Captive Breeding
Several of the Pogona genus are bred in captivity as pets; the two most popular are this species, P. vitticeps, and the western bearded dragon (Pogona minor minor). The bulk of captive-bred bearded dragons today are thought to have originated from stock illegally exported from Australia during the 1970s.
Captives world wide are threatened by Agamid adenovirus, a virus that compromises the immune system of the dragon, and leads to death from other diseases. However, the majority of the infections are subclinical. Subclinically infected animals show no symptoms, but are active carriers of the disease and will infect other bearded dragons.
When the female is ready to lay eggs, she will generally stop eating and spend most of her time trying to dig.
Read more about this topic: Central Bearded Dragon
Famous quotes containing the words captive and/or breeding:
“The creative writer is usually captive to his next book.”
—Fannie Hurst (1889–1968)
“Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others, is essentially the same in every country; but good breeding, as it is called, which is the manner of exerting that disposition, is different in almost every country, and merely local; and every man of sense imitates and conforms to that local good breeding of the place which he is at.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)