When is the right time to start growing?
When you have a male and a female bearded dragon, you can eventually start breeding. Your bearded dragons must of course be healthy for this.
It is recommended that you only start breeding when your bearded dragons are about 1,5 years old.
When will I know if the mating has been successful and the eggs will hatch?
The bearded dragon man will start by nodding his head. The female responds to this by waving her paw. The male will have a black colored beard and will approach the female. He will bite her on the scruff of the neck to restrain. Sometimes the mating does not succeed immediately. Eventually, the mating will actually take place.
Bearded dragons lay eggs. About a month after mating, the female will become restless and start digging. She does this to find a good place to lay her eggs. Once she has found the right spot, she will dig and lay the eggs there. Then she will bury the eggs again. Let her do this calmly.
Eggs laid, now what?
When the female has laid and buried the eggs, you can incubate them.
If you decide not to hatch or partially hatch the eggs, you can throw them away or sell them.
If you do want to incubate them yourself, it is important that this is done in the right environment and temperature.
This can be done by means of an incubator.
When you dig out the eggs and take them out of the terrarium, don't turn them! This can cause the embryo to die in the egg. Place the eggs in a container with moist substrate. Think, for example, of vermiculite or perlite. With your finger you can make holes in the substrate to place your eggs in.
Make sure that the eggs are about half way into the substrate. Do not put the eggs next to each other!
If your eggs are in the trays, the trays can go into the incubator. The temperature of the incubator should be between 27 and 31 degrees. The humidity can be quite high here! About about 85-90%. Check the temperature and humidity every day.
If the eggs are dented, this means that the substrate is too dry. You can solve this by adding a little more water to the substrate. Make sure that the eggs don't get too wet! Also check that there are no moldy or deviant eggs, if you have found one, set it aside!
After between 60 and 85 days, the eggs will hatch and baby bearded dragons will lie/walk around in the trays.
The babies are born!
Before the eggs hatch, make sure you have a small extra terrarium ready. Do not put the babies with the parents! These can attack and even eat the baby.
Provide a good UVB lamp in your terrarium, this is necessary for good growth of the babies.
Young bearded dragons can't swim yet, so make sure you have a shallow drinking bench. Or spray them often enough, often the babies drink more of this than from a drinking bowl.
Young bearded dragons eat more animal than vegetable. Therefore give them small mini crickets and Buffalo worms.
If you want to try to give plant-based food, cut it as small as possible.
To make it more attractive, you can sprinkle the Buffalo worms through it.
Keep a close eye on whether there are any weaker babies, we recommend separating them and feeding them extra.
When the babies are about 2 months old, they can move to another owner. Then they are strong enough to fend for themselves and survive the journey.
Have fun growing your baby bearded dragons!
