needing help, thinking about starting to breed

[Krayton]

Well I am 21 and wanted to get a beardy for many year and a few months ago I got my first one and a couple days later a second lol. well me and my wife really loving them and we are thinking about breeding and well we are doing a lot of research and looking, but not really haveing any good luck, and this seems like the best place to start. any help would be gratful and very helpful.

 

[beardielover17]

First thing you have to do is double check your dragons and their setup. Make sure everything is good for them and they are being fed the proper things and given proper supplements. Once you have a very good and thorough understanding of the 2 dragons you currently have, then I would start to think about breeding.

Here are some necessities:
-Your dragons cannot be related
-Your dragons need to be at least 18 months old (preferably 2yrs old)
-Your dragons need to weigh no less than 350 grams
-Your dragons cannot have any illnesses such as MBD and all parasites must be eliminated before breeding
-Your female's diet must be switched to a approx 50% greens and 50% protein diet along with calcium supplementation roughly 6 days a week during pregnancy and after egg laying.


Once that is done it's time to sit down and weigh out everything involved in breeding. Breeding is a fun but expensive, time consuming and difficult thing to do properly. Here are some things to think about:

-Are ready for the high electric bills from having tons of lights for each baby bin?
-Are you ready for 20+ eggs per clutch?
-Are you ready for those 20+ eggs up to 7 times in a year?
-Are you sure you will be able to find all of them a home?
-Are you going to have enough money to feed these hungry mouths 3 times a day which they should each consume 40 to 100+ feeders/crickets in total?
-Do you have the space for them all just in case you are unable to find a home for them once you have raised them to atleast 6 weeks of age and 6 inches long?
-Are you ready to deal with the possible loss of your female and/or babies?
-Do you have the time to dedicate 3 daily feedings, 2 daily baths every week?
-Do you have an incubator, laybox, egg containers, egg container substrate?
-Do you have 5+ 20 gal tanks/bins for your babies? (You may need more as they grow or get more dominant over eachother)
-Do you have UVB and Heat lights for each individual baby bin?


If you answered yes to this you are well on your way to successfully breeding dragons.

Some videos that may help:
So You Think You Can Breed?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYxkaMHr19s
Breeding Bearded Dragons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqP9i_0Cc3c

 

[Krayton]

ok that gives me a good starting point, and also gives me may ideas and things to think about. and also has anyone taken the time to think about cost to raise and also how much does it cost to raise them a day, a week, and a month ??? wat are major problem that incure during the raiseing and selling babies and wat not. another point i have been seeing online, when looking at other business are the types how do u determine the type and colouration and how do u price those different types??? thank you all again.

 

[Krayton]

we are also looking at maybe doing some other lizards, maybe some frilled dragons, if we did decide to to take on other lizards what would be types that would go well with bearded, not saying putting them together but the basic raising and breeding concept.

 

[beardielover17]

The cost is into the high hundreds pouring into the thousand or more mark depending on certain things. I never wrote down how much it cost me. It was depressing to think about lol. Major problems that I encountered was the cost mainly for food. At the time I wasn't using roaches and I used Phoenix worms, silkworms as staples and baby crickets as treats. I chose expensive feeders but they were the healthiest and I wanted my babies to have the best. I ran into a couple of very dominant babies that needed their own separate enclosures so I had about 10 baby bins in my room which each had their own UVB and heat lights. I also took the time to individually feed them their live food so I lessened the risk of nips and bites so it took up a lot of my time. Selling the babies was not too bad but I had a bunch of friends who wanted them before they even hatched so I kind of lucked out. Honestly unless you have a expensive and rare morph, you can't sell them for a high price and not many people will be interested. Most people don't care about the color morphs anymore and are into the mutation morphs like leatherback and such. Colored babies I've seen sell for anything from $25 to $175 depending on gender and coloration.

 

[beardielover17]

we are also looking at maybe doing some other lizards, maybe some frilled dragons, if we did decide to to take on other lizards what would be types that would go well with bearded, not saying putting them together but the basic raising and breeding concept.

Frilled Dragons are more of a tropical species and for the slightly more advanced keepers. Breeding them from what I hear can be difficult since they would have to be put through a dry and wet season in order to get them in the mood to breed. Their care is also significantly more expensive because they require much more specific needs and aren't so forgiving to mistakes in husbandry.

 

[Krayton]

o ok, wat is ur take on raising the food for them, and if so should u change it up like not always us crickets???

 

[lexi]

I think one of the main things to consider is the time and money. As Candice already pointed out, it is quite expensive for the supplies, food and electric bills. Then there's the question of who will feed all of the babies 2 or 3 times a day, as well as bathing them twice a day. It adds up, and basically means that someone will have to be home (and doing dragon feeding and bathing) all day long. That also means no vacations, no day trips to the beach, etc. because someone has to be there to feed the dragons.

People don't make money off of this hobby, they generally lose money. The cost of feeding them alone is kind of insane, plus the cost of electricity for all the lights and UVB for each tank (and the cost of buying all those supplies to begin with). If you use crickets as a feeder (the cheapest feeder) You can easily go through 1000+ crickets per week.

 

[beardielover17]

o ok, wat is ur take on raising the food for them, and if so should u change it up like not always us crickets???

Raising food for them is fine. I actually raised my own silkworms for them and it actually helped on the food costs just a tiny bit. Having roaches is also good too since it doesn't take much for them to reproduce. You will always want to offer a variety of foods not just bugs. Babies need greens too.

 

[Krayton]

ok and thank you guys for ur help and ya they eat greens all the time and i will start thinking about feeding them other things besides crickets.

 

[Krayton]

now my next question lets say i do start breeding, bathing do u bath them as a group or individually?

 

[beardielover17]

adults i always do separate, babies, its a personal choice, i did all of mine at once since i have to sit there and supervise bath time for any aged dragon

 

[Krayton]

o ok cool

 

[Krayton]

has anyone thought about using solar panels to reduce the energy cost???

 

[crypticdragons]

thought about it and still thinking about it (specially during summer months when im running my portable ac in the lizard room which sucks power like no other) and though in the long run it would deffinately pay off, the initial fees associated with getting everything running are very high

 

[beardielover17]

has anyone thought about using solar panels to reduce the energy cost???

i definitely have and when it comes time for me to buy a house i will most likely invest in some

 

[northface75]

Its a nice thought krayton, but take a peek into solar panels. most people cant put up the 10 grand necessary for panels/installation/battery packs/wiring etc. Its a big upfront cost that slowly pays off over quite some time.