Housing 2 females together

[NotBrandon]

Hey everyone. So currently im housing two females (lucatiel aka luca and bell) in a 30 gallon long tank. Let them try wax worms for the first time and they went crazy. After that and cleaning the tank out there was a personality shift. :coverlaugh: The new female was timid and afraid of my youngest at first because she looked like her previous "bully" i rescued her from. So she would usually wave her tail when I would introduce them over 5 months. Now she is adventurous and they act like sisters even though geckos dont really care for company. luca the use to be timid one now kinda follows and learns what bell is doing. Like if bell is jumping up or off of something luca will see it and maybe later bravely try it too.

Usually they respect each other's personal space but today they were extra excited for food after i treated them to wax worms a week ago. Bell was poking and licking at luca's regrown tail and she wasnt too fond of the attention, so she turned and gave bell kinda a warning nip. I dont have a scale but generally the vibe in the tank is sorta "hey lets just nap till food gets here". But after the nip they kinda started acting defensively then went back to the usual.

It'd be awesome if guys shared about your tank sizes and setups if you're also housing two females together. Add pictures too if you want :biggrin:

 

[Zux]

OK, so, there are myriad reasons to keep every Gecko regardless of sex in separate enclosures.

Albeit innocently no doubt, you are very much anthropomorphizing (humanizing) their behaviors, it is very rare that what they appear to us to be doing, should actually be the case.

They gain absolutely nothing from cohabiting as they are solitary creatures in the wild. If we force them to cohabitate for our own enjoyment they quickly establish an order of dominance within the group and have extremely subtle ways of communicating with one another to maintain this, including scent. One example of this would be the 'stacking' behavior when sleeping, often perceived by humans as cuddling. There is no avoiding this dynamic between the two and it will always be present whether or not is is apparent to the owner.

Recent evidence coupled with more understanding surrounding these complex behaviors suggests even females appear far more content and thrive far better when they are given their own territory. I feel very strongly they deserve this anyway.

Sadly the fact that females establish dominance without violence still makes people feel they are happy in pairs or larger groups, the reality is not even the dominant Gecko is content with having what it perceives to be constant 'intruders' and the 'intruders' just want to leave the territory.

I could go on for a month about how many reasons there are to never house any Gecko together unless during breeding. I cannot stress enough if it is possible for you to house each Gecko separately you absolutely should do so. They will be exponentially happier, even if that is hard or impossible for us to perceive.