Brumation???

[andradespb]

The arm waving is not asking for permission. It's believed to be associated with either or both of two things. 1. Species recognition (i.e - Letting another bearded dragon (or dragons) know that it is aware of it/their presence). 2. Submission (i.e - When a larger and/or more dominant BD is present). The other two are not going to just roll over and allow this one to take the top basking spot or share food items.

If you are going to use a wall to separate them then you are still going to have to provide her with her own basking light. Tell your folks that it is imperative for the wellbeing of the lizard or otherwise it will just slowly whittle away and die.

Ok. The wall thing is a go. Authough she has been basking all day in the presence of the other female??? This is so confusing


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[Snapped]

No confusion necessary, Beardies should kept separate, having 3 together is asking for trouble, as you have witnessed.

If you can't provide separate tanks, or safely divide the tank, then you are going to end up with injured/dead Bearded dragons.

Please remove the female TODAY, make a temprorary wall, cardboard, mdf, whatever....if you do it correctly they can share the basking light, or just buy another lamp. If your folks won't allow it, then you'll have to rehome two of your dragons and keep one single one.

Beardies are territorial and will fight to maintain top position, food and heat. They bite toes, tails, some of them lose their limbs, and all bites are prone to infection.

Have a read of this link, it will show you WHY and what can happen when housing beardies together.

http://www.beardeddragonlady.com/housing.html

 

[MANNING]

.. my folks won't let me give her a basking light in another location but the tank she's in.

Was there a reason?
What's your around about location.?
I'd be able to possibly lend you one until other arrangements can be made

 

[andradespb]

Was there a reason?
What's your around about location.?
I'd be able to possibly lend you one until other arrangements can be made

I live in Graham Washington.


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[Bluetongue1]

…This is so confusing

It actually only to be expected. Every time one re-houses a group of lizards that have a social hierarchy, most especially species that are territorial, they will go through the process of re-establishing their hierarchy and territory in their new surrounds. Your situation has the added fact that these reptiles are now well and truly sexually mature and that is very likely to increases their dominant/submissive behaviours.

Your analogy of “asking permission” is pretty close to the mark. The subordinate female is signalling submission by arm waving to the dominant female. If there is no response then it means the placating behaviour has not been accepted. Therefore if the subordinate were to attempts to mix at this point, a physically aggressive interaction is likely. As stated by others, it is not recommended to house bearded dragons together. I know of only two successful examples and they both involved providing the lizards with free range of the reptile room for two or more hours each day. The keepers were non-working housewives.

I agree that some form of barrier to separate the subordinate female from the other two is immediately necessary. In the long term she clearly needs to be re-housed, as half of an enclosure is not fair on any of the lizards. Given your stated circumstances, that likely means finding a new home for it. Even when that is done you still have a male and female in the one cage to consider. I don’t know how large the enclosure is and how much visual privacy the cage layout provides. Dried thick tussock grasses in pots are an excellent visual screen because the dragons don’t tend sit on top of them if provided with rocks and branches. Setting up a visual barrier to divide up the basking is a good interim idea. I assume your mum’s objection are money based. You could work out the purchase and running costs of another basking spot and then do something to earn the money to pay for these. Irrespective, you would need to constantly on the lookout for any signs of aggressive interactions. It is so much simpler housing them singularly as soon as you are able to do so.

There are a number of really good comprehensive websites devoted to Bearded Dragons E.g. https://www.beardeddraco.com/ , http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/ , http://www.beardeddragontime.com/ .