A few days ago one of my females laid eggs; she slugged out unfortunately. She's a very mellow, easily-handled girl, and it was no problem removing her from the clutch and getting her and her tub cleaned up.

The female in the tub above the one that laid has been defensive from Day 1. When I first got her last year she was prone to striking if you moved too quickly, but with patient and careful handling she improved. While now she barely tolerates being handled - she either is stiff as a board, or trying to flee - at least she's not trying to draw copious amounts of your blood...

...until a few days ago when the female just below her in the rack dropped a clutch. Holy Guacamole Batman, she had never been that bad. I was doing my daily water/poop/spray/etc check of all the critters. As soon as her tub had been slid open a few inches she came flying out looking to sink her teeth into me, striking the air around her about a dozen times in as many seconds. It's funny but at the time I wasn't even worried about getting bit, but whether I could catch her before she hit the floor if she came so far out of the tub that she fell.

Fortunately, she stayed in the tub, and I grabbed a roll of paper towels and let her wear herself out on that until she gave up. She didn't need cleaning out, just a quick misting, and I managed to get her back in the tub and closed it up without getting tagged. I checked her later that night and she was back to her typical self - hiding and hissing a bit, but not acting as if she was descended from a pit viper!

So... has anyone else had a female get REALLY defensive at smelling another female's clutch... and boy, if this is how she acts, I'm NOT looking forward to removing her from her own eggs! She's never been bred before, I was going to start pairing her early next year.