Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've got a cage with three baby geckos (~4 mo. old).
I love feeding them small crickets because they go nuts and run around pouncing on anything that moves... that, however, is where the problem lies-they have started to bite eachother and with a fair amount of gusto. One will actually snap shut on the others head and start tugging on it... is this normal for baby cresteds? I've had them about 2 months and they're growing and shedding regulary and they're obviously quite active (maybe too active...). Also, I've only noticed the biting when they're feeding on crickets.

So my questions are:

1. Could this be male-male aggression? because they seem pretty young and I can barely grab 'em much less sex 'em

2. These guys are pretty tough right, should I just assume they can take an occasional gnaw on the head and be ok?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated
thanks

Unless you are breeding mass quantities of Crestys I suggest keeping them seperately. If kept in groups as babys you will have food competition which often leaves one or more babys wanting more food, if they get any at all. It will be much easier to tell how much food each gecko is getting if they are seperated as well. Also you will not have the problem of the biting you describe which could result in lost tails or even death in extreme cases (rare). I keep all of my hatchlings, of all species, seperated when they are young. My Crested Geckos are all kept in small 2.5 gal "Critter Keepers" until they are big and strong and finding food well. More info can be found on my website if you are interested. The link is in my signature.
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Peace!
KofSeattle
Reptile-Like
Here lizard lizard.........

I find the “biting” behavior fairly common, it occurs with cagemate’s legs, head, and even keepers fingers on occasion. So it would appear to be a normal feeding response, just an unfortunate one from the aspect of trying to keep all your captives happy and carefree. No on has been injured yet, just a little shaken up : )

While keeping all of your geckos as singles is likely the best case scenario, we simply don’t have the space. So we keep them in groups of 2, sometimes 3, sorted by weight until adulthood. Also we get a good idea of food consumption by watching them eat insects and weight monitoring (which is really more of a diagnostic than that food intake).

-Randy

The bitey thing is some kind of dominance related aggression. I have raised babies to subadults in small (3-4) groups without observing this behavior. But certain individuals (Males???) start bullying their cagemates it will continue untill the aggressor is removed. At feeding time the bully will ignore crickets to attack its cagemate first causing the cagemate to retreat and effectivly preventing it from competing for the food. The bully will always grow more quickly. I have never had an injury or even a tail dropped from bullying. Just alot of squeaking and running about.