Male sudden aggression towards my female.

[Mr.Greenluv]

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to say hello and seek some advice from the experts on here.
I currently have two Argentinian B&W Tegu's that i purchased back in August of 2012. I received them pretty much as babies, no more than a few months old. They have always been housed together and have gotten along great, from sun bathing together eating together and always snuggling and sleeping in the same spots. I recently moved into a new house and they acted as usual, Crawling around sniffing and digging about. I set up a spot in the house with a basking light, water dish and uvb bulb so they do not always have to be in their cage and enjoy a little free roaming. The boy (Giuseppe) is much larger than the girl (Augustina) his neck has that wide skin to it and he is very thick bodied and i have felt around the bottom of his tail area for the sign of a bump or little beebee. He is close to 4 ft and she is over 3ft. The other day i watched her lay on her basking spot as usual and out came Giuseppe and he walked up to her and suddenly clamped onto her neck and she began to thrash and freak out! She jetted and he chased her but being a bit hefty did not catch up. So i took them both out and let them just relax a bit around the house. She went to the side basking spot i have set up and he wandered about. Not 10 minutes later i heard running and saw them both bolting across the kitchen floor and Giuseppe clamped onto her leg. I freaked out and separated them not knowing what was wrong. They are both well fed a mix of Mice, Chicken, Turkey and vegetable meatballs with the occasional eggs and salmon. I am currently building them a larger cage 8x3x4 and it will not be done for a few weeks. But i like to rotate taking them out on Harnesses for natural sunlight when possible. These are my first pair of Tegu's and i Just am hoping to figure out why the sudden aggression the male has had towards the female. Any and all help is appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Peasley]

The male domination behavior could be happening because he may be a little frisky (trying to breed), ALTHOUGH as with anything, there are many different factors that could be raising a red flag to aggression. I didn't notice in your post anything about your current enclosure size and details, just that were currently building a larger one. If they have free roam around the house, I wouldn't see it as too much of an issue anyhow, but it depends on how much time they spend together in their current enclosure, and if it really is large enough to house them both comfortably. Also, large lizards (and all animals at that) go through a puberty stage in which they get a little hard to work with for a while (their attitude changes as their body changes with a flood of hormones). There are some instances where this could simmer down a bit over time, or some could remain in this behavioral state for the rest of their life, pretty much depends on the animal. In your new enclosure building adventure, I would recommend making a two-tier set-up (two levels), or building two different enclosures entirely. This way they both get all the space they need for burrowing, basking, food, etc. Babies and juvies are generally fine with a cage mate, but once the sub-adult to adult age kicks in, sometimes that cage mate could be seen as competition for everything. Not saying this is exactly your problem, because you have stated they get plenty of outside-the-cage time, but due keep in mind their ages and keep a look out for anything that could be flagging his behavior.

 

[SamBobCat]

Sounds like he's trying to... How do I put this... Maybe he's trying to "get at that" LOL