang onto the sides.
Rube caught sight and went ballistic. Ive never seen him move so fast. He threw himself at the glass bearding and headbobbing so violently I thought he was going to hurt his neck.
Rube has never headbobbed before, and I believed he couldnt due to his missing limbs (balance issues) but WOAH boy did he prove me wrong.
His behaviour changed towards my female within a week just out of the blue. Now they dont see eachother.
Rube is 10 months and my female is 5 months.

Id say he'll let you know when he's maturing! ^_^

Out of interest its not because your planning on breeding him is it?

Holly

 

[ddma]

no , not at this point , i have 2 females and they are no where near breeding age, and i'm not even sure that's what i'm going to do anyway. i got both my male and female pretty much at the same time, they were 7 weeks old, and they have been sharing an enclosure ever since and they are now 4 1/2 mos old. i do have a seperate enclosure set up already , as i know i will be having to seperate them very soon. like you said , it'll probably happen over night. thanks

 

[zebraflavencs]

Dawn, if I were you, I would just go ahead and make the change. They both are coming up quickly and this is a good time as any to make the switch.
Janie.

 

[Ethelia]

Ah in that case I would agree with Janie.
At 4-5 months its not unheard of for beardies to start to mature, if you dont seperate them now I would definatly do so in the next month.

Holly.

 

[ddma]

that's what i was planning on, about another month, but i could do it now as i already have the other enclosure good to go. thanks everyone.