I think my beardie is pregant????!

[MisterForest]

I have a 17 month old female beardie dragon and a 11 month old male beardie dragon they share their enclosure which is two tanks and a whole bed room. They havent gown up together they got introduced to each other in September but werent in the same enclosure til end of September. I originally got the male because my female was lonely and depressed as we had moved out of a house with 2 other beardies she would interact with.

Everything has been great they got along straight away he has gotten her active and eating again. But now i think i have a situation on my hands and i think my girl might be pregnant. She wont eat crickets and i havent seen her even a little interested in food the past week and her tummy is a bit bigger than normal. My female will not come out now and just stays on her heat mat all day and night she also stays kinda hidden from everyone. The male hasnt gotton aggressive towards her or us and are still interacting the same if anything he is more watchful of her (weird i know but he sits at the front of her enclosure if any one is around that isnt me or my partner and watchs everyone else like a hawk but dose get aggressive if they come near him or her)

Im not too sure whats going on but just wanting to know if there is any way of knowing if she is pregant or not? I know about looking amd feeling her tummy but is there any other way? What can i do for the babies as im not ready for babies and i know my girl isnt either??

Please know i didnt think they would breed or even be interested in each other yet. I will do everything i can for my girl and boy. I just want to help

 

[MesseNoire]

What temperature is your heat mat set too?
Is that your only source of heat?
Can you provide pictures of your enclosure?
How often are you supplementing their diet with multi-vitamins and calcium?
What strength UVB light are you using? How old is this light and how close can they get to it?

 

[Chris1]

I cant imagine that any female beardy would voluntarily choose a male beardy as a cage mate, I had to move my male to a different room because he was freaking my girls out from across the room through 2 walls of glass. A potential 'cagemate for company should have been another female, and even that isnt guaranteed to work, out of 9 females ive only had 2 that could be housed together from a young age, and a 'pensioner' enclosure of 3 girls 9 and over also worked, the rest resulted in injuries, (2 tail nips and a broken arm before i never tried it again)...actually, 1 of the tail nips and the broken arm happened during shared windowsill time, ive had seperate cages for everyone since the first tail nip. then shared windowsill time stopped as well

A gravid beardy should be eating heaps, (up untill a few days before laying, by which time you would definately notice eggs) and have additonal calcium supplemented while she is producing eggs

Your girl sounds stressed, dominance in beardys can be subtle, it doesnt mean your girl will be walking around with black eyes and cut to pieces, if he in sitting in front of her enclosure watching her and she is hiding, she is obviously not happy with her living arrangement and you would be well advised to seperate them, (so they cant see each other at all)

Im not sure what to say in regards to you didnt think they would breed, you have a mature female and a 'teenage boy', like most teenage boys he would have little else on his mind,.....

incase she is gravid, give her a big tub of damp sand to lay her eggs in, if she doesnt have a suitable lay site she could hold onto them (and die)

Please answer MesseNoires questions as well, all of those things are important to know.

 

[MisterForest]

I dont run thermostat but in one enclosure is a 75wt light and they have three sticks under it to get at different temperatures closes one would be appox 8/10 cms away as well as the heat mat it is a wooden cabinet and the other enclosure is glass and has a 75wt uv lightamd fan heater also no thermostat their sticks are approximately 10cm away. They also get the sun though the window i can provide photos at a later time. I dont give them vitamins but im in tye process of buying calcium and vitamins. But they get freah fruit amd vegetables every day and crickets every second to third day i never feed frozen vegetables. They get bathed once to twice a week.

I know a male isnt the best idea but she never liked girls and until i got my male i thought she was a he. Hence why im not prepared for babies. She is also already missing nearly all of her tail andshe has one toe on each back foot so she isnt one to run any way .

In regards to my male sitting up the front of the enclosure i didnt explain very well he only dose it if thereis some one else orther than me or my partner in the room. My girl beardie is also scared of men no guy (not even my partner) can hold her and she runs and hides until they go away.

I know my girl isnt streesed by him or scared of him they sleep together all the time and my male has never shown aggression in any way towards her.

 

[Chris1]

What happened to her tail and toes? That fact alone should be evidence enough that housing beardies together is a BAD idea!!

And 2 males together is the worst idea ever!!!

What gender were the 2 beardies that she was 'missing so terribly'? We're they the ones that maimed her?

 

[Beans]

Beardies shouldn't be housed together at all under any circumstances unless for breeding.

They don't get lonely. They prefer their own space, so there is another reason why it was depressed. The fact that there is toe nips tells me that he IS harassing her and he should be removed asap.

Also glass fliters UV quite a bit, so having them near a window probably isn't benefitting them much at all. Also not using any kind of supplement is a bad idea as they need it in captivity, so pick some of that up asap and give it to them about 3 times a week.

Pretending that you didn't think they would breed I think is complete BS. What else would they do? A male and female aren't going to have little tea parties.

As for thinking she is pregnant, you need to remove the male from her now. I don't care what other people may have told you but the male is just going to keep harassing her and while shes pregnant and stressed that's even worse.

 

[MisterForest]

I bought her with her tail and toes biten off it was due to the owner had her and 10 other babies in a 2foot tank with no food i got her from the pet shop . I dont know what happened to her before i got her. My girl was about to die amd yes they do get lonely some are known to pair together but not always together hence why they have a whole bedroom and two tank with complete setups so they dont have to be any where near each other but they chocie to be. They eat together and sleep together and its not forced on them they arent closed in their enclosure at any time its all their chocie.

I didnt think they would breed as he is still a baby and has never bobbed nor has she ever waved to any lizard before. And know that im not too sure if she is pregnant im only guessing and was only asking for help. You apl can say they want to be alone and all that stuff but if you ever saw what these two are like together and what happens when i do take them apart you would change your whole presepective on lizards all together.

Thank you all for you help any way but i will take all your advice in and will just wait and see how see goes. Thank you

 

[Chris1]

I will do everything i can for my girl and boy. I just want to help

This was the comment that actually made me think you gave a hoot. Sorry we couldnt offer the advice you wanted to hear, i wont waste my time in future.

 

[Chris82]

MisterForest, you need to stop placing human emotions onto reptiles and listen to those people who have the vast experience and knowledge. You asked for help but didn't want to listen!

 

[Beans]

Urgh.

I offered my help. My knowledge and expertise in this area. Can't do anything more.

As they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't force it to drink. I hope for their sakes they don't kill each other.

Help was offered and you didn't want to take it.

We did our part, all we can do is hope you do right by your beardies.