Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all, I have kept reptiles for a number of years and have owned a female AFT for about four or five months. I just recently got a male AFT and had a question about how to introduce the two into the same cage. The male is a white striped and he is about seven and a half inches long, my female is a standard and is just shy of seven inches long whith regenerated tail. When I introduced them I put the male into the females cage as that was to be there permanent cage. For the first few hours he ignored her and went to a dry hide box and slept. Later that night when they were active (observing them with a red light) I noticed that anytime she came around him or viseversa he would get right at her face and begin to rattle his tail, slow at first and then extremely fast, after that he would hiss three to five short times and would bite her usualy along the nape of the neck or right behind her front legs. I would seperate them withen just a few seconds of this and eventualy had to seperate them into completly different cages. My question is is this normal? Is it just a dominancy thing, I did notice that my female was real submisive and would not try to fight, she would only hiss and try to get away when he'd bite her. Would it be beter to set up a tank for him and leave him by himself in there for a couple of days and then introduce the female into his cage, or should I set up a new tank and put both of them in it right away? I'm just wondering if me putting him into the females tank was the problem or something else. Sorry about the long post any help would be greatly appreciated.

yes it is normal. i freaked out the first time i saw it too. the rattling is the male making sure she isnt a he. if one rattles their tail and the other rattles back that means there are 2 boys. him biting her just means he hasnt been with another girl and wants to breed. sometimes you shouldnt keep a male and female together 1 on 1 becuase they will stress each other out to death. also one could get beat up and get infections and bad wounds. this is why i keep all my animals sepperate.

Hi thanks for the fast responce. Since he is showing aggresivness after just being introduced to the female is it likely that he will breed or attempt to right away? I had always thought that you wouldn't have them breeding until atleast a month if at all during that breeding season. And if he is not going to breed right now(it being late in the breeding season) is the aggresivness likly to coninue? What im wondering is if after a couple of days he will quite biting her and being aggresive or if there is no way to tell. I would like to house these two together as that was a part of my initial attraction to fat tails, and I would love for them to be a breeding pair if all goe well. My main concern is of corse for my female as I would hate to see her get hurt or stressed in any way. Thanks

Also, if I were to introduce another female would that help the problem?
Thanks

Personally I think that the biggest thing is personality. I know that fatties and leos are different, but I am going to use leos as an example in this situation. Everyone says that you can't house male leos together, because they will fight. Well I have a friend that has 3 of them housed together, and they get along with no problems at all. My biggest concern keeping your geckos together would be your male over breeding your female. Yes, when you put them together, chances are they will begin breeding that day. Also, most likely, they will continue breeding throughout the year, which would in turn deplete your female of calcium, and exhaust her, eventually leading to her death. While there is no sure-fire proof that this will happen, it is a possibility, which if you take the risk and keep them together, you should look out for. Good luck in your endeavor.
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1.0 Bearded Dragons
1.1 Fat tailed geckos

Hi all just wanted to give a quick update. My female just laid her first clutch of eggs the day before yesterday . I did seperated my male and female, so now they both have there own cage. He was apparently succesful in his attempt breed with her though. I noticed that my female was gravid about two and a half weeks ago, and at that point provided her with a nesting site( although she chose to lay her eggs in her sweat box). I am incubating the eggs in moist perlite in a havobator at about 85-86 degrees with humidity in the 50s or 60s. She was ofcourse very tired and a bit grumpy the day after, but when she did get a bit more active I got her to eat a pinkie dusted with calcium. Is there anything else I can do for her other than provide her with food that is always dusted and the proper nesting site? I know laying eggs is hard on her and I just want to make sure she is as healthy and happy as possible. Anyway sorry for rambling just wanted to give everyone an update.

Never house more than one male in the same cage.
Your male and female should only live togeather when you want them to breed. Not for their lifetime . (They're not like humans.)
Bitting and tale shaking is normal breeding behavior.
They will breed no matter what, cooling down periods dont matter, but inpregnation is more succesful during breeding season.