# Leopard Gecko, Incompatible Juvenile and Adult Females?



## Jker1220 (Aug 28, 2013)

I recently bought a juvenile female leo, planning to put her in with my older current leo. When i tried to introduce them, the older leo ignored the new housemate for around 20 minutes, however suddenly turned and stalked her same motion as she would a cricket, and lunged at her tail, bit it, and then released and tried to go for the leg. I interrupted this with a loud shout which caused them both to freeze and removed the new gecko. I've heard of short nips for dominance, but the stalking motion and coming from behind suddenly was very concerning. I've never had any issues with female compatibility before, and have been unsuccessful in finding a reason for the stalking motion from other sources on the internet.

My older female was original the victim of cage bullying in a pet store, to the point where she lost her original tail. She also has a disfigured front left leg, where none of the joints are functional, but i am not sure if that is the result of an injury or a born disfigurement. She is around 8 years old, and i adopted her from the pet store, which could no longer sell her because of her condition. She has been in the same enclosure with 4 different geckos in the time I have owned, and has never shown any aggression before, always being the most submissive of the bunch. When i first got her, probably 2 at the time, i put her in with a 5 year old larger female leo, who she had no issues with. She also spent around 6 months living with 2 other female leo's of a similiar age and size, and had no aggression issues at the time, and 2 months with a juvenile male (younger then the current new female) after that, no issues either. My other female was incompatible with this juvenile male, along with another 2 males i attempted to breed her with, as she always immediately bit their neck and pushed them away, but my current female gecko never had any issues with any other leos. she has been isolated for the past 2 years since my previous female passed away.

The terrarium is a former aquarium, 24x12 in. base, that formerly housed my current female and former much larger female (she was huge by leo standards) peacefully for many years. I replaced the sand i use as substrate, added a new shelter and flipped the positions of the old shelter, the stone water bowl, and the extra accessories (decorative crystal rock, and fake cactus the crickets love to climb on making them easy prey). 

Based on these interactions, should I try an alternative way of introducing the leos (plexiglass separation or side by side enclosures?) or should I just house them apart from eachother. I had really hoped to keep them together. Any advice would be very much appreciated.


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## Madhouse5 (Jun 6, 2011)

hi myself i can not recommend housing leos on there own more they do not need company at all all mine and i have a few are housed in there own tub this also means you dont get the if one gets sick they all do and with no competition for food or hides they do very well.

so for me i house them on there own 

Paul


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## Rawwwrchazli (Mar 16, 2012)

I would never house Leos together since I had a fight between 2 girls despite them having lived together fine for a year; it's not worth it.
You hear horrid stories of legs being bitten off and dropped tails, even death.

As Paul said, it's easier to monitor feeding, popping, weight gain and spot any little illnesses that pop up if they are housed alone. They don't 'want' company though some will tolerate it; there will always be a dominant Leo.
Also, remember that just because you don't see bullying (if you did end up being able to house them as a pair) doesn't mean it's not happening. 

You should ideally also quarantine new animals for about 3 months before any introductions, just for future reference, incase the new kid on the block has any nasty bugs hiding that it came with and that you can't see.

I bought a Leo from a shop last year that came riddled with Pinworm, and had I not quarantined her all 20 (at the time) of my Leos would have become infested and it would have cost a FORTUNE to fix and would have been awful for the little darlings.









There's no reason why they couldn't mooch about out of the vivs together like Angel and Flo do.

It's a bit like, I dunno, in my case, I couldn't live with my best mate. I can spend time with her, but if I lived with her, I'd kill her. Same thing, different species


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## Jker1220 (Aug 28, 2013)

I went and picked up a cage my cousin stole from me years ago when he was getting a crested gecko that I'll use for it. I just decided its for the best to take no risks for now, might keep the cages nearby so they can see eachother though, and when the new leo grows I'll try again.

Thanks for the advice


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