Aggressive fattie?!???!

Help!

After quarantining a few new purchases for 3months I decided to introduce them into my groups. The way I have read is best is to do it is to alway make sure the males more into the female environment to prevent them being territorial and I always try to let them lick each other out of the viv (usually on my hands) so that they have sensed each other. I believe this is correct? Any tips on this would be appreciated.

I have done this with a particular female twice (with two different males) before and both times they have been fine on my hand but when I put them into the viv she bites the male? The first time the male bit her back (understandably) and she ran away. She was a bit younger then and so we decided to wait a while before trying again. We have a different male who we tried to introduce this time. She is a bit bigger now and this time when they were introduced they licked each other the male started to display a little bit of mating behaviour and nipped her behind the head (definitely not aggressive) she seemed fairly receptive but then just turned around and clamped onto him -this seemed very aggressive. The male was basically pinned and now no longer had hold of her. They then seemed to be fighting as I presume the male was trying to get her off. They looked like they were "crocodile rolling" but she didn't let go straight away. When she eventually did let go I separated them. At first glance I cannot see any cuts on either -maybe a little scraping but the skin does not look broken. I have left them to calm down and I will check them over fully later.

Is this them just being rough or does this sound like fighting to you? I dont know if im just being overly concerned because i havnt seen any of my groups do this and With all my other groups I have had no problems doing it this way. Have I introduced them wrongly? is this just an aggressive female who I will never be able to breed or if I have left the male to "take charge" in would she have become submissive? I'm really at a loss because I don't want my animals hurt but equally I know mating in nature can be rough?

Help please

Anyone help?

How does she do with another female? There's a difference between a "leave me alone" bite and grabbing hold and not letting go. If you've got the latter, I guess you'd have to either try introductions every month and see if it goes any better, or decide she's going to have to be a single gecko and either be prepared to keep her by herself, or to sell her as "pet only".

Aliza

I have personally never seen any of my females do this. Is there any chance this could be a low expression male?

OhioGecko said:

I have personally never seen any of my females do this. Is there any chance this could be a low expression male?

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This was my first concern when I put her with the first male. A far as I can see she is a female. I even emailed a few breeders and they all think she is a female. She also doesn't do the "gaping" which territorial males do (if you now what I mean?).

acpart said:

How does she do with another female? There's a difference between a "leave me alone" bite and grabbing hold and not letting go. If you've got the latter, I guess you'd have to either try introductions every month and see if it goes any better, or decide she's going to have to be a single gecko and either be prepared to keep her by herself, or to sell her as "pet only".

Aliza

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When she was with another female she was a bit grumpy but I never saw her clamp on to another gecko. I didn't see any "mating behaviour" either. This could have been because I wasn't looking but she was with another female for a considerable length of time. My gut feeling is that it wasn't a leave me alone bite but then it didn't break the skin?? Do you think the "crocodile rolling" I described would probably indicate fighting/aggression rather than mating/leave me alone?

Thanks for the input so far!

Instead of doing the put the Male in the Female's enclosure thing maybe you should try putting her in the Males enclosure? She may just be super territorial in her own home.