Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In anticipation of this year’s breeding season, I have placed 2 female crested geckos together in an enclosure. In the past I have kept all of the ciliatus in separate tubs, and this is the first time I have attempted to house 2 females together. They were both introduced to a completely new tub set up, and within 20 minutes they were fighting. The older of the two was the aggressor, and was biting the crest area of the other. This continued for a minute or so with some barking and vocalization that followed. Since then (2 days ago) I have been watching closely and it doesn’t seem as if there have been anymore acts of violence. I’m haven’t seen the younger of the 2 eating and she seems to be sticking to one small area of the enclosure.

Just wanted to know if anyone has experience with female aggression in certain individuals, or if this is fairly normal.

Also is there a better way to introduce multiple females together.

BTW..These 2 females have been sharing a screen enclosure that I had split in half using a screen panel, so they have been living very close to each other, with just a single layer of screen separating them.

Females can be just as aggressive towards eachother as they can be to males and males with other males.

It sounds like they are having a typical dispute over territory and one has claimed the bulk of the cage size. They may also just not like eachother but both may get along fine with other females. Also if the younger female is distinctively smaller, probably not a good idea to leave them together.

The size of the cage and how much 'cover' you have set inside can also be factors. Its best to have as much visual barriers as possible. IF they can't see each other then they tend to be less territorial. I also suggest two separate feeding containers one at each end of the cage.

When I housed two females and a male together for breeding I had two-three feed dishes spread over the cage to prevent fights over food. I also had plenty of fake plants to provide visual barriers and to my knowledge none ever fought. (I never noticed any bite marks or other injuries nor indications of weight loss etc in the females or even tail loss. In fact only ever lost one tail and that happened because I accidentally caught her tail in the lid of the cage.) Oh and one baby did drop her tail and I am sure that was due to having three of them in a small cage, so I only ever kept clutch mates in the small containers I used for babies till old enough to be housed in the big cages and/or go to a new home.
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PHLdyPayne