Bullying??

[chetman7]

I have two female cresties in a 18x18x18.

One is a little bigger than the other, so wen I first introduced them I kept a close eye. For months they would always been seen sleeping next to each other and all was well.

I am usually asleep during there awake time. but one late night i walked into my room to see lets say crestyA ( for simplicity) standing near the food dish. I go to lay down and I hear a thump from the cage. I look back up. and CrestyB is now near the food dish while crestyA is on a branch hovering. CrestyB proceeded to eat the CGD stopping periodically to stare up at crestyA.

Could this be a dominance issue? I have noticed that one is growing a lot rapidly than the other. not sure if thats a food bully issue or just that they are independently growing at diff rates. I have never seen this behavior before. I never see them fight or bite each other. So I am unsure what to make of it. Since I'm a loser and tend to worry I actually set up a little camcorder to record activity near the food dish and even tried to induce some acitvity by placing both of them right next to the food. but got nothing on both accounts.

I"m starting to get worried that I might have to separate them. ITs hard to keep on eye on their behavior b/c I''m asleep when they're doin their thing.
btw. when I feed crickets. which I do periodically, only crestyA would eat them. So as speculation, one eats all the crickets. and one eats all the CGD.

Any thoughts?? I was thinkin of putting a partition in the middle of the tank

[waltah!]

Bullying can certainly happen. The cage is a good size for two cresteds, although maybe putting two dishes of CGD out might be a good idea so they don't have to share. I had a pair of leos together that I hate to separate since one was showing signs of a butt kicking. I would keep an eye on them and hopefully someone with more experience with them will see this.

[chetman7]

thanks.
I do have two cgd dishes on opposite ends of the tank. I"m worried but not worried because the one that i speculated to being bullied eats a whole lot of crickets with are dusted with calciumD3 and a multivitamin. so I know she is gettin her nutrients. I thought cresties that eat lots of crickets are supposed to grow faster...I guess not.

I got nothing to do tonight. So I'm gonna try my best to watch over them as to the best of my abilities. my exoterra cage came with a styrofoam rock wall..so I might end up move it from the back wall and put it vertically down the middle of the tank to use as a temporary partition. I also have a scale in the mail so i can document weight gain/loss. This will hopefully give me a better idea of what is going on. especially if I start just feeding CGD exclusively. Then we will see who the culprit is.

[mlededee]

A crested that eats lots of crickets but not very much CGD will actually not be as healthy as one that eats more CGD and less crickets. CGD has a lot of nutrients that crickets don't have, even if they are dusted so it needs to be the main source of food. A gecko that eats mainly crickets will likely become vitamin and calcium deficient.

How much difference in size is there between these two geckos? If you have a gram scale and can weigh them that will help.

Sometimes one gecko will dominate another whether it means to or not. You may not notice any fighting or interaction that would imply a dominance issue. Most of the time it is simply one gecko getting to the the food first, getting a preferred spot in the enclosure, etc. Because of this the other gecko will fail to thrive and will become noticeably smaller in size because it is not growing at the same rate as the dominant gecko. The only fix for this is to separate the less dominant gecko, allowing it to catch up. Most times once the geckos are fully grown they can be placed back together with no problems.

[chetman7]

Emily. . Would it be enough room if i partitioned my 18X18x18? cause i plan on doin it as soon as i get back to my dorm

[chetman7]

So I ended up partitioning my tank for the meantime.

I used the styrofoam back wall and put it in the middle. it was a tight fit but I made it work. I had one giant vine and leaf vine going throughout the cage. I ended up cutting both directly in half and put one on each side. Both have their own food and thermometers.
IMO i think it came out pretty good.
Heres som pics


here is it on top of RBI... sorry I had to showoff my new RBI tank. I just got it today for my bp and I absolutely LOVE IT. Since I have a RHP in the cage. since I put the exoterra on top. my ambient rose a little which is nice


THANKS FOR EVERYONE WHO HELPED ME OUT!!!

[mlededee]

That should work fine. Since it is a tight fit it should keep them separated and is a nice looking solution.

[chetman7]

walked into my room today....and the little one somehow find her way into the other side of the tank lol. They miss each other already.

[mlededee]

I wouldn't necessarily call it a case of her missing her cagemate--rather a case of mischief.

If the two geckos that are in your avatar are the ones we have been discussing in this thread they definitely need to be caged separately due to the large difference in size. With that much difference the larger one really can't help but dominate and the smaller of the two will suffer because of it. Once they are grown and more similar in size they can be housed together again, dependent upon their sexes.