Will female crested's fight

dingogirl66 · 10-14-05, 09:20 PM

I recently bought another (proven) female..I placed them together after quarantine was over..my first one who has lived alone in a 36x18x18 terranium for several months was not so pleased with the new arrival. I promptly removed the new girl and am awaiting for some tips or suggetions... :medfrown:

CDN-Cresties · 10-14-05, 11:36 PM

You would get more replies if you posted this in the rhac forum.

I had the same experience before with females fighting eachother so I just gave them an enclosure of their own. I posted the same question a while back with no real answers.
Best of luck.

crankyboy · 10-15-05, 01:10 AM

the best thing is to try taking them both out of the enclosure, completely re-arrange it and clean all smells etc of the furnishings, then try and introduce them in the "new" enclosure at the same time. If theis doesn't work then i have no suggestions othe than seperate caging

clint545 · 10-15-05, 06:44 AM

I have one female that I have tried to introduce into the community tanks several times with no luck. She is absolutley vicious towards other females, so she lives on her own

One suggestion I've got is she might see the other females as competion for males regardless if there's a male around or not.
Best to keep them on their own.

DragnDrop · 10-15-05, 07:23 AM

It's rare for female cresties to fight but it can happen. As Clint said, the new girl will be seen as competition for the male so the idea is to get her to leave and find her own place. In the wild there's no problem finding her own tree, but in captivity it's impossible. The whole thing boils down to passing on your genes - if there's somebody else around to snag your mate, then you have less chance of breeding and passing your genes on. Since you don't have a male, it sounds like your original female is really desperate, adding another female wasn't the answer to her prayers.

Even groups of several females and one male can have their issues. One female will eventually become the dominant one and pester the living daylights out of the lower ranking ones. I've seen it happen with 1.3 or more females in a group, but never had a problem with only 1.2 groupings.

If you can rearrange all the cage furniture and remove her scent, there's a better chance that they'll get along but it's not guaranteed.

HerpAddict · 10-15-05, 04:44 PM

I have two sub-adult females in together. They have been together since they were about 15g each. The female (Harli) that was in the enclosure (exoterra 18"x18"x24") first is generally pretty calm and easy going, which might be why she had no problem with the new addition. The new addition (Mahlla) on the otherhand is a skittish yellow-streak when you open the enclosure doors. I was worried that Mahlla might try to take a pieve out of Harli, but Harli has always been about 25% larger than Mahlla, so I think that helped even out the balance. I've never witnessed any indications of agression in the 2-3months that they have been together.

That's not to say that agression isn't possible, I can totally believe it. When one of my females (Tango) is being a grump, she'll tell off my hand even if I'm just rearranging the cage. Tango is also on the large size, sitting around 57g, and she's tailless. The other two females look like they will probably stay smaller, at under 40g from their growth rates. I don't think I would risk putting them in with her just because I could see Tango being a big bully.

When in doubt, just keep them separate. Reptiles don't need to have buddies, especially if they've ever shown any agression towards others. They probably enjoy having their own selection of crickets and hiding places!

Good luck with them!