BT lizards started fighting

[Herstjori]

I have a pair of BT approx 3/4 months old both from same breeding. They've had a pretty steady diet to date. However Friday last week I started feeding them live crickets (just the ones from Petbarn) and now they wont stop fighting. They had never fought prior to the crickets. They are still little so no real injuries as in bite marks but I have heard a couple of squeals from them. It seems only one of them is the aggressor.

Is this usual? Will they chill out or will I need to separate them? Should I just stop feeding crickets?

 

[Stuart]

If they are fighting, separate them before you find one or both with serious injuries. I have heard Bluetongues hiss before but a squeal is a new one, are you sure it's them?

Blueys need a bit of space if they are to co inhabit the same area so unless you are offering a large enclosure, be prepared for it to happen. From what I have read, and hopefully some of the more knowledgable folks will step in and either confirm or correct me, you definitely try avoid housing 2 males together unless you have ample space or you will end up with them fighting for dominance.

What size is the enclosure?

Looping in [MENTION=25115]RoryBreaker[/MENTION] and [MENTION=14981]jinjajoe[/MENTION] for their input if they don't mind sharing.

 

[RoryBreaker]

The short answer is, Blueys are best kept singularly. Their natural behaviour is a solitary lifestyle except for mating, even that is quite violent. This season just gone I had fighting within a litter with signicant injuries at only 23 days old.

As for feeding, I prefer not to feed anything live to young blueys that have cage mates as I do not wish to encourage the chasing and biting of moving objects ( i.e. cage mates). Removing the offending bully is only a temporary measure as another bully rises in its place soon after.

Just remember these animals are long lived, if a tail gets removed by a cage mate, the regenerated/healed stump will be there to remind you for the rest of its days.

 

[mummabear]

As suggested, separate. Crickets are a great food source but they also insight a great feeding response. The babies will want to bite anything that moves including their cage mate.

 

[saintanger]

i keep a group of blueys but they live in an outdoor enclosure with heaps of room to hide and have their own separate space. i do have 1 bluey who i suspect is male that can never be housed with another bluey as he is very agressive and will hurt/ kill another bluey so he has his own enclosure.

in large out door pits/ enclosures i find that most blueys can live with each other as long they are not to agressive and the is plenty of room to have their own space.

you should separate them, before one gets hurt.

 

[Herstjori]

Sorry for late reply guys thanks for your replies.

The enclosure is 180cm by 60cm so I would have thought a reasonable size?

Yes the squeal was definitely from the BT being bit I was right there when it did it....

I think based on the head width and length of body info I have read on web that the aggressor is a male and the victim a female.

The aggressor has buried itself in the bark and hasn't emerged for 2 days now so essentially they stopped fighting. I've also ceased with the crickets.

 

[critterguy]

I keep bits of food coming and feed my blueys in opposite directions to each other, if one starts to wander over to eat the other's food I pick the bud up and move them back to where they were and keep feeding them.
They are fine with vegies and fruit, can be fed together but meat and live prey induces a greater feeding response and they need to fed separately for that.

With the live prey I throw in a few at time in opposite directions to eachother, I stun the roaches a little first otherwise they take off too fast and before ya know it you have 1 bluey run into the other and arc up while chasing a fast roach.

I move them away from eachother or get up them if they do fight, they know their names and know understand tones, so know when you are speaking to them and they are in trouble.

They are hopeless hunters at times, so I have to tap on the outside of the enclosure near the prey to draw their attention to it or point at it and say their name to draw attention to it or just move them to infront of different prey if the prey they were going has run over to the other bluey.

Other than when feeding them meat and live prey they get along fine the rest of the time and can share piles of vegies and fruit fine.