bad tempered male?

[barnaby]

Hi!

I had (up until an hour ago) a single 4 moths old female pygmy cham in a 60X60X40 cm enclosure (the biggest from exoterra) and just added a male to the mix. The male is an year old and the size diference is like 4cm to 7cm.

After I put the male in, he started "swelling in and out" (like heavy breathing)and persuing the female (if we can call that persuing at that speed...) and when she passed near him he tried to bite her!

Aren't those guys supose to be comunal?! Is he just making a point there, like "I'm the new king of the domain!"? she just run to the plants and hide there and now they're both sleeping...

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[barnaby]

When I arrived home, he was in the center of the enclosure, kinda dominating the space and the female at one bottom corner.
They seem to comunicate through color and movements and specially by infalting and bending the body... hope he doesn't get rough on her!

I added a plastic plant to extra cover, just in case!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Here's a link to an earlier thread on this forum, concerning Pygmy vivarium/cage set ups:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/brev-pygmy-cages-5297/

Also: these links have some helpful advice:

http://www.chameleonnews.com/stumphabitat.html

http://www.chameleonnews.com/brevcare.html

We have a 55 gal glass tank set up similar to those described on this forum for the pygmy chams. In it are many live plants, etc. We have 3 bearded chams and 2 temporalis in there. They seem to be living in harmony with one another. There is one large bearded who seems to "own" one of the plants at the left end of the habitat. While the chams will share the other plants and miniature trees, this one plant is the exclusive property of the big bearded cham and no one seems willing to trespass.

I've been told it's good to get enough plants, branches, dry leaves, and other natural objects (all cleaned and sanitized) in there so that the chams can avoid direct line-of-site to one another. To reduce stress.