Our five New Guys are 3 months old today. I hope you all got to see the video of the birth. I recently posted a long-overdue explanation of our husbandry techniques. If you missed it, follow the thread for New Guys below.
This new video is no big deal…. simply practicing my newfound computer skills. However, I want to note that I did not teach her how to do this. It is innate behavior. She is the only one of the New Guys to do this.
My Observation: During their third month, the little male (second from the right in the photo) became a more aggressive eater and obviously out-paced the girls in growth. Where the girls primarily wait for prey to come to them, he will pursue prey all over the cage. He gets up earlier to pick off the left-overs and stays up later to clean up the cage. His hemes are growing, almost as if he was going through puberty. I have noticed this sexual dimorphism in the wild. The younger males are larger than same-aged females. After one year, however, the males will get a little larger but the girls will grow twice their size. All of this makes sense when you realize that one-year-old males are sexually mature but it takes a couple of years before the females are. It seems to me that this difference in size is greater in SHLs than in other species. I have seen photos of mating behavior where typically the male will grab on to the horns of the female. Our one-year-old male was not tall enough so he resorted to grabbing on to the flap of skin that covers the ear holes. I have photos of their mating behavior if anyone is interested.
In the second photo, you will notice that I have taught our little male to roll over and play dead.
