# bearded dragon trouble



## trekky (Apr 16, 2008)

Hi there 
i wonder if anyone can help me. ive got 2 bearded dragons and believed them to be of either sex. they've always been so loving to each other one has a larger head than the other and is bigger than the other. However i've noticed that the one i believed to be the the female is losing weight and i've noticed the larger one i believed to be the male is stopping her getting to the food. But today i noticed the large one pouncing on the smaller one and biting the of the smaller on the base of the tail, there's a lot of tail swishing and squaring up to each other. i'm now worried i've got 2 males together. i've looked at sexing them on the internet but neither look like the male images so it could be they are 2 females here are some pictures of front and back views if anyone can tell from these pictures what i've got i would be grateful i'll then make a decision if i have to rehome one.


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## leanne (Apr 2, 2008)

i cant tell which se they are but all i can say is feed them seperatly (if you already dont) that way the bigger one doesnt eat all the food  if i could help u anymore i would sorry


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## trekky (Apr 16, 2008)

Thanks for looking. i do give the smaller one the live food by hand so i know she gets some although she really isn't a big eater with the crickets


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## leanne (Apr 2, 2008)

i already had a female and decided to get another one for company only to find out it was a male and it kept attacking her, we had to get rid of him as we havent got enough room for another viv . mine has something wrong with her eyes as she keeps missjudging things so we have to feed her by hand 

do u let them chase after thier food????


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## foxylady (Jan 16, 2008)

Have you looked on this site

Bearded Dragon . org - Sexing Your Bearded Dragon

Might be worth a look


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## lalala (May 14, 2008)

from pics im sure they are both females.If one is loosing weight and you have noticed the other being nasty you really need to house apart.Not all beardied dragons get along with others reguardless of sex.May i ask what size viv they are kept in? and please dont be ofended but you said you brought them as one of each sex so one would assume you intened to breed.......i think you should do a lot more research on beardied dragons before embarking on breeding them.


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## trekky (Apr 16, 2008)

They were bought as one of each sex, but not intentionally. At the time i only bought the one dragon with the set up. After i read that they are sociable animals like all my animals that like company i wanted a pair. We enquired what was best to keep together and told 2 males were a definate no no. but we could keep 2 females or one of each sex. I asked some one i knew who had one themselves if they knew what sex the we had as we were unsure by the diagrams on the internet. they thought we had a female. We went out and bought a female to go with her but once they were together we noticed notable differences one had a bigger head and as time has gone on one is a lot bigger in size so we started to believe that they were one of either sex. when they started fighting thats when we thought we had it wrong especially knowing that it can be difficult to sex them at a young age. They are now seperated. I had no intention of breeding unlike some that are purely in it for the money. We're not novices regards keeping exotic animals and have had amphibians and reptiles before. i just want to keep them as pets that myself my husband and my two young children can enjoy.


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## lalala (May 14, 2008)

From reading your first post is how i came to beleive you intentionaly brought one of either sex and secondly it says nothing about being housed apart and WHO says beardies are social? They nearly all become teritorial and just because some tolorate living with others does not make them social animals.I just answered your post and was not trying to say you are a novice just that you need to research befor buying any exotic pet and being as you are on hear asking questions about what sex they are is not exactly showing great knowledge is it?how oId are they? It is difficult to distinguish males from females among hatchlings and juveniles. When they become adults, sexual differences become more apparent. The males generally have larger heads and larger, darker beards. The femoral pores of males also help to distinguish them from females.Hope the one thats loosing weight is now doing better









this is male










this is the males femoral pores










this is female


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## Amyk (Dec 23, 2008)

to me judging by those pictures they both look female, but you could alway go to a reptile shop and ask their opinons.


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## Laura&Lee (Oct 25, 2008)

Try posting on reptileforumuk loads of advice and reptile shop owns may be able to help


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## MissG (Apr 18, 2008)

Bearded Dragons are solitary animals and don't need company, they prefer to live alone.
Lala below gave good advice about the femoral pores. From those photos it's difficult to tell as you cant see the legs properly.
The only way to tell 100% what sex they are is to have them probed. I would not recommend this, unless you are wanting to breed (and I wouldn't recommend that either)

Another bit of advice which I give all beardies owners who house them on sand, is to take them off it. Sand is unnatural - their habitat is made up of dirt, compacted clay and stone.
Sand can, and does, cause impaction, which is the biggest killer of lizards. I would never even allow that risk. I house mine on floor tiles, which are stuck down to the bottom of the viv and grouted inbetween.

Not only is sand expensive, as it needs replacing, it's unhygenic.


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## paulb (Feb 23, 2009)

Only one thing to say:

SEPARATE THEM !

Dont use claci sand.

When they are over a year washed play sand from Argos is ok as its a small particulate and wont clog inside them.

best advice is no sand and a hard substrate thay cannot swallow or chew.


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## trekky (Apr 16, 2008)

hi there. Thanks everyone for your advise. I actually no longer have either dragon due to moving to the middle of Wales and not having the specialist shops close enough that i could give them what they needed for a good quality of life. However the out come of this was that i did seperate at the start. Unfortunately the health of the small one went down hill. She always seemed to have problems passing motion and she stopped eatting. I took her to the vet and it transpired that she was suffering from a lack of calcium in her bones and she was in a lot of pain from a fractured pelvis that the vet seemed to think she'd may of had before i got her. The kindest thing in the end was to put her to sleep. A sad decision but i could not let her suffer in pain. The larger one got re-homed to a really nice couple that had a number of Beardies so i was happy she went to someone who knew what they were doing.


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## reptileboy (Apr 1, 2009)

well from the pics it looks to be that thay are both female u can tell by looking along the underneith of its bak legs. if its a male it wil have large dark spots used for griping female if its a female it wont have theese. as for the feeding if i were you i wud feed them seperately or buy another cage to split them up get the thin one used to eating on her own then put them back togeter. if u need anything else just ask i hope this was helpfull


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## Animals548 (Feb 22, 2009)

maybe they had an experience before they got to the pet store !


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## arteest_9009 (Apr 16, 2009)

I think you're supposed to house bearded dragons separately because they are solitary and territorial. If you have two males or two females thats even worse. Hope you separated them.


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## meganE145 (Jun 2, 2009)

it looks to me like they are both males. the one on the bottum has a little less dominan looking bumps though. noth have two bumps, females only have one.


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## MissG (Apr 18, 2008)

trekky said:


> hi there. Thanks everyone for your advise. I actually no longer have either dragon due to moving to the middle of Wales and not having the specialist shops close enough that i could give them what they needed for a good quality of life. However the out come of this was that i did seperate at the start. Unfortunately the health of the small one went down hill. She always seemed to have problems passing motion and she stopped eatting. I took her to the vet and it transpired that she was suffering from a lack of calcium in her bones and she was in a lot of pain from a fractured pelvis that the vet seemed to think she'd may of had before i got her. The kindest thing in the end was to put her to sleep. A sad decision but i could not let her suffer in pain. The larger one got re-homed to a really nice couple that had a number of Beardies so i was happy she went to someone who knew what they were doing.


I'm incredibly sorry to hear that one had to be PTS.

Please everyone reading this - do you research properly before getting ab Beardie, here has been a classic cases of MBD - a very common problem.

And I have a Bearded Dragon - and lots of other exotic pets, and I hardly ever go to the exotic pet shop for them, so not living near one doesn't mean you couldn't have one. Everything I need, including live food, I get over the internet.


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## sadiajahan (Mar 4, 2012)

lalala said:


> From reading your first post is how i came to beleive you intentionaly brought one of either sex and secondly it says nothing about being housed apart and WHO says beardies are social? They nearly all become teritorial and just because some tolorate living with others does not make them social animals.I just answered your post and was not trying to say you are a novice just that you need to research befor buying any exotic pet and being as you are on hear asking questions about what sex they are is not exactly showing great knowledge is it?how oId are they? It is difficult to distinguish males from females among hatchlings and juveniles. When they become adults, sexual differences become more apparent. The males generally have larger heads and larger, darker beards. The femoral pores of males also help to distinguish them from females.Hope the one thats loosing weight is now doing better
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The best way to hold your dragon when making this check is to place your dragon in one hand, perpendicular to your fingers, and facing away from you. Place your thumb over the back to hold them in place. With your other hand lift the tail up to approximately 90 degrees. Be gentle!!! You don't want to hurt your beardie


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