Bearded Dragon Life Cycle: Stages 5 & 6

Video Transcript

"Stage five is the stage of a mature adult. It lasts approximately two or three years and at this point the breeding has pretty much slowed down completely. The previous stage lasts about four years. So this one with the two and three years added on to this stage, that's about the age where your Bearded Dragon is going to stop being able to breed. Especially females. This is also a stage where they have little growth. You're not going to see a whole lot more growing for your Bearded Dragon to do. They should be at about full size now. Maybe a little bit of weight gain after the winter shut down is over but other than that you're not going to see a whole lot at this stage in life. Stage six is the final stage. It's considered old age. This begins at about six or seven years. At this time, they will have little or no breeding. I say little or none but very, very likely you will have absolutely none. They will also begin to decrease in their appetite. This is the stage in which they enter what's called the terminal stage. This is when their appetite decreases, their activity decreases, they act a little more lethargic, increasingly more so. This can last weeks or months. It, it ultimately ends in death. This is just your Bearded Dragon's natural way of its body shutting itself down. This is not necessarily uncomfortable for your Beardie but it is something that you want to make sure that you don't complicate. You don't want to add extra stress. You don't want to change his environmental factors and, because this will cause high stress levels and at this age you basically just want to let them relax and get lots of rest and very little stress. This is your lizards golden years and like I said it can last weeks or months, so don't assume if your lizard is acting lethargic like I had explained that it's going to be gone within a couple of weeks. This can take months and you can it a very comfortable process for your Bearded Dragon."