Introducing a male and female together?

[Soterios]

So I have two geckos that I wouldn't mind having in the same cage. The male is quite a bit smaller than her.

I just put them in the same tank and after some licking, he started biting her tail, so I separated them.

Can they learn to live together?

Thanks in advance.
Paul

[LGL]

It sounds like he was wanting to mate with her. Males will often vibrate their tails and then begin biting the female along the tail and/or back and eventually the neck before mating. Either that or he was just being aggressive.

Are you wanting to breed them? Are they the proper age/weight to breed? Are you ready to breed them? If not, you should not house a male and a female together.

Also, even if you do plan on breeding them, they should both be adults before you house them together since they are male and female. You don't want to endanger one of them if they are too small. Also, you don't want the larger of the two dominating the other one.

[Soterios]

It sounds like he was wanting to mate with her. Males will often vibrate their tails and then begin biting the female along the tail and/or back and eventually the neck before mating. Either that or he was just being aggressive.

Are you wanting to breed them? Are they the proper age/weight to breed? Are you ready to breed them? If not, you should not house a male and a female together.

Also, even if you do plan on breeding them, they should both be adults before you house them together since they are male and female. You don't want to endanger one of them if they are too small. Also, you don't want the larger of the two dominating the other one.

He did vibrate his tail before biting her butt.

As far as breeding. I'm ok if they do. As long as they're healthy. If I don't want a clutch, I'll freeze them. I do plan on hatching some though. He is a bit smaller than her (She's about 60g, he's about 35g) . She's three years old and he is a bit over a year.

Is there any way to tell by monitoring them if they're going to fight?

[LGL]

Well it sounds like he was trying to mate then. If you plan on keeping them together, I'd probably wait until he becomes full grown so there is no competition over food and hides. Also, if it is only a male/female pair that is housed together, be careful that he doesn't overbreed her and cause stress.

[Soterios]

Well it sounds like he was trying to mate then. If you plan on keeping them together, I'd probably wait until he becomes full grown so there is no competition over food and hides. Also, if it is only a male/female pair that is housed together, be careful that he doesn't overbreed her and cause stress.

Is there any way I can be sure they don't over breed?

Thanks for all your help.

[malt_geckos]

I would highly suggest not keeping them together. It's very stressful for the female and the male will constantly be hurrassing the female to breed. The female will object unless she's ovulating, which is stressful for her beause she has to keep fighting off the male. I would also be worried about the male since you say he's much smaller than the female. If she goes to bite him because she doesn't want to breed, she can do some damage if he's small. Also, at this age, there could be a worry of the male having his hemipenis prolapsing. Hope that helps.

[Soterios]

Thank you all for the responses.

So question two would be, would two females be ok together if they're appropriately sized?

As in, if I traded a male for a female, would they do alright?

[Soterios]

Color me irresponsible if you'd like, but to try and gauge their sociability, I put them together.

They uhh... or rather Charlie tried to do his thing.

YouTube - MVI 1754

If they're going to do this all the time and it's going to potentially hurt/stress out Penny, I'm going to trade Charlie for a female.

Thanks for all the help.

[LGL]

Thank you all for the responses.

So question two would be, would two females be ok together if they're appropriately sized?

As in, if I traded a male for a female, would they do alright?

Housing two females of the same size together in an appropriately sized cage is just fine. Just watch them when you first put them together and watch for any "social" issues that may arrise right off the bat.

Color me irresponsible if you'd like, but to try and gauge their sociability, I put them together.

They uhh... or rather Charlie tried to do his thing.


If they're going to do this all the time and it's going to potentially hurt/stress out Penny, I'm going to trade Charlie for a female.

Thanks for all the help.

If you are just wanting two Geckos that can be housed together, your best bet would be to go with two females.

[Soterios]

Thanks Eric, I sent you a PM btw.