Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I received two beautiful little female henks today, one from Ben Smith, the other from Kelly Sharp. the animals were in great shape, even though DHL left Kelly's on the doorstep of the wrong house! FedEx got Ben's here right on time though.

Now for the real issue. They are only about 8 months old, and my male is over two years. I put them in the morning, and they assumed the position and fell asleep peacefully enough. But tonight, the moment the lights went off, Kelly's little girl went exploring and got the attention of my male. he watched her tentatively for a bit, then begin twitching his tail to rapidly and fiercely it caused his whole body to tremor. He then ran up and lunged at her in an attempt to bite her! Fortunately she is quite nimble and escaped intact. The same thing happened to Ben's little girl the moment she dared move!

They are now separated, with my poor male in a 20 gallon spartan setup (some foam for substrate, and a couple pvc pipes for braches) instead of his lush naturalistic vivarium, which the females are now free to explore. I will still stay up most of the night observing them, but feel they should be fine.

Any suggestions on what to do to ease the introduction on the next try?

Jared
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With great power, comes great responsibility.
-Ben Parker

I don't think there is anything you can do to easy the introduction the next time. The fact is your male wants to mate and your females don't want to. The behavior you described is typical mating behavior in Uroplatus. I would wait until your females are at least a year old and can easily fend off the male.
-Matt

So you think I should keep them seperate for another 4 months or so?

I really wish someone had responded when I asked opinions about putting two sub-adult females with an adult male.

Jared
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With great power, comes great responsibility.
-Ben Parker

basically, the longer you keep them apart the better their chances are to grow into well-sized adults, and not have the stress of becoming gravid at an age earlier than what they should. its always good to keep new arrivals separated anyway, even though they might be CB. just gives them time to settle in after a possibly harsh ride, and adjust to their new surroundings. you could also keep the male within view of the females so maybe he'll get used to at least having them around.