Pet Information > ASK Experts > Exotic Pets > Reptiles > female green anole being aggressive

female green anole being aggressive

22 11:52:15

Question
QUESTION: I have 3 green anole lizards 2 female and 1 male. About a week ago my male mated with the largest female and I really didn't know what to do. So R days ago I took my female out and put her in the other cage because the male wouldn't leave her alone and because her color was staying brown. I put the male in with her to see if she had improved and she stared at him and arched her back and puffed out her throat and started inching at him slowly and got to him and starting snapping at him and the would walk around in circles with her snapping at his throat and legs. I don't have a clue why she's doing this and I don't know if sje will lay eggs or not and I'm really confused and coyuld use some help on this.if you need pictured I can send you some

ANSWER: I'm a little confused as to the question--if you keep a male anole with females, of course they will breed.  The female's later behavior is probably because she is gravid, and doesn't need him now, so she wants him to go away.  It would have been best to remove the male, rather than the female.

Be sure she has some moist coco peat or sphagnum moss to lay her eggs in.  It's up to you what you want to do when that happens--you can remove them and incubate them, if you want to invest in an incubator, or you can leave them in the enclosure to hatch (the adults might eat them).  If they hatch, the babies will need flightless fruit flies and pinhead crickets, extremely small food.  Otherwise, you should probably just discard them, if you can't care for babies.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I know that I wanted them to breed but I've looked at different websites and they all say different things so I got confused. Will she lay the eggs soon? If she's in a cage alone will she be ok? Do I need to feed her anything special?

Answer
Probably 3 to 6 weeks after mating is when she will lay.  Eggs take 4 to 6 weeks to hatch.  She'll be fine in a cage alone--in fact, as you noted, she vastly prefers it, lol.

Be sure your husbandry is good for all of them--fresh UVB lights, correct temperatures and humidity, misting for water at least twice a day, and calcium-dust crickets and flightless fruit flies.  It's important the female has good access to UVB and proper calcium supplementation, as her body will use a lot of calcium when she shells the eggs just before laying them.