# Bearded Dragon chewing other ones tail?



## Jinxy (Jul 31, 2010)

Hi everyone,

Was wondering if anyone could give me some advice?

Ive had a pair of bearded dragons since July (were 6 weeks old when i got them). Brother and Sister.

Have just found the male chewing on the females tail (with her not even showing any sign of noticing it).

They are fed well every day, and this is the first such instance. What should i do?

I caught him just as he was starting, so there are a few little marks, a little blood, does she still need to see a vet?

Thanks

Jinxy


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## Jinxy (Jul 31, 2010)

A picture ive just taken:


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## _Ben_ (Feb 27, 2010)

Jinxy said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> Was wondering if anyone could give me some advice?
> 
> ...


I would go to the vets just to be on the safe side.

I would also strongly recommend you sperate them as beardies do not need to live together, and tail chewing is just the start. Get a second set up and get them seperated.


Afew more reasons to seperate them are:

At 6 weeks old its pretty much impossible to sex
If you do have a female they need to be seperated as the male will try to breed with her too young (at about 6 months), until the female is 12-18 months if she breeds it could be life threatening
Sorry if the advice sounds abrupt and harsh, but trust me its in the dragons best intrests to seperate, and other on here wont word it quite so nicely.


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## georgieabc123 (Jul 17, 2008)

how much are you feeding them i find at that age if you dont have food in there viv at all times (apart from bedtime) they have a nibble of each other maybe it was a cricket did you see it happen ?


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## Jinxy (Jul 31, 2010)

Yes i saw it happen.

They were 6 weeks old when i got them. That was 4 months ago. Have since had them sexed, 1 male, 1 female.

For food, i dont use crickets, i feed locusts. They have 2 batches a day, 5 xl locusts per lizard per batch.


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## _Ben_ (Feb 27, 2010)

Jinxy said:


> Yes i saw it happen.
> 
> They were 6 weeks old when i got them. That was 4 months ago. Have since had them sexed, 1 male, 1 female.
> 
> For food, i dont use crickets, i feed locusts. They have 2 batches a day, 5 xl locusts per lizard per batch.


They should be allowed to eat as much as they can in 10-15 minutes, twice a day, my beardie when I got him (at 6 months old) was eating between 20 to 30 locusts a day.

And I would still highly recommend seperating them.


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## kirky1980 (Apr 4, 2010)

must admit i agree with ben there mines is around the same age as yours and its eating around 25 large locusts a day and i know if i put in 50 a day it would eat the lot 5 defo aint enough for them. plus you will need to seperate them if the male is munching on the other one no matter how little a bite it has took the next time you may not be as lucky with a tail bite


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## kerrithsoden (Dec 6, 2009)

Jinxy said:


> Yes i saw it happen.
> 
> They were 6 weeks old when i got them. That was 4 months ago. Have since had them sexed, 1 male, 1 female.
> 
> For food, i dont use crickets, i feed locusts. They have 2 batches a day, 5 xl locusts per lizard per batch.


 
at 4 months it can be almost inpossible to sex especially a female.

if they are male and female that is all the more reason to seperate them, if she breeds too early she will more than likely become egg bound, also they should not be housed together year round as she will be over bred which can result in MBD. what are you going to do with the eggs if they do breed? as hatchling bearded dragons are worth next to nothing and cost a bomb to house and feed, they can have over 20 eggs at a time and only 5 hatchlings can be housed together.

It is in your dragons best interests to seperate now and avoid all the money you will have to spend let alone the dragons health


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## _Ben_ (Feb 27, 2010)

kirky1980 said:


> must admit i agree with ben there mines is around the same age as yours and its eating around 25 large locusts a day and i know if i put in 50 a day it would eat the lot 5 defo aint enough for them. plus you will need to seperate them if the male is munching on the other one no matter how little a bite it has took the next time you may not be as lucky with a tail bite


Exactly, the next time you might not be there, and alot worse can happen.

Also, seperating them is essential really, at 6 months the male will start to try and breed with the female, she wont be ready untill 12-18 months, she has a chance of becoming egg bound which can be fatal.

And I cant see why you would want to breed them, if they are kept together when they are adults, they will breed, the babies have a chance of having deformaties. It costs alot of raise baby dragons, so selling them most likely wont cover the costs. And if you decided to freeze the eggs, then why put the female through the stress of mateing and laying. So it will be best for them if they are seperated for life in my opinion.


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## MrBeardie (Oct 28, 2010)

kerrithsoden said:


> at 4 months it can be almost inpossible to sex especially a female.


 
*I'd have to disagree there, sorry. My beardie was 3 months old when we could tell her sex, in some baby beardies theres an obvious difference between the males and females. But in others you just simply can't tell, it all depends on the individual bearded dragon.*

*I think you should try introducing more amounts of food, watch them carefully and if they still show signs of fighting, dominance or biting eachother you should seperate them immediately. However, you'll have to seperate them sooner or later anyway because your male will mature and want to breed with her which could cause problems as she won't be ready, also their brother and sister so their babies could be born with deformed. I wouldn't reccomend keeping them together at all.*


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## JackieL (May 19, 2009)

They need to be separated as *soon as possible*. This could prove to be fatal should you allow it to continue.

It's simply not worth the risk. I would also get the tail checked out by a Vet and remove any particle substrate should you be using it to reduce the risk of infection. Paper towel would be a better option.


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