Reptile & Amphibian Forums

... This little female vestigium was doing bad lately. She was was too skinny,lethargic and was dragging her hind legs. It seemed she couldn't move one of her legs from the leg/pelvic area. I found out that the female collaris she was encage with was hurting her and eating most of the crix. I separated her two weeks ago and is now doing better. She has put on a lot of meat on her hind legs and tail, is alert and jumping all over the enclosure again. I had everything in place for her, but it was bullying, not poor husbandry wasting her away
I just wanted to share this story with y'all, because many folks tend to over look the possibility of bullying(and overcrowding) as a cause of health problems.

Nick.. you're looking for a female, right?
PM me.

Very good point. One lizard may be more agressive during feeding. This lizard usually grows much faster. This can lead to more serious problems. Years ago, I learned this lesson the hard way. I had a couple clutchmates housed together, when one started to get a little bigger than his sibbling. I walked in one morning to find the larger one with his sibbling's back legs and tail hanging out of his mouth! The smaller lizard was too big to swallow completely, but the larger one wanted to try anyway. Collareds and leopards can eat lizards almost as large as themselves, so even a small difference in size can lead to disaster. Though this type of canibalism is rare, it can happen. That was the only time I have seen a collared eat it's own species.
It is definitely wise to separate any lizard that is either more or less agressive than the rest of the group.

I remember a similar thing happening with a pair of female leopard lizards back when I was still in grade school. If I'm recalling this correctly, I think my mom walked in on it. She's always hated reptiles anyway and this did not help.
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A few years ago I'd caught two adult female c. bicinctores in N. Nevada, and both had their breeding colors (I don't think either were carrying eggs at the time, though). Once I put them on the ground, the larger one charged the smaller one! I thought they were going to bite each other, but instead they "wrestled." Which is to say, they faced each other and rammed their clavicles against each other (so their heads were ear-to-ear, like a hug). Then they proceeded to try to knock the other one onto her side or back. This went on for a couple minutes with the losing female getting rolled over 2-3 times. Then they settled down and that was the end of it.

Weird. Have never seen this behavior and wondered if it had something to do with their breeding colors in bloom. Wish I'd filmed it.

Thank you for this warning! We typically watch when two males are together, but this is a really good reminder that females can be aggressive too.

I'm glad that she is better.

Such a little cutie, glad it turned out okay and she is doing so much better

From having so many of BOTH sexes for so many years, I have observed that females are more aggressive as far as FOOD than my males. May be a thing of nature as they are the ones who carry eggs, and eat ravenishly while gravid.

They just seems to be quite "GRABBY" with food items. I try and make sure theres MORE than enough, so all stays peaceful.

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PHEve / Eve