We're 100% certain that our eldest female Fafnir is sex reversed. I know from what I've read, and what I can find, that they will be more bold and aggressive than they would have been if they had hatched as a male, and that they will display male traits.
But does this include courtship behavior and mating displays?
Put simply, I think she's trying to "proposition" our largest male.
We bought them at the same time, and kept them together for the first two months. They never showed any signs of aggression, but we had always planned to separate them when they reached a certain length. His tank is the only one she can see clearly into, and we would place a blind between them if they ever did start getting aggressive towards each other.
Sometimes she can see the other female during handling and feeding, and goes nuts. Fully puffed beard, but with only the tips of the scales black; lunging, hissing, and bonking her nose against the glass, clearly an angry territorial display.
She has also displayed aggression at our younger male. The younger female, Arianna, has only ever been aggressive at Fafnir, and only after Fafnir was displaying aggression at her.
But with the male she can see, the full underside of her neck and throat goes a very deep black, and she bobs her head in a very district rhythm, as if she's dancing, slowly moves towards him, slowly backs away, slowly forward again, always bobbing her head. She also waves at him.
And she occasionally does this at me and my BF when we come into the room.
If we come into the enclosure, she runs, and will be defiant (puffing, gaping, threatening to bite) until we actually pick her up. She's pretty good with handling, so long as you don't wrap anything around her middle. (Burritos, harnesses, hands) That just starts her thrashing and squirming, and it's honestly kinda funny, because she doesn't stop for anything. And she knows how to use her head spikes against hands.
She spikes are also much longer, larger, and sharper then I've seen on other dragons. She certainly the most "dragony" of our dragons.
But does this include courtship behavior and mating displays?
Put simply, I think she's trying to "proposition" our largest male.
We bought them at the same time, and kept them together for the first two months. They never showed any signs of aggression, but we had always planned to separate them when they reached a certain length. His tank is the only one she can see clearly into, and we would place a blind between them if they ever did start getting aggressive towards each other.
Sometimes she can see the other female during handling and feeding, and goes nuts. Fully puffed beard, but with only the tips of the scales black; lunging, hissing, and bonking her nose against the glass, clearly an angry territorial display.
She has also displayed aggression at our younger male. The younger female, Arianna, has only ever been aggressive at Fafnir, and only after Fafnir was displaying aggression at her.
But with the male she can see, the full underside of her neck and throat goes a very deep black, and she bobs her head in a very district rhythm, as if she's dancing, slowly moves towards him, slowly backs away, slowly forward again, always bobbing her head. She also waves at him.
And she occasionally does this at me and my BF when we come into the room.
If we come into the enclosure, she runs, and will be defiant (puffing, gaping, threatening to bite) until we actually pick her up. She's pretty good with handling, so long as you don't wrap anything around her middle. (Burritos, harnesses, hands) That just starts her thrashing and squirming, and it's honestly kinda funny, because she doesn't stop for anything. And she knows how to use her head spikes against hands.
She spikes are also much longer, larger, and sharper then I've seen on other dragons. She certainly the most "dragony" of our dragons.
