So, let me start by saying this… I have owned MANY reptiles over MANY years, so I do know my genders and normal traits that reptiles display correlating to each separate breed. So, ‘breeders’ or people who think they know a lot about reptiles but have only owned one, know that I have my gender correct.
Secondly, here is a picture of them.
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/73235_1654219832372_1143346863_31888864_3711393_n.jpg
My female, kiwi, is the morph (though her colors aren’t very prominent). She is a little over a year and a half old. She has, to further prove her gender, no femur pores that can be seen, no bump on her under tail near the vent, and she has a more triangular head and thin tail.
My male, Kale, is the grey one. He is about 4 years old. I got him from a neglectful owner and he suffers from MBD, so he can be lethargic and limp most of the time. But his therapy has gone well, and he’s able to use his tongue again when eating and runs about now and again. He has two bumps on the underside of his tail and VERY prominent femur pores. it’s like reading Braille if you touch them. They are that prominent. he also has a bigger, rounder head, and his beard goes black, DEEP black when he runs around unlike the female who only goes dark when she’s scared.
Anyway, they have lived happily together in the same tank for…over half a year now. She was submissive at first, but once she realized he wasn’t an active lizard, she kind of took the dominant side. He knows the tank belongs to her, and when he gets to rowdy, she pins him down until he stops. (I keep an eye on it, don’t worry. If her full weights on him, I move her.)
However, recently, literally this weekend, drove with them from WA to Colorado where I am now living. Kiwi, my female, is now in a big territory thing. She wants to run around my room and see it all. Kale…eh, he’s lazy. He’ll go about if I take him out, but he’s not…really caring. But that’s normal for him. At one point, I had them both out, and Kale ran by Kiwi. She jumped on him, bit his neck, had her full weight on his back, and thrashed.
I separated them, scolded her, gave her a timeout (yes, I treat and spoil them like babies), and then let her back out to see if it would happen again and it didn’t. then I put them back in their tank.T hey were fine for a few hours, but they keep trying to pin each other down.
Then I hear kale dragging himself, look over, she’s literally riding on his back as he tries to get away, thrashing to tear at that protruding black spike on his neck. I am keeping them apart now because of it, but I think it’s a territorial thing.
I believe she’s going "It’s new, it’s mine, stay away from it."
And unfortunately, Kale isn’t that…bright…
Kiwi is trying to attack him through the glass right now, and he’s just sitting tall, head up, beard deep black. He isn’t a fighter or lover. Due to his illness, you can literally pick him up, and he’ll hang there. You don’t even have to support his feet.
Anyway… Do you think it’s just territorial, and do you think it will stop if I just let her go about and take claim for the next few days? The first two days here, we were fine. They even slept together in my bed and were alone and fine in their tank during the day…
I also think it’s dominance, because she pinned his head down earlier, crapped in front of him, then cleaned herself on his body… I think it’s a bit of a tiff…
Straight off the bat I would say dominance. Most female animals including reptiles, birds, mice and rabbits are extremely dominant and can be very aggressive towards males. Often they bite or tear their male genitals (ick!) but it is a dominance and an ‘I don’t want your babies’ kind of thing like human girls, think of it that way.
I’d suggest letting them fight it out a little if its not serious but if they start tearing or drawing blood separate them, some males and females work together, some don’t it depends on the personality and that of both genders