When I was breeding my dragons, I would keep the temps inside the incubator at 84F with humidity at around 80%-90%. I no longer keep or breed bearded dragons. They are in my opinion one of the most awesome species of lizards out there. If your new to the hobby and are thinking of breeding your bearded dragons, follow these simple steps for incubating and you too could have 100% hatchouts.
First, when you know your female is ready to deposit her eggs, get your incubator setup. Weather its homemade or commercial, you need to have the temps and humidity ready for the new eggs. Incubating the eggs is simple, the hard part is the long wait and anticipation to hatching.
Okay, after you have your incubator setup and ready to go, your waiting for your female to drop those eggs. In the meantime take a plastic container with a lid about the size of a sandwich holder or larger, but small enough to fit in the incubator. Add vent holes on the side, then fill half way with damp vermiculite (Walmart). I would use vermiculite cause it is bacteria free, doesn’t promote mold or fungus and is better for the eggs.
Now, your females has deposited her eggs and your ancious to dig them up. Don’t dig them up in front of her, place her back into her enclosure or separate container out of site of her eggs. Locate and uncover the eggs very carefully. Use a spoon to pickup the eggs one by one and gently set the eggs on top of the vermiculite in the same position the mother deposited them.
Gently mist or squirt water over the eggs to wash them off. Place the lid on container firmly, date and set in incubator. Periodically check to make sure your temps and humidity are good and also do a visual on the eggs to make sure there still good. When you first put the eggs in, they may collapse slightly, this is normal and they will fill out again after a few days.
If the eggs are good, you’ll see them grow slightly over the 2 month period of waiting. Bad eggs turn yellowish brown, remove if you see these. When its time to hatch, they all should hatch out within a 3 day period. They generally won’t start to eat until there 3rd or 4th day of life. Once they start eating, you better have plenty of food.
I fed baby roaches, both B. dubia and B. lateralis nymphs. If your feeding crickits, you’ll need 2 week old crickets (1/4″). My newborn beardies would eat upwards of 5-10+ roaches a day each plus there mustard greens. They would grow an average of 1/2″ a week on roaches. In six weeks they would be ready to sale at 6″+. If your thinking of selling them, wait till at least 6 weeks of age. At this age there stong enough to handle shipping overnight. Following the info mentioned above and you should have healthy baby dragons.
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