Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive got a breeding population of picta geckos and Im having abit of an issue... sort of.

I have this little female - a real beauty - that has been causing alot of headaches.

Given, I realize that territoriality is present in both male and female specimens, but Ive never witnessed aggression in the levels Im seeing in this female.

She is currently housed with a large male, and the 2 of them seem to get along just fine. Its when I attempt to introduce another female into the equation that the aggression becomes apperant - and drastically so.

I have been breeding these animals for a good 2 years now, and no other female that Ive encountered has shown much (if any) aggression towards other females. This specimen, however, seems... well, 'hateful'.

After introducing a female, on 2 seperate occasions I have witnessed this specimen searching out the introduced female and attacking it VIOLENTLY - in previous instances of aggression (from other specimens) Ive noticed a bite-and-let-go way of dealing with percieved threats.

This is not the case with this female - she bites and HOLDS, gnawing on the other animal with great force and apperant desire to kill.

The first animal I attempted to introduce her to was actually injured by her attack, and may well never recover - her forelimb was injured, which makes movement for her somewhat difficult (let alone hunting). I removed her to a seperate enclosure and have taken to hand-feeding her (something that takes no small amount of time, and has taken no small amount of trust on her part to accept), and she seems to be regaining her strength. That incident was entirely my fault, as I assumed (a bad mistake) that there would be no aggression between females and didnt notice the attack taking place until it was too late. The second instance (occuring only 2 days ago), I kept close watch and was able to save the introduced female from being drastically injured - and it was a good thing I did, as the aggro-female immediately attacked the introduced specimen.

This is confusing to me - there is no food present, both animals are well fed, the enclosure is easily large enough to house upwards of 5 of these animals.... What is causing this reaction? Territoriality seems an obvious cause, but it seems so strange to see such activity out of a normally 'relaxed' species....

Any thoughts?

Im going under the assumption at present that this female will have to watched VERY closely, and only kept with large male specimens. I dont entirely mind this, but I would like to hear any thoughts on the matter.

Thanks.

I've never kept the species in question, but have seen similar reactions with a couple of others.

I had a particular female leo who would tolerate males and did lay eggs for me (though none ever hatched) but would not tolerate other females in the same enclosure and would eagerly attack them.

Also a friend of mine had 1.2 S. sthenodactylus, but lost one female unexpectedly and gruesomely (limbs & tail missing when he found the body), and noticed the other female getting very aggressive, displaying behaviour like you described. Then the male died (also gruesomely) and he rehomed the aggresive female to someone else with this species. The new owner later stated this female had become very aggressive with his breeding group as well and had to be kept seperate.

In the case of leopard geckos, I am aware of "hot" females, which hatch out at "male" incubation temperatures and display a lot of male characteristics such as territorial issues, aggression towards other males and difficulty breeding. I'm not sure if it's been proven with your species or the S. sthenodactylus, but if their sexes are temperature-dependent at incubation, it's possible these are examples of "hot" females?