Quote:
Originally Posted by JAG Loves Beardies
I kept a male and female together when they were babies (unrelated) right up to a year old and they didnt breed until then.
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Sometimes they don't and you're fine; sometimes they do.
If they do, sometimes the female's fine; sometimes she dies. To put it bluntly.
I'd separate them before they're 6 months old; males can start trying it on around then, and you want them to be separate
before you notice anything going on.
Introducing a new female to a new female is generally fine - after a 3-6 month quarantine. As you're going to have to get another setup to quarantine the new arrival for at least 3 months, you may as well just separate the two you currently have, rather than have to exchange one of them.
Very occasionally you will get a male and female that quite happily live together (once they are old enough to breed) and you don't have any trouble; these are the minority though. Often you do have problems.
Unfortunately, too many people ignore male and female fighting until there's blood, by which time the female only has 3 legs left, or is missing half her tail or worse. It's much better to split them up
before there's any trouble.
Now it's breeding season the females are more receptive to males, and I haven't had any emails about females losing feet / entire limbs for a couple of months. Around christmas time (when the females are more inclined to say "no"), I was getting around an email a week where there's been actual bloodshed, and the owners are asking what to do about it...