# tegus nipping each other



## laurarfl (Mar 9, 2009)

I have two young tegus housed together...they are about 18 months old and not sexually mature. (Later this spring/summer they will get separate enclosures, for the record.) Anyway, the male seems to have taken a fancy to biting at the sides of the female. At first I thought she was scraping her sides along her hide box or something, but i caught him in the act of nipping her tail base, hind legs, and sides.

I'm wondering if this is premature mating behavior, general dominant behavior, or just something peculiar to this particular tegu. When they all free roam together, he shows no interest in my adult female tegu, so I wasn't thinking it was mating behavior. I thought maybe he was convincing his roommate to move out his preferred basking area. She doesn't seemed to be phased, she just gives him the icy stare and moves over a bit.

Any thoughts?


----------



## Schnab (Mar 9, 2009)

Since they are presently housed together, and not yet mature, it sounds to me like your male is being territorial and that your female is being stubborn lol


----------



## laurarfl (Mar 9, 2009)

She is quite the stubborn one! We named her Kreacher after the elf in Harry Potter. My kids loved HP and we listened to all the books on audio with Jim Daly. The voices he does are terrific....when this tegu arrived in the mail, we just pictured it having that particular voice and attitude. "Won't, won't, won't do what the master says. Filthy human wants to touch Kreacher, won't let it happen." It's a kind of "have to be there" moment if you aren't familiar with it.


----------



## VARNYARD (Mar 9, 2009)

Is the one nipping the red? It might be mating as reds can breed at two years old.


----------



## olympus (Mar 9, 2009)

my red does that sometimes also and I've always wondered about that . They usually just walk away from each other. I have no advice though, I'm in the same boat as you.


----------



## laurarfl (Mar 9, 2009)

It's the male red nipping the female B/W, both about 18mos or so. It doesn't look like aggressive behavior, sort of like nibbling down the side of her or pinching her butt.  She could really care less, but it roughs up her skin along the sides of her back just a bit.

If she's not old enough to breed, will she just ignore him or will he keep pestering her anyway?

Olympus, does your red do the same thing when they are free roaming or while housed together? They really don't pay too much attention to each other when out on the back porch free roaming. The red male is usually too busy rubbing his cloaca all over everything :roll: and the little female is trying to eat the carpet :crazy . Meanwhile the older female is trying to figure out how to get back into the house. They're like the three stooges some days. :doh But they're really great lizards.


----------



## Schnab (Mar 10, 2009)

:app Funny!


----------



## casanoveh (Sep 16, 2010)

Hey I understand that this was an older post, but I'm trying to find out if anything ever came of it???? I'm having a similar problem. My tegus are both right around a year old and are both around 30". I got home today and my male blue is biting the (what I believe to be) female b&w. She wasn't really all that worried about it but he definitely did get her good a couple of times causing her to bite back. I'm freakin out though because I'm worried they're hurting each other. they are both leaving scratches and in some cases drawing a little blood. I'm just wondering if you ever found out if it was territorial behavior or sexual behavior?


----------

