Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone been successful in introducing unfamiliar red ackies to each other? I have a June/07 best guess male and August/07 best guess female that I would like to raise together. I am well aware that individuals of this species are often incompatible with each other and this seems to be the case with my pair. The older and larger one just wants to trounce the slightly smaller one. Should I give up and keep them forever separate or are there good techniques to help them develop a loving and meaningful relationship?

Your taking information out of context. First, one never knows what will happen, its not up to us, its up to them.

Next, with babies, of course they muck with eachother, babies and young do that, even when rasied together.

The point is, what happens with solitary adults is much different. As an adult can remove a leg in a split second. Or simply murder another individual.

With babies, they inflict little actual harm. At least with them, if it persists, you have plenty of time to seperate them before any serious injury occurs.

And your answer is, sometimes they get along, sometimes they don't. Just like people or dogs or horses. Some just do not like some individuals and like others. Heck, often times we can keep adult males together without problem.

Its more about percentages, the younger they are, the better your chances are, the older they are, the worse you chances are. But you always have a chance to succeed.

Heck, with some experience, you can breed individuals that HATE eachother. Its just a lot of work and no fun. Cheers

Thanks, FR. The aggressor chases, bites and vigorously shakes the other and although no pieces have come off yet it looks like there is that potential. This clearly stresses out the victimized animal and it won't eat, bask or show it's face in public and for good reason! I was wondering if an environmental change might help like setting up a cage completely new to both of them. Perhaps that would disrupt their sense of territory enough to get them to play well together. How 'bout separate but equal basking sites? Any tips on ways to disrupt this aggression would be helpful. I don't mind putting the work in but I don't want to go off in a direction that is not going to work. Thanks!

Hi John, You can do nothing and they will work it out, or you can do everything(within captive limits) and it will not work.

If you ask me if I have ackies, I will answer, yes, I am working with ackies. That means, I work ackies, I have constantly do something to achieve desired results. If I do not work them properly, they will show poor results. If I work them properly, they reveal better or benefitual results. Now consider, I am the same person with the same knowledge, its all about keeping up the effort(to work)

Couple that with each animal is an individual and your WORK is cut out for you.

I normally let them work it out. Once in a while I have to intefere. Only you will know when to interfere.

It seems you already have ideas of things to try, try them or not, the point is, they may or may not work.

As long as you included normal support, monitors do not give a hoot about being moved to new cages or having their cage rearranged. In fact, they seem to love it.

The longer I keep monitors, the more it becomes apparent, monitors are not for everyone. Its possible you are not meant for monitors. They are behavioral and do lots of things, some are cool, some are, hmmmmmmmmm not so cool. But that is what are.

Good luck Cheers

Well, FR....What I think is cool is that you are willing to extend your experience to freshman monitor students like me so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel at the expense of our animals. What I took from your post is that you didn't feel that environmental changes were the key to affecting the behavioral changes I was looking for and that allowing these juvies to muck it up was not necessarily going to cost a tail, a toe or a life. They tangled on and off all day long but both animals seem to be physically, if not spiritually, intact. Much to my surprise the smaller one came out this evening and devoured some mealworms while Godzilla looked on from his lofty perch. I will continue to study and learn in amazement. Perhaps there is hope for love in happy valley! Thanks for your wisdom FR.

When you put animals together, you have to let them work it out. I fully understand, its harder on us, then them sometimes. Or so it seems.

I always recomend starting with very young animals, they are more plastic in their behavior and normally work it quickly.

The older they get, the less plastic they are and the results can be very negative. But not always.

Most of the behaviors your seeing are not dominance, but more about possessions. This is mine, that is yours, etc. Cheers

I thought that those, like myself, who wonder if introducing unfamiliar juvies might lead to death and destruction I would like to report on some good progress. Thanks to FR's assurance that young'ins don't usually kill each other, I allowed my pair to battle it out for several days. It was hard to watch and even harder not to interfere but despite some ugly fighting they have come to tolerate each other rather well. The younger and smaller animal has begun to feed again and I caught this rare moment of apparent happiness as they were engaging in some "pillow talk."
Many thanks again, FR, for encouraging me to have the cajones to let them work it out. I hate to sound too much like I'm more worried about the cost of the animals than their welfare (because I am not) but it was tough to see my hard earned $500 ball of lizards looking like they were in their final death throws and just let what happens happen! Thanks again for the support. It was very much appreciated and obviously some good advice. John

Please remember, behavior is an ongoing process, it is constantly changing. There is no, this works, and that doesn't.

Which means, It can change at any time. In fact, it will end poorly. It always does. All these individuals will die. What matters is, what happens while they are alive. If they can attain some basic life events, then there is some value. If they can attain, more like the minimun of reproduction. Then thats of more value. After that, they do indeed particapate if nest building and guarding, and many many other events that appear VERY important to them. Cheers