Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i've kept my geckos in smaller seperate cages until today when i got a nice big cage to put the two of them in together (1 male 1 female both about 1 1/2 years old). i always used paper towels in the smaller cages but i decided to go with a more natural environment this time around to make it look nice and went with coco-fiber for the substrate. well, the first thing my female did when i put her in the new cage is go down to the bottom and start sticking her head into the substrate like a shovel and lick/eat the coco fiber. :O and she keeps going back down and doing it over again. now i'm wondering if this is really bad or is this just normal behavior for testing out the new territory? i'm worried about impaction but i'm not sure exactly how bad coco fiber is as far as that is concerned. any feedback appreciated.

and now a new problem- they finally found each other and at first slowly approached each other and began licking each other's faces like they were kissing. then they just started biting each other. they would circle each other and usually bite the head/neck area. they were also making noises and in between bites they would twitch the tips of their tails. is this normal for a male and female when they're first introduced to each other or do i need to seperate them immediately? the cage is big (39 gallon oceanic lizard lounge) and they have plenty of places to hide, but they already retreated and then seamingly hunted each other down on purpose for round 2. the female is bigger than the male although they were both purchased as babies at the same time and she seems to have the upper hand during these encounters. is it safe to keep them in the same cage (give it time to see if it continues over the course of several days?) or should i remove one of them right away to prevent serious injury? again, feedback is greatly appreciated. i was afraid this might happen.....

should i maybe replace the coco fiber with something more firm (or pack the coco down better) so that when i throw in some crickets they won't get a mouthful of substrate, or is coco fiber relatively harmless? should these 2 get used to each other and stop trying to bite off the other's head in a few days time or is the hostility likely to continue? i feel bad cause it looks like my male is stressing out, but i also don't want to abandon the new living arangement if it's just going to take a few days for them to calm down and not attack each other.

although i'm not putting them together for the specific purpose of breeding i wouldn't mind the chance to hatch some babies. from the research i've done it seems fall is the usual breeding time for them and they usually lay eggs around january, but then other sources say they lay eggs (usually 2 at a time) several times a year. some clarification would be nice.

other than the stress of them biting each other i'm really excited to have them in a nice new enclosure together and i'm looking forward to improving on the current setup (toward a more naturalistic environment) and possibly adding another female to the mix if this works out.