Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well last night I came home from work and one of my girls tails was missing. I was not happy about that. But I should have known that was going to happen because yesterday morning when I got out of the shower I looked in the leo tank and noticed one of my leos clamped on to the others tail and the other one (chico---a girl...yeh I know chico means boy but the kids named her when she was a baby) anywyas, chico wasn't doing anything about the other gecko clamped on to it but just sitting there. Well the one that was doing the clamping turns out to be the male, last night I tried picking him up but he wouldn't and tried to crawl up the side of the tank and that's when I got a good view of his underside and noticed his hemipenis and knew for sure that it's a boy. Anywyas, I'm mad that he bit my little girls tail off. I wonder if that's some form of mating or if he was trying to coax her bc she didn't want to mate. Also I've noticed that chico has several battle scars on his head from being bitten so i may have to buy ANOTHER tank just for her so she's safe. On a good note my other female is carrying several eggs again so hopefully she'll be laying them soon. She doesn't seem to have any bite marks on her at all so I don't know why the male is picking on my little chico......chico is the oldest of them all and also the smallest. I have to feed her seperately from the other 2 because he doesn't get to eat as much as the others, and now that his tail is gone I'll have to feed her even more. Anyways, I've written enough, just wanted to share my fun.

well i think you should have seperated them as soon as you noticed she is the oldest and the smallest, specially when she is getting beet up by your male.

that's easier said than done. I already have 6 other large reptile tanks to take care of and I didn't notice him clamped on her tail until I was leaving for work and I'm not about to take a day off work just to go buy another tank and set it up for a single gecko. Anyways, it's breeding season and sometimes geckos get a little rough. I've been watching them since then and they aren't showing any aggression toward each other and are actually laying next to each other. The leo's are in a fairly large tank and have plenty of room to get away from each other if they feel threatened but they obviously don't if they are laying next to each other. FYI when geckos mate the male normally bites the female on the back of the neck so some bites and scarring is normal during this time of year and the most likely reason that she is smaller than the other 2 is because she was bought from a pet store for $20 and the other 2 were bought from breeders who's leo's are known for being rather large. She may be smaller than the other 2 but she is not even close to malnutritioned.

i know how leos mate being as i have 24 and several more on the way. but when the female abviously does not want to mate and drops her tail she is probably being over stressed and thats why she decided to let her tail go. sometimes females just arnt ready to mate and they just dont want to yet. i have had my boys be drug arround in circles hanging onto the females tail, but they never dropped it because i didnt let them get over stressed. i had a 1.4 ratio and when i do 1.1 i seperate them after 4 days. okay im just blabbing, but i hope if she does become gravid she will be okay without her tail and that stored nutrition that is ment for the reason of breeding.

I'm still keeping an eye on them to see how they behave, so far I haven't seen any more aggressive behavior from the male and I see them all laying next to each other. I may pick up a 10 gallon tank for her this weekend and set that up so she'll have her own tank during breeding season so the male doesn't stres her out. It's also possible that the male just thought the tale was a wax worm and bit it because of that.....geckos aren't the smartest of creatures after all.