Crazy female behavior...thoughts?

[laurarfl]

I have this wonderful female tegu who is my puppy dog . She had a clutch last year and didn't have an aggression issues towards me, but did not tolerate other tegus. She hibernated over the winter. The weather got cold and I was concerned about my male close to the floor, so I let him hibernate with her (no problems there). I noticed that when they woke up, he was trying to court, so I took him back out.

She is not gravid, but is displaying all the same behavior. She seems to be making a nest in and around her hide box in the same place as last year. She's a little testy if you get close to it, too. I took all three adults on the porch to feed and she tried to attack my other female, like she did last year. Then I tried just the male and she promptly walked up to him and latched onto his jowls with a death grip that took me and my husband and a nearby object to remove. She'll bask, but won't eat much except maybe one small rat every day or every other. She refuses all her other usual favorite foods.

I know for a fact that she is not gravid. I thought about breeding her again this year, but not if she attacks the male, obviously. Any idea of what is going on here?

 

[reptastic]

You know im curious about this to, last year before the fire my female was behaving similarly when my male was around, she didnt bite him but she she would nudge him around his tail base, tummy area and jowls constantly..i wasnt sure if it was breeding behaviour because she was only a yearling (although full size)he was 2 y/o and didnt seemed interested at all. Maybe she is ready and trying to give him a jumpstart idk

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

I think this maybe a question for bobby or someone but,.. if they retain sperm plugs like BPs and some other reps,.. she could be gravid. Or maybe they did the do before going back to sleep when you put the male with her. I'm just thinking out loud her but sounds like she's pretty much staked her territory for now,.. no other females aloud and males on occasion.

Or maybe she's expecting the big boy to come around this time and she wants everything to be ready,... but not until she's ready.

 

[laurarfl]

She's really not gravid, and I don't seem to recall that they retain sperm like other lizards can. It's been over a month since they were together and her middle is loose. I thought it was territory and perhaps she claimed the back porch as her territory, too. I had the small female in the tub the other day and put grouchy woman in the tub just to make an exchange. The little one is sort of dorky and doesn't read social clues very well. She started walking towards the grouchy one. The grouchy one started huffing/hissing loudly and arched her back up pretty high. She greets everyone with the arched back, lowered head response right now.

I looked back at my records from last year and she laid eggs in May, so bred in April. When she was ready to breed, she did the tail sashay. She would get close to the male and do a wide tail wave. Now she drags her cloaca to scent mark, arches her back, lowers her head, and just calmly walks up to bite. It's a big difference.