I have a blue tegu pair that I'm having some aggression problems with. They've lived together for about 10 years, and today was the first time I've witnessed this behavior. They had been fed earlier in the day. We were having a nice day here in Pittsburgh, so I brought them outside to get some sun (first time this year). About 15 minutes after placing them in the sunning cage, the male started biting at the female, who bit back. I have seen this rarely during feeding if they get too close, but it's usually a bite, a bite back, a glare... then it's over.
I would typically let them work it out, but he was relentless. I separated them (pryed them apart), waited a minute and then reintroduced the male, and after a few minutes it happened again. Over the past 10 years, we've moved multiple times, and I've introduced them to multiple new environments... I've never had a problem.
Finally, I just gave the female some time outside, then the male. When I placed them back into their primary cage they immediatly layed together with no problem. I'd like to take them out for some sun when possible, they used to live on a porch and got lots of natural sunlight.
Any advice for preventing this in the future? I'm thinking if I bring more furnishings (logs/substrate) from their primary enclosure with them it'll help. But I think it's unusual for this behavior to be surfacing now and I want to make sure it's not associated with other issues. Really any insight would be appreciated!
