Introducing One to the Other?

[Crusher08]

Hi there! Well, this question's been itching at me for awhile now, and I've been seriously thinking about having a whack at breeding. I have a male Argentine B&W, and he's very, very sweet. But he has never even seen another Tegu. I wanted to buy a female, but was wondering how I would go about even introducing the two of them? Is Crush going to like, totally bully, and possibly kill the female? Or, what? Thank you.

 

[Meg90]

Its possible that he would have an aggressive response, its also possible that the female acts aggressively towards him. Its trial and error really. But you want them to be as close in size as possible, and have alternate caging available if it turns out they are aggressive towards each other.

 

[Crusher08]

Thank you so much for responding! So, if they show signs of aggression towards each other, will it ever ease up, or would it just be a bad idea to even try breeding them?

 

[Meg90]

Depends on HOW aggressive I would say. Sometimes huffing and puffing is normal--they are sizing up who is dominant. But if it would continue, I wouldn't pursue breeding. You could end up with two injured tegus, or even an actual casualty.

Bobby would know more about the introducing for breeding though. I am going off experiences with other species. Its amazing how aggressive something as small as a crested gecko can get--they can kill each other. I can't imagine how scary it would be from two 7+ lb tegus. :shock:

 

[TanMan57]

When I introduced Zero to Xander I moved Xander to a new cage so he didn't know really what was going on and then I introduced them there and after a while I moved them back to Xanders enclosure. That seemed to work for me but I did that so both weren't familiar with where they were.