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I introduced my only female to my older male about two weeks ago. The normal behavior of tongue flicking and interest in the female were all that I observed until a few days ago. When I came home from work my female was dead. She was chewed up from head to tail. She was about a year old and of appropiate size. The male was well fed. He must have tried to eat her but I dont understand why there were so many bite and chew marks all over her body. These are very beautiful lizards and I am upset that I did't get the chance to breed them. I am looking for anyone who has extra females. ONLY SUPERVISED VISITS FOR THESE GUYS!

My Desert Collared did the same thing to the female, only thing different was I caught him before he killed her! He was trying to mate with her but just a little to aggressively! He took a big chuck out of the hip section of the female before I could grab her from the tank.
Needless to say, my male is and will be, housed alone from now on.

That sucks but for some reason male dickersonae have been known to be very aggressive towards females in the cage. I'm sure Brock can offer more accounts of this.

That's awful, Jeff! Yeah, I have noticed that certain male Dickerson's collared lizards can get incredibly aggressive during the breeding season. Rather than attempting to consume the female, I suspect your male was probably just exhibiting territorial behavior - to the extreme. I have one c.b. male C. dickersonae in particular that must be housed in "solitary confinement" throughout the year. All attempts so far to introduce a female into his spacious living quarters are met with sudden attacks of very malicious intent.

Brock

Regarding territorial behavior, not sure if that was the issue with my Desert Collared since they were in a 125 gallon tank with plenty of room. At the time I had two rock piles (large piles) at either end of the tank. They were housed together for months until breeding season hit, then he (male) became very aggressive and took a chuck out of the female but was also trying to mate with her. He was beating her all over the tank, flippin' and twisting.......one too many times and took a chuck the size of a blueberry out of the female's hip area....that's when I stepped in and ended it.
HD

HD,

The behavior you described with your C. bicintores sounds more like that of a male in breeding season form simply getting overly ambitious in his pursuit of sexual gratification. The unfortunate incident Jeff encountered - and one that I have nearly witnessed myself with C. dickersonae - involves aggression with an altogether different motive. I have a male of this species who will immediately charge any female introduced in his enclosure, clamping down on her head with his jaws. He is so relentless in his attack that I have been forced to place the pair under running water to get him to loosen his grip. Needless to say, I no longer provide this male collared any opportunities for female companionship!

Brock

First I'm sorry to hear that about your female Jeff, disturbing!
What I would like to know is why such aggression to the death ? I know males can be quite rough, when I first saw my male aquaflame react to his first female in the tank, It appeared to be like a rape, very harsh. I remember emailing Will and asking if this was normal, I had never witnessed it before.(very upsetting to see female being throw down by the neck) But he then stopped and he and female shared a basking spot.
I always assumed, the male was only territorial with other males, "because of females".
HD said his desert collared(bicinctores) male was extremely aggressive to, but he managed to see the female was in trouble and removed her.
So Is this something that must be closely monitored with any male during breeding season, can they become unpredictible as far as agression at this time?
Or only comman in specific species? Sorry for all the questions, but I was unaware a male would KILL a female, until now. I would be freaked !!! Eve

I'm searching for a female for my biccinctores for quite a while now and reading this i think i will maybe reconsider. My male is quite agressive and i would not have him kill a female. Frankly he really dont seem to mind to be alone.

do even nonaggressive males just go all nutty when they meet a female? I really want to mate Squig next summer but now I'm getting all freaked out. He's really sweet, never tried to bite me or anything. I can even let him catch crickets out of my hand without hi nipping me (but he does kinda squirt cricket entrails all over my hand.) I really don't wanna buy a female if he's just gonna tear her up. So is it only the already aggressive males that do this or even the nice ones? & does it have anything to do with whether they were CB or WC?