Two beardies in same house but different rooms

[JessieDragon]

I have two bearded dragons. I don't know the exact ages because I got them from the pet store when they were babies, but the older one (Durkon) is about a year and a half old and I'm 95% sure she's female. The younger one (Belkar) is about 3 months old and I don't know the gender but I'm calling him a boy for now.

Durkon is currently in a tank in the living room, and Belkar is in a tank in the kitchen. They normally can't see each other and everything is fine. However, if I have one of them out and I pass within sight of the other tank, Durkon's beard gets black (Belkar doesn't noticeably react). I try not to do this, but it's hard to avoid sometimes when I'm taking one of them out for feeding or baths.

I'm definitely not going to have them both out of their tanks at the same time. I made that mistake once a few weeks ago but luckily nothing really bad happened. (I usually let Durkon wander around the living room when she gets antsy in her tank, and I took Belkar out to feed him. I was sitting on the floor near my bucket of dubias holding Belkar in one hand while I fed him. Durkon noticed and came over with a black beard and did a slow head bob, and then she ran up into my lap and jumped at Belkar, but luckily I reacted quickly enough to move him and I'm definitely not doing that again!)

I want to be able to walk around the house with Belkar on my shoulder (and Durkon still in her tank) so that Belkar gets used to me and gets out of his tank a bit, but I definitely don't want to hurt Durkon by stressing her out.

Will Durkon eventually get used to Belkar being in the same house? I don't know if I should try to completely prevent her from seeing the little guy, or if I should let her see him a little bit each day so that she gets used to him.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[CooperDragon]

They are certainly territorial so it's good that they have their own space. Some of them get along with eachother but not always. If they get near eachother sometimes and it causes them to stress out it shouldn't be a big deal in the short term but if they react negatively toward eachother (or if one reacts negatively) then repeated exposure/stress may cause problems like lack of appetite. This is less likely since they have their own spaces though so I'd try having one out at a time like you said and see how it goes over time.