Beardie info needed

[herp_collector]

Hey I am thinking of getting into breeding beardies. I do have experience with lots of lizards and I was wondering how many beardies should I house in the new cage I am making the dementions are: 77"X23"X23"? Also what are the best amounts of the various veggies? The substrate should be sifted childrens playsand correct? What do they lay their eggs in? What amounts? What should I incubate them at? I have an incubator that I use for my leopard geckos it works like this: it is a big tupperware toy-type container with a seal-able lid I have about 4-5 inches of water in the bottom with a aquarium heater in the bottom. Once closed it heats up the water so it evaporates and creates humid and hot air. What I set the thermometer at is what the temp is. Would this be ok for beardie eggs? If not what should I use? What should I keep the eggs in for incubation? Also if you have an adult/sub-adult beardie that you are willing to part with for a reasonable price please contact me. If you could answer any/all of these questions it would be greatly appreciated.

[Kappa]

Id keep three in your enclosure as long as they are relatively the same size and get along. As for veggies i feed my guys apple, kale, dandlyion greens, ROMAINE lettuce, grapes(seedless), carrot and VERY rarely banana. Bananas have alot of phsophorus and causes them to lose calcium. I cant help you out on the incubation questions just yet cuz im also waiting for my guys too breed.

[Big Mike]

People do keep them on sand but it's not very good for them. There are safer substrates around...check it out.

[eyespy]

You have much higher success with fertility rates and avoiding eggbinding if you keep males and females separately, so no matter how big the cage, my answer would still be 1 beardie. Constant mating pressure from males tends to suppress ovulation in females and cause undue stress in general. Not only will this shorten her lifespan, it will cause her to become gravid less frequently, produce smaller clutches, and have a higher risk of becoming eggbound.

As far as diet goes, the bigger the variety the better. Here's my favorite food chart showing which foods are fine to feed every week, versus ones that should only be offered occasionally:

http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm

Please remember that beardies (or any herp) should be quarantined for at least 2 months prior to being introduced to any other animal, so you are probably better off not trying to breed until the spring. It's brumation season for many beardies right now and not the best time to consider starting a breeding program. It is a good time to acquire new herps and make sure they are healthy and well fed before mating, though, as it's best to increase the nutrition value of the diet for 2-3 months before allowing females to mate.

No lettuce should be given at all to breeding females, whether iceburg or a "greener" variety. All lettuce is roughly 95% water and 2-3% fiber, leaving very little room for nutrition. "Sweet" vegetables such as carrots and fruit should also be doled out sparingly as the high sugar content will kill off the beneficial bacteria beardies need to digest their food properly, meaning they won't be able to absorb proper nutrition from their food no matter how well varied and supplemented their diet is.

Your incubator plan sounds fine as as. Just watch to be sure condensation isn't forming inside your "egg cups" or you may need to provide a little more ventilation. Eggs should be placed in small plastic containers with lids, after punching a few air holes. Deli cups work beautifully, as do small rubbermaid/tupperware food storage boxes. I use vermiculite well moistened with water as my incubation medium and incubate at 83 degrees.

For both my substrate and my nesting box I use ground coconut husk such as Bed a Beast or Eco Earth. I use it wet for the nesting box and thoroughly dried for cage substrate.

[Skink Keeper]

i hatched out a nice clutch using an incubator just like the one you have without any problems, and everything eyespy said I agree with so there isn't much more i can tell you. good luck

[herp_collector]

Hey could I keep all of the females in that tank and the male separate in like a 50 gal? I almost forgot my brother has had some trouble with his frogs getting mites from bed-a-beast. I am not sure it will happen to your beardie but just a heads up.

[eyespy]

It wasn't real bed-a-beast if that was the source of the mites, it's heat processed and dehydrated so not even bacteria survive, let alone mites. He may have brought them home from the pet store where he bought the b-a-b though.

Yes, you can keep the females together but it's best to have some caging supplies handy just in case things get ugly. Even females can and will fight, especially if one or more of them is gravid and trying to protect a prime nesting site. I've seen plenty of deaths and mutilations caused by females housed together.

Keeping a male in anything smaller than a 125 gallon is problematical as anything smaller is usually only 18 inches wide. Unless your beardie doesn't grow longer than 17 inches that is much too small. They really do best with a cage size no smaller than 4x2x2. Remember that the sex organs are stored in the tail, so if the cage is small enough that they cannot stretch out fully, the sex organs are frequently compressed when they are forced to curl their tails to move around. That can cause infertility and even nerve damage. It's worse than when human males wear "tighty whities". ;)