Courtship, or just hostility?

[OhNoChloroformx]

Haven't been on in a while, and now I have a question! Besides the typical black-bearding and arm waving that beardies display when they are aroused, does the male usually bite down on the female's neck (in my case this afternoon, her cheek) in his attempt to mount her? Today Bentley scared me half to death when he clamped down on my pudgey girl, she looked so sad I immediately seperated them, which was a challenge since Bentley's grip is crazy strong! Was he just love-nipping Poppy in an attempt to mate, or was he really trying to damage her? I felt so ashamed that I let them interact for the first time and this happened, I just hugged Poppy for forever and told her I was sorry.

 

[peera]

Yes, the biting is part if his attempt to mount and mate with her. This can be extremely violent and can hurt the female. It's one of many reasons we encourage breeding between full grown adults, since the violence can potentially be deadly to a small female. I Don't even keep my male in the same room because it irritates them so much.

 

[OhNoChloroformx]

There wasn't any bleeding or even a puncture wound where he had bitten her. She's actually much bigger than him, she was a rescue that was in pretty rough shape (malnutrition, calcium deficiencies, tapeworms) and we've had her since May, now she's really flourishing. I kept them COMPLETLEY seperated up until today, when our herpatologist was able to sex her (her previous owners knew nothing about proper beardie diets and there was actually too much fat at the base of her tail to properly see if she had a hemipenis) and I was sure they wouldn't get territorial and kill each other. The possibility of breeding Bentley seemed great to me, but after seeing how sad Poppy became after I let Bentley tackle her like that completely took me off the idea. She flailed her arms but I think she was too scared to try and break loose of his hold. Has anyone else attempted to mate their beardies, and their female just looks terrified and does not want to be impregnated? I decided I couldn't put her through that, since it was so obvious she wanted nothing to do with Bentley.