So... Does SIZE really matter???

[HappiDragon]

Gotta question for you avid breeders out there, I have a VERY large( lenth and width) female that I am trying to breed to one of my boys. Its almost like they seem intimidated by her... She has been aggressive with both boys in the past, (head bobbing, circling and such, even some tail biting :shock: ) I've introduced her to sunny here again this last week hoping to get some successful breeding and she simply ignores him.....no arm waving, slow bobbing.....nothing...
Could it be her size? Maybe? I'm starting to wonder here.. :-? The boys are just out of brumation and being very...ummm...excited. Problem is they are more interested in the tank across the room with a juvinile female in it, lil,g. She sees him head bobbing and such and starts waving and slow bobbing in response. I've even moved the tanks so they could not see her to no avail.

Its not like I'm completely new to this, we've bred and raised several successful clutches but this has got me stumped, I would love to see her paired up with our citrus male sunny but am getting nowhere here.. Any advice?

pic of Pizza below,

 

[AHBD]

Some females just aren't receptive, and if she has a "bad temper" , it may not be the right time for her. On a side note......that looks like an " extra large pizza !!" [ referring to her name lol ] You may want to cut down on her feeders. Unless she is carrying infertile eggs, she looks quite a bit overweight. Being overweight is no better for animals than it is for humans, so even though we equate a huge appetite in our beardies with great health, once they reach adulthood, some need to have their feeders cut back, given some exercise and lots more veggies. Beardies can develop fatty liver disease, we don't want that. Also, breeding can be more difficult with excess fat on the body. She does look intimidating !

 

[HappiDragon]

Thanks for the reply AHBD :wave: She is not carrying eggs right now, I wish she was! Its almost like she's part balloon :-? Its like... her ribs are always sprung.. you know? Normal dragons ribs flex downwards when relaxed and hers are always out to the side. I'm going to try to cut her down even more but she gets half of what the other dragons get now Should I cut down on her green too? I've always kept that up. All the other dragons are very "normal" in size with twice the feed...maybe, like a horse, she just a REALLY easy keeper?
I'm starting to wonder if Sunny will ever breed a female, Today I watched him getting friendly with his rock and log, :love10: :shock: I got him at 1.5 yrs from a lady in town who had him in with his brother until a couple weeks previous.....maybe he just doesn't know how to do it right? Hopefully he gets it right eventually...lol.

 

[Coliosis]

LOL I cannot stop laughing at this, legs out to the sides and everything, she is just the cutest pudgiest beardie I've ever seen! I want her!! lol

 

[AHBD]

All you can really do is put her in his tank once in a while, supervised so there's no blood drawn....and see if it happens. You might also put them in a small, brightly lit room together and he may think of it as a romantic beardie get- away. As far as her eating, I would continue salads, they are not fattening , stick to greens + squash, limit or eliminate fruit. Let her roam around the house and/ or get a kiddie pool for shallow warm swims. You can even leave the pool empty and she'll probably wear herself out trying to get out of it. But yes, I guess she could have an odd metabolism. Does she poo regularly ? She wouldn't be eating the rabbit pellets, would she? Or are those rabbit pellets ? I looked again, maybe they aren't. They would swell up in her belly. Just throwing that out there.

 

[HappiDragon]

I agree with you AHBD, I have her out of his tank now and am going to just give her greens for awhile. Maybe just a super once in awhile for a treat. She's such a ferocious eater, cleans all the greens up well. I don't have them on rabbit pellets, just short pile or loop carpet cut to size, they seem to like it and I can change it out regularly, carpet stores throw it out :wink: We used to use rabbit pellets years ago when we first got into dragons and didn't know any better... but then lost Zane to immpaction from them....never again It was horrible. She does poo regularly, that all looks normal although large...lol. I let her our regularly but she seems to simply find a place she likes quickly and settles in for a nap so not much excersise there...lol. I was thinking though, maybe giving her a few extra baths and making it a little on the deeper side so she swims and let her do that for maybe 5 minutes at a time a few times a week? Would deffinitly be more excersise than she's been getting.

 

[HappiDragon]

With a little bit of excersise and loads of greens she seems to have lost some weight already, maybe its just me but her jowls seem less puffy than before, gonna wait a week then take a picture and post it