Help needed.

[PiPES]

Hi. I've got a serious problem. I bought my geckos from a reliable guy. He assured me that they are both females but today I noticed that my bigger girl started to act like a male. She/He ( I don't know now, although, she looks like female ) grabbed the neck of my hybino female and began copulating like a real male. I don't know now what to do. Do I really have got a couple of geckos instead of 2 females ? what's more I examined the belly of that hybino and discovered some inner thing, pretty hard and egg-like. I prepared a box with coco-soil in case she might lay eggs there. What makes the matters worse she is only 40 g, while that bigger one is around 60. Looking towards any response. I'm afraid I'll have to buy either another female to make the life of that hybino easier or separate the possible male specimen for the time being.

 

[PiPES]

http://img165.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=hybino.jpg gallery. I've spotted weird dots on both and I'm even more afraid........................

 

[Justyn20003]

looks like a male to me?

 

[JordanAng420]

I hate to assume, but the first picture looks like the 60 gram gecko, and the second looks like the 40 gram one, am I right? Regardless...those are pictures of 2 female geckos. I don't mean to ask you obvious questions, but are you sure it was copulation that you witnessed? Maybe they were having a food-aggession induced argument or something? If it continues you might have to separate them anyway. And as far as the eggs go, they are capable of laying without ever being bred...but those pictures are female geckos, no doubt.

 

[PiPES]

I hate to assume, but the first picture looks like the 60 gram gecko, and the second looks like the 40 gram one, am I right? Regardless...those are pictures of 2 female geckos. I don't mean to ask you obvious questions, but are you sure it was copulation that you witnessed? Maybe they were having a food-aggession induced argument or something? If it continues you might have to separate them anyway. And as far as the eggs go, they are capable of laying without ever being bred...but those pictures are female geckos, no doubt.

thx m8. I had just said that it looked like copulation. the first pic is of that 40 g but with bigger zoom and the 2nd is of that round 60 g. I separated them but what now ? Will they tolerate each other after some period or will this ''hate'' continue to grow ? I put the bigger one into a box to let that hybino have her own terrarium for a while. How long will it take ? Do I have to think of buying a 2nd terrarium for that Tremper or what ? Any other things that will come up to your mind please share. I've been rather keen on birdspiders until December when I got my first leo and I'm still discovering the world of these nice lizards

 

[JordanAng420]

You can try and keep them together, and feed them in separate areas, but you would be taking the risk of one injuring the other when you're unavailable to watch them. It sounds like a dominance issue...I have a female who's the same way that absolutely cannot be with another gecko at all except when she's ovulating & I need to breed her. Even then, I have to watch them and remove the male immediately afterward.

So if it were me, I would feel better if I separated them permanently. Its better in the long run anyway...there's no competition for food, no fights, no dominance...

 

[Haligren]

A long time ago, I remember hearing about how leopard geckos can change their sex depending on what is needed in the population.

Not saying that this is what's happening here or anything. Both look female to me. This situation just reminded me of that...rumor or whatever it may be.

 

[PiPES]

Ok. So now another set of questions. Will the situation come back to normal when the smaller girl will reach similar weight ? I want to place my gecko's in the future in one big terrarium with male. I want to buy 2 or 3 other females and a male for them. How will the situation look like in such conditions ? And I'm very curious why the bigger turned up to be dominant when there was always a lot of crickets or mealworms. Maybe they fought during the night when I was asleep. I heard about dominant females within this species but I did not realize, until now, how brutal they can be.

 

[geckolvr88]

it's never recommended to house two different weight animals in one cage. The bigger one can and will bully the smaller one. However, like stated above, each gecko has their own attitude and personality. Perhaps the bigger one that was bullying will never be happy with another gecko. Perhaps it'll change when they are closer to the same size. There is no real way of telling what will happen. I say for their sake, seperate them. Then when you decide you want the bigger cage with the male and what not, throw them together, and watch carefully. If there are problems again, then seperate.

I have two girls together, that are VERY close to the same size, I bought the second one with my first one's size in mind, and they get along GREAT! I often see them "cuddling" and what not.

Like I said before, I'd just give those girls some space! The best of luck to you!

 

[PiPES]

http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=38258 here you've got photos of them and terrarium.

 

[PiPES]

Is there a possibility that the reason for that bullying lies in food ? maybe not enough crickets I had put to their place and that's what made that bigger angry. They always had a lot of food. The other thing is that this smaller one does not eat much and therefore does not grow so fast and moreover she ignores mealworms and crickets passing by. This also makes me worried. She doesn't eat much, whereas the bigger one is like a vaccum cleaner I gave the bigger one a chance and put her back again. If she'll still bully her then I will separate them for the time when that smaller one reaches the same size. Tell me which one should I put into a smaller container ? Maybe the smaller one to boost her growth ? I've got a container for food ( a vaccum one with drilled holes) which is not quite comfortable but it will be placed over a heating cable (25Watts) and maybe this will speed up the growth of the smaller one.

 

[lepgeckosrock]

I would seperate them for a bit till you know for sure. I got a jungle leo that the underside shows no v-shaped poors so thought it was female even took it to a breeder and he said it was female then one night as
i sat watching it I seen it licking itself and noticed a 3/4 in thin red thing sticking out so guess what it's a male thank goodness I Hadn't put it in with my other male.