It is possible to add a new bearded dragon to your current terrarium; but doing so is a challenge, wrought with potential problems. If you elect to keep bearded dragons together, you must monitor their health closely and ensure they are socially compatible to avoid stress, disease and injury. Purchase a bearded dragon that is the same size as your current pet, quarantine them properly and have your veterinarian examine both animals before housing them together.
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Double Occupancy Considerations
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Caring for an additional lizard requires a significant increase in resources, even if you are adding him to an existing terrarium. At the outset, you must determine whether you have the means to care for an additional pet. While you will not need to purchase an additional habitat, your veterinary, food and supplement costs will instantly double. You may need to add additional basking lights, your substrate needs will increase and you may have to purchase additional cage furniture. Finally, the double-occupancy cage will require more of your time to maintain.
Health Hazards
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While lizards housed individually can become ill, communally caged bearded dragons are more susceptible to communicable pathogens. These pathogens come in the form of viruses, bacteria and parasites. Although many are treatable, they can make your lizards miserable and necessitate expensive veterinary care. To reduce these risks, it is important to start with healthy lizards, provide perfect husbandry and keep their environment clean. To ensure that both lizards are healthy, you will need your veterinarian to examine them to ensure they are not carrying any infectious agents. You will need to keep the lizards separately until your veterinarian gives them a clean bill of health.
Keep Them Quarantined
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You will need to establish a temporary habitat for your new lizard until you are sure that both soon-to-be tankmates are healthy, which normally takes 30 to 90 days. Such a habitat does not need to be elaborate, but it must meet your new lizard̵7;s needs, including access to proper temperatures, full-spectrum lighting and enough room to move about comfortably for the short term. Use a paper substrate and keep the cage décor simple to facilitate observation and ease of maintenance. Feed, water and care for lizards in quarantine cages just as you would normally.
Social Factors
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Never keep bearded dragons of vastly different sizes together -- the larger may stress or attempt to consume the smaller one. Captive bearded dragons will often develop social hierarchies when kept communally, communicating with head bobs, arm waving and other displays. Often, this allows the cagemates to resolve their differences without violent confrontation, but some animals may harass or bite other animals in the tank. This behavior can cause stress or result in lost tails or toes; keepers must separate confrontational dragons. As most hobbyists do not intend to breed their dragons and mature males will fight savagely, female bearded dragons -- who normally cohabitate peacefully -- make the best cage mates.
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