Hi. I recently bought a trio of Central Netted Dragons.......my first reptiles! One was quite large, big head, thick tail...a definate male. One was quite small, small head, thin tail.....a definate female. The third was a little smaller than the male but a fair bit bigger than the female.... it was sold to me as a 2nd male.
They settled in fine, all very friendly, basking together, sleeping together, digging and burrowing, eating, no problems. After about 2 weeks the behaviour of the 2nd male changed. It started to spend a lot of time in its burrow and I rarely saw it. If it came out I would have to sneak up to the enclosure to get a look and then it would see me and race back to hide. I thought maybe this was a male dominance thing starting to come out in their new surroundings.
The last couple of days it has come out a little more often, but when it does it chases the big male around the enclosure, in one burrow and out another, wrestling and biting it. I found this strange as I thought the bigger guy was the dominant one and would be doing the chasing. So I started reading some old threads to find out what was going on.
This behaviour (the chasing, biting) seemed to match a description somebody gave of how 'females' may behave after breeding. This made me wonder! So I've tried to have a bit more of a look and it strangely now seems smaller than it was before, its head seems smaller compared to its body, and it's tail has only a very short thick section at the base and then the rest is thin.....which makes me think my 2nd 'male' is actually a female!
So this leads me to ask a few questions.....
- does this sound like it is a female? (I'd like to get a picture but it's too quick to catch or get a photo of)
- if it is a female is the shy, hiding, burrowing behaviour typical of a gravid female? (the other definate female seems to have just started doing this as well)
- if it is gravid female behaviour could it already have laid eggs in a burrow without me knowing?
- if yes, what should I do?
- or is it something else completely?
Any help would be appreciated!
PS - I apologize for my first post being a small novel!
They settled in fine, all very friendly, basking together, sleeping together, digging and burrowing, eating, no problems. After about 2 weeks the behaviour of the 2nd male changed. It started to spend a lot of time in its burrow and I rarely saw it. If it came out I would have to sneak up to the enclosure to get a look and then it would see me and race back to hide. I thought maybe this was a male dominance thing starting to come out in their new surroundings.
The last couple of days it has come out a little more often, but when it does it chases the big male around the enclosure, in one burrow and out another, wrestling and biting it. I found this strange as I thought the bigger guy was the dominant one and would be doing the chasing. So I started reading some old threads to find out what was going on.
This behaviour (the chasing, biting) seemed to match a description somebody gave of how 'females' may behave after breeding. This made me wonder! So I've tried to have a bit more of a look and it strangely now seems smaller than it was before, its head seems smaller compared to its body, and it's tail has only a very short thick section at the base and then the rest is thin.....which makes me think my 2nd 'male' is actually a female!
So this leads me to ask a few questions.....
- does this sound like it is a female? (I'd like to get a picture but it's too quick to catch or get a photo of)
- if it is a female is the shy, hiding, burrowing behaviour typical of a gravid female? (the other definate female seems to have just started doing this as well)
- if it is gravid female behaviour could it already have laid eggs in a burrow without me knowing?
- if yes, what should I do?
- or is it something else completely?
Any help would be appreciated!
PS - I apologize for my first post being a small novel!
