fighting shinglebacks???

[miss2]

hey guys
i have noticed that my male shingle keeps attacking my new female....
he runs at her with his mouth open and then positions himself as if hes about to eat a snail (head tilted to the side etc) the chomps on her!!! is it normal for them to do this? is it a dominance thing or is it a breeding thing ? i was under the impression that its the wrong time of year to show breeding traits? any ideas please???

 

[SuburbanMe]

Nah it's not breeding time - actually it's brumation time.

Who told you the genders?

 

[miss2]

yeah thats what i thought. the only reason y these guys arnt is because i wasent happy with there weight so wanted them to beef up a bit.

a few dif breeders, im going to upload pics of there tails so maybe people can tell me

 

[richardsc]

sounds like 2 males fighting,head tilting is like an aggressive warning and if the one doesnt run the next thing is bite,when mating the males more follow the females around and as a rule arent as aggressive,usually securing the females shoulder area or under the arm,they bite to hold,to secure her and usually rub her vent area to try lifting her tail

its hard to tell though with out seeing first hand,so i could be wrong,but the head tilting sounds more aggressive like 2 males to me

 

[omg_ebtl]

yess that exact same thing happens to me!! i got mine as a breeding pair over an year ago, during last spring the 'male' would do that exact thing to the 'female', he would look at her like she was a snail , open his mouth and take a huge bite and hold on, usually around 'her' midsection or tail and at times it would make a crunch noise, the female usuallly BOLTS around the enclosure (this is outdoors) with the male running as fastly behind her i had no idea whether it was breeding behaviour or fighting :\