Jealousy

[redlupin]

Do Chams ever get jealous of one another? I am asking because I am giving my little Veiled (Athena) extra attention due to medication. And I still handle the larger Veiled (Hera) but it just seems like she gets really pissy whenever I come back with Athena after giving her the meds for her skin. I might just be thinking about this to much, but I figured its worth asking the experts

 

[Cameron B]

How old are they and are they housed in the same enclosure?

 

[PINki]

They should not see each other! It's stressing them.

 

[redlupin]

They are both 3 months and housed in the same cage for right now. In a weeks time I will be moving the larger one into a cage of her own. I just need to save up some more money to get the new cage, lights, plants, etc...

 

[ChrisnLisa]

Pinki is right. She seems pissy because she does not want her cage mate coming back in. Glad to hear you have another cage on the way. It will be best for them both.

 

[redlupin]

I figured that much, I think she is starting to get territorial so its about time to kick her out of the small cage and into a bigger one.

 

[SoCaliSon]

Sounds like they answered your question...

I just wanted to note on the "Jealousy"... You want to be carefull with assigning human emotions to reptiles as it will often start you off on the wrong foot in identifying your problem. They are animals with behaviors that are controlled by survival and instinct. We humans do things for a wide variety of reasons ranging from emotional to insticual as well... but you can't think of your Chams as little people... Cause they live in Cham Word... Not people world... and the way things work in the two worlds are much different.

Example . Here is a pic of my two Beardies...

While most people look at this and say... "Ohh how cute, they love eachother they are cuddling" in actuallity they are just competing for the most ideal basking spot... In this particular case I actually tried to seperate these two after I got them, but they had been kept together their whole lives, and when seperated they both went crazy... Literally... so against all of my personal beliefs and practices in Herping I am actaully keeping these two together after all. I don't recommend this to anyone... I have a very special case and I have never seen 2 beardies behave like this. But anyway I am rambling.. that is just the best example I could give. I commend you for asking the question... as if you hadn't you would have probably assumed that it was jealousy and tried to handle the other one to even it out... and that would have just added to the stress.

Take Care... and good luck getting your new setup goig... let us know when more Qs come up.

~Joe