Tag: Gila monster combat

2020 Gila monster breeding season begins!

by goatsby, posted in Gila monster, Heloderma, reptiles

With the babies I’ve held back are growing like weeds and coloring up beautifully, I’ve taken the adults out of brumation and am warming them up and will be feeding them their first meal soon. I’m both excited and nervous as to how this season will turn out. Will all the eggs paid be fertile? Will all the fertile eggs go to term? An educated guess says no to both but if improvements are made I am moving in the right direction.

I’ll be doing some new things this year. First, I’ll be pairing straight reticulated with reticulated, and banded with banded. Also, instead of leaving switching males between cages I will keep one male with one female for the duration of the breeding season. The females do seem to have preferences, and hopefully they still lie each other this year. I am waiting until the last week of March to start pairing as last year the females were not receptive and often attacked and bit the unrelenting males so it would be nice to avoid this drama and potential injury. I’ll keep everyone posted on the progress and of any successes and failures on my second year of breeding these amazing Gila monsters!

Just when you think you know someone…

by goatsby, posted in Breeding, Gila monster, Heloderma, reptiles

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Gila monster 06, formerly known as Joy, was thought to be a female and was the one that was sick. Now that Joy is better, I wanted to finally determine confirm her sex (though based on head size I guessed female). My intention was not to breed, only to watch the reaction and once I put Joy in the cage with a known male (one from the group she came from) Joy went right into battle mode and started wrestling with the other male. There went that theory. The girl formerly known as Joy is now a boy named Floyd. No more gender dysphoria. You be you, Floyd.

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Battle Royale: Thunder vs. Floyd

Male combat in captive Gila monsters

by goatsby, posted in Breeding, Gila monster, Heloderma

Breeding season is upon me, and it couldn’t be more exciting! As this is my first time working with a group of Gila monsters, I was unsure of what male-to-male combat looked like versus male-to-female interactions. In books they look similar but from what I have seen so far it is a very different interaction. Now, I must say that my intention was not to stimulate breeding but to confirm the sexes of the lizards in my colony. I have read that male combat can be vicious in captivity as there is no escape for the subordinate male and can certainly see how it can escalate to this level after seeing my males briefly duke it out. I find it interesting that males do not waste time getting into combat when introduced to one another, while males and females take some time to find each other and the ensuing interaction is much more gentle (though, I have seen the females bite the males on several occasions so far). This is the first step in breeding, and has been very interesting to see these reptiles interact.

Below are a few videos shot on my Leica X Vario to help others see what male combat looks like in captivity. Please note that I was around the whole time during this interaction to ensure things did not get out of control. There was some biting in the beginning but it turned into a wresting match.