A bad reaction...

[Arctic16]

Hello all,

My geckos consist of a 7-8 months old female normal and a 3 month old female mack snow. After a quarantine period, I decided that my mack snow was healthy as can be and decided to briefly introduce the two under close supervision, hoping they'd get along since I have always planned to house them together eventually.

I put them both into a tank and the mack snow seemed to ignore the normal, while the normal was immediately very interested in the other gecko and didn't take her eyes of her. The mack snow sat in a corner and began to wave her tail back and forth, and after a couple of seconds she sprinted to another corner and began frantically trying to get out of the cage. She seemed very scared and I immediately seperated them so I didn't stress out the mack, as she's still young.

My question is: is this normal? Has anybody experienced something like this before? Does this mean they are probably not going to get along? Perhaps I should have left them together a bit longer. I thought perhaps Susie (the mack snow) became scared as she's 3 months old and still has her skittish hatchling survival instincts. Any thoughts?

 

[jaredm3624]

my guess is because the normal is bigger than the mack snow. Mybe wait until they are about the same size.

 

[LadyGecko]

my guess is because the normal is bigger than the mack snow. Mybe wait until they are about the same size.

I agree-a big size difference can be a frightening experience for the smaller one
It is good that you stayed to observe them and that you separated them

Sandy

 

[skyline]

size can be a factor what you might want to do is completly clean there cage clean all the items in the cage and put new substrate in. Introducce them into the cage at the same time so that the bigger one dosent have any astablished teritory and the lilttler one has more freedom it worked perfectly for me.

 

[LadyGecko]

Tyler-sometimes that works and there are times that the smaller gecko will be so stressed that it hides all of the time and refuses to feed

It depends on the geckos but generally it is not advisable to keep Leos together that have a major size difference

Also-if the larger one can fit the smaller one into it's mouth-it can eat it
This does happen

Sandy

 

[nats]

I agree, if one is bigger, the small one may feel stress or even panic.

Now that I only have one leo, she hasnt once tried to escape or act nervous.
She doesnt even try to climb the glass walls like my other leos did (I used to hate watching them do that!!!)
She seems perfectly content and happy right where she is.

 

[jaredm3624]

It's better to keep them seperated for now. wait until they are both adults and then you might be able to keep them together. But it also depends on your leos. They might not ever be comfortable around other leos.

 

[Arctic16]

Thanks for the input everyone! Susie (the smaller one) is a bit smaller than Hobbes (older oner), so I'll definitely wait on putting them together. I wasn't planning on actually moving them in soon; I can see for myself that their size difference is still quite extreme. I was only trying to introduce them. Thanks for the information.

 

[jaredm3624]

I wouldn't think there is a reason to introduce them unless breeding or housing them together. If you still feel like you want to, maybe have them in larger environment.