Breeding

My Experience:

    In my experience breeding frilled dragons, i have come across a few things that i would like to make public on this forum. This information is not fully tested and experimented with. I only have 3 years breeding experience with reptiles, but 6 years experience keeping them. I have reached out to others, experts, and have collected many different ideas, methods and techniques. Use this information wisely and please ask many questions before proceeding with breeding.

How old does my reptile have to be?

Males:

    Males can breed when ever they are ready, could be only 8 months, 12 months 18 months 24 months... they can breed very early on in life at about 8 months if they are the right size and the female will accept them. this is why it is not appropriate to house young females with young males. they may start harassing the female early on in life and cause stress and other issues to the female.

Females:

    In my personal experience, 3 years of age seems to be extremely safe. in 2011 i attempted to breed a 3 year old and a 2 year old to Scooter and Dekota. Frizzy who was 3 years old successfully produced 2 clutches that year. Daisy, who was 2 years old did not produce any clutch after being paired with both males. 2012 (this year) Daisy, who is now 3 years of age, successfully laid 5 eggs after being paired with scooter for 28 days.

    Females should be no less then 2 years old to breed. 3 years old seems to be about the time that they should "for sure" be able to produce a healthy clutch. If you attempt to breed females to early on in life it can lead to serious health issues which may lead to death. Females who are finicky eaters, thin, lethargic, stressed and prone to stressing out, should not be paired with a male. Common complications during egg development would be Egg bound, where the eggs form a mass in the females belly and they can not pass. Yoke rupture, where the egg developing, ruptures and causes sepsis. Malnutrition where the female suffers from insufficient nutrition. Dehydration, which can lead to organ and kidney damage and failure.

Can i house a male and female together all year long?

    Yes and no.... Frilled dragons are skittish by nature, they stress out easy and can shut down due to stress, which leads to dehydration, malnutrition, infection, and death. With that said, usually it is not an issue to house a female and male together of proper age. If you purchase hatchlings that are 2-3 months old they can be housed together for about 6 months. once the male reaches 16 inches or so, he begins to get more "spunky" and may start harassing the female. at this time the female is not ready but the male is starting to figure out what he is. separation may be necessary to prevent stress. if one frilled dragon is dominating the other, the other will shut down, stop eating, loose weight and become dehydrated. this is not ideal and it should be corrected as soon as its observed. you may keep them together up until you start noticing these signs.

Can i house more then one female together?

    Again, yes and no. please read the above paragraph. Females can be housed together their whole life, but you may observe the same territorial, dominant behavior between them. one may stop eating or not eat as much as the other and may develop stress. if it becomes to much you will need to separate them. i have all so witnessed dominant behavior, one female mounting and biting the others frill, damaging the top part of the frill. this is also a matting behavior but females use it to establish a pecking order, of dominance. if this is witnessed in excess it should be corrected by separating them.  i do not advise keeping more then 3 female inside one enclosure as adults. this way you can easily monitor their behavior.

How do i pair my female with my male?

    Assuming that your female is not currently housed with your male, there are a few things to conciser. First you have to think, is your female healthy enough to breed. she should have a round belly, this indicates that her fat storage on either side of her belly are fully and that she is in good health. does she eat well? will she grab food from your hand/tongs or eat in front of you? i tong feed my frilled dragons to monitor their eating habits. Are your temperatures up? 80-85 degres to 95 degrees inside the enclosure, with a hot bazing zone and hot basking spot. she needs to be able to keep warm while developing eggs. do you have a vet you trust that is close to you? you may want to bring your reptile in for an exam. 2-3 months prior to breeding. i usually bring my reptiles in, durring the fall/winter. i back them in an insulated box with a 24 hour heat pack/hand warmer pack.

    once you believe your female is healthy, and you have an established relationship with a local vet, you can proceed to prep your female for breeding. i order hornworms and pinky mice and/or hoppers(one every other week only). after winter cooling they become more active. about 2-3 weeks before we have to set our cocks back for spring, is about the time i start breeding. a month prior i make sure to up the wattage in the enclosures, usually it is still cool from winter. i then start offering more food items to the females. their favorite food item are horn worms. horn worms are perfect because they are extremely high in moisture, very hydrating!!! dehydration is a huge issue we face with our reptiles hanging out under heat lamps all day. with horn worms you can be confident your reptile is getting enough hydration.

    do the same with your male, offer him more food, increase his temps to compensate for a cooler room. (once spring temperatures hit you can reduce wattage back to normal lamps) once you have taken care of their temps, and increasing their food intake, you can then place the female inside the males enclosure. after about 1-10 min , after he realizes the female is in there he will twitch his tail, open his frill and shake his head up and down, he will also toss his arm out like he is waving. he will jump on and mount the female. the female WILL look afraid, he WILL bite her on the frill, this is normal. she may be stressed for the time that they are together but she will be fine because she has enough body weight, fat reserve and was fed well prior to the pairing.

    if you keep your female in a separate enclosure from your male, keep your female in the enclosure with him for as little as one week, to as much as 3 weeks. if she gets along with your male then the 3 weeks will be fine. if she can not handle him being with her, she can go about a week with out food. you must remove the female if she will not eat because of the male. place her back into her enclosure. the stress from breeding may cause the female to eat less, do not be alarmed. she has enough body weight and ate well the week prior to breeding. she will have enough to keep her going threw the egg development process so long as she is healthy, plump, and in good health.

Care for female while she is developing eggs:

    as stated above in the last paragraph in the above section, she may not eat while developing eggs, this is due to the stress from the breeding process. if your female is healthy, and lives an otherwise stress free life she will be fine. it is not uncommon for her to not eat, but it is very common for them to eat alot while developing eggs. i feed my females horn worms, dubia roaches, black crickets, and sometimes a pinky or hopper mouse. i keep her hydrated by misting and spraying her making sure she is drinking while i spray. i offer water threw a needless syringe by dripping it onto their face and they lick it up. hydration is most important especially if your female is not eating.

    keeping proper husbandry is EXTREMELY important, the temperatures must be warm, and the enclosure must reach 60-80% humidity for at least several hours of the day. 3-4 is acceptable but 5 hours of humidity is ideal (this is how i keep mine and is personal preference only) please visit Husbandry for more information on humidity and heating. with out proper temps frilled dragons can not stay healthy.

    at about 3 weeks you need to either make sure you provide THICK substrate, or provide a lay box. more often then not my females avoid the lay box all together, and dig under it and lay around the lay box. so long as the substrate is 3-5 inches thick they will be able to lay comfortably. you may see your female digging around the bottom of the enclosure a day or 2 in advance. DO NOT BOTHER HER, if she is actively digging do not offer food or water. wait untill she is done digging and out of the area before offering her anything. she may get spooked and not return to the same spot, or she may not care at all... i have had issue with this in the past. she will lay her eggs and then cover them up. i offer my females food immediately after laying, they have never once denied a horn worm or 2 after laying a clutch!

How long until i can pair her with the male again?

    give her one full month or more of feeding her very well. use repashy brand suppliments like supervit and calcium med3, repashy makes the best stuff. after a month re-evaluate her health and her weight. is she plump? how is her attitude is she happy? if she is stressed wait until she is fully recovered. females can make 2-3 clutches per year but only if they are in good health. DO NOT push your female, they can get sick and decline VERY fast and you may not be able to recover her well enough to breed ever again. 

How many eggs will my female lay?

    ( edited: march 26, 2012)

    last year Frizzy's first clutch ever, she laid 5 eggs but only 3 were good. her 2nd clutch she laid 7 eggs but only 5 were good.

This year, daisy's first clutch ever, she laid 5 eggs and it looks like 4 are good. they can lay about 4-12 eggs so i have heard.

Incubating eggs

    after the female lays the eggs you want to retrieve them. uncover the eggs carefully and using a circle or X mark the top of each egg as you see it in the lay site. each egg should be left upright. if you bump or move the eggs, or if your unsure of which way is "up" you may use an LED light to "candle" the eggs, look for a round patch of pink inside the egg. once you find the round patch of pink, which are veins, you have found the top of the egg, the pink patch inside the egg represents the top. mark it and place it into your prepared ziplock container.

    the eggs will be set into a ziploc container, the container hold about 1 inch of hatch medium. i use Repashy SuperHatch, it changes color when its wet, to when its dry and holds moisture amazingly. i also like it better then  HatchRite because, when the reptile do hatch, they dont get covered in it. hatchrite and other sub-straight seem to stick to our lil reptiles. yuck. follow the instructions on your hatch medium to hydrate it. fill your ziplock container 1-2 inches with the medium.

    place the eggs on top of the medium, you may bury the egg 1/3 of the way into the medium but NO MORE then half way into it. i use a lid on the zip lock container, the lid has a medium size hole poked into it. about the size of a dime or nickle. this way the zip lock container holds humidity inside, but also allows for some ventilation.

    the incubator i use is a DIGITAL incubator by ZooMed. this incubator needs some modification prior to using, as will most incubators. i turn mine over and CLOSE up the ventilation holes on the bottom. i tape over all of the holes with aluminum tape or vinyl tape. on the top of the incubator i only have 2 holes left, usually there are holes on the top of the incubator (or in this case, under the lid on the side rims) i tape all but 2. this will increase humidity inside of the incubator.

    on my digital incubator by zoomed the Digital Read out is not accurate. most incubators will NOT be accurate because their heat element is on the top, as well as the thermostat . the digital read out will read 89 degrees, this reads the area at the top of the incubator, realistically the EGG SITE is at about 84 degrees. you want your egg site to be no less then 82 degrees, and no more then 86 degrees. i incubate my eggs between 83 and 86degrees. the warmer the incubator the quicker they will hatch , to warm and it is unhealthy and may kill the eggs, to low and the same will happen. i incubate my eggs AT 84 DEGREES. i use a DIGITAL PROBE THERMOMETER(click here for link to amazon), found in the Kitchen department of most stores. the kind you use to stick into a turkey and leave it stuck in the turkey will its in the oven? thats what i use. it has a long cord on the digital probe. or you can use an analog restaurant supply type like the one here on amazon, placed directly into the side of the ziplock container (picture coming soon)

eggs incubate for 75-95 days. my eggs first incubated for 90 days(82-83 degrees begging of summer), the 2nd clutch incubated for only 80 days(83-84 degrees middle of summer)

please click here for a full write up with photos, on how to set up your incubator!

i type this out on a frilled dragon forum! if you have any questions please feel free to email me.

The Frilled Dragon Forum - how to incubate eggs

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