What happens if you breed 2 dragons from the same clutch? I'm completely new to the bearded dragon world. My kids each want a baby dragon....I'll be taking care of them of course. If I get 2 from the same clutch and they turn out to be 1 male and 1 female....can I breed them at some point? Thanks
No you don't want to breed them. This is called inbreeding and it can have huge birth defects on the babys. The babies will be weak and may not live a normal life. And if you did breed them and sell them to people they would have an inbreed dragon then if they breed the dragon you sold them their babies would have week genes.
If you get two dragons, whether they are from the same clutch or not you need to plan on keeping them in seperate enclosures. Not only will it greatly reduce stress on them, but it will eliminate many potential problems no matter what sex they turn out to be. It's just better for them in the long run to keep them in solitary enclosures. And of course I agree with the others, inbreeding is a huge no-no.
The bearded dragon geene pool is far too shallow at this point as is please no inbreeding. And if you do get two drangons from different blood lines and house properly (seperatly) until they are at a safe age to breed please do your reasearch which by the way it looks you have already started excellent! Bradon
Technically breeding two related animals together is how most pure strains of any organism were developed whether its dog breeds or plant varieties, but as can be seen in many pure breed dog breeds you get a higher incidence of recessive possibly harmful traits appearing. Besides deciding to breed any animal should be based on temperment and health and not just the convience of having a male and female in the same area. Husbandry of pet quality beardies is hard enough without factoring breeding.
yea keep them seperate, you would need to do alot more research before even considering to breed them, its not easy to care for 120 hatchlings... they are over bred as it is..
If you consider the fact that almost all bearded dragons in the U.S. came from 5 original bloodlines illegally smuggled out of Australia in the early '80's, our dragons all all severely inbred as it is. Hence the high incidence of undersized dragons and those with genetic disorders that seem to be more and more prevalent. Gone are the days of the 24 inch dragons. I'm sure there are a few around but they are getting rare. The biggest problems are with the high-color (high dollar) morphs that originated with west coast breeders. Talk about some banjo-picking bubble-headed inbreds. Many of these are undersized and have a host of medical issues. There seems to be very little hybrid vigor left in captive dragons. The situation will probably not improve until the Austratlian government allows some limited exportation to deepen the gene pool. Many attempts by many people to make this happen have so far failed. George
imagine 'in-breeding' a human brother and sister - we consider it a no-no for genetic / medical reasons (as well as moral objections). Why even consider this with beardies?
just a quicky, arnt we all forgetting that many bloodlines go back to the original pair of german giants???
