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can i mix lizards

2K views 34 replies 24 participants last post by  liam.b 
#1 ·
hi i have a adult beardie in a 4ft viv but i was wondering if i could add another lizard with it besides another beardie. i saw a beardie sharing a tank with another lizard at a local pet shop so it got me thinking.
 
#4 ·
#14 ·
You simply asking the question would exclude you from the "Specialist" catagory so i would'nt advise it, i know people will say "they're not seperate in the wild" which is true but they don't live in a wooden viv in the wild either so therefore in the wild when they would try to stear clear of eachother in a box they can't. there are some certain species that will tolorate other species in their territory and co-habit happily but beardies aren't one of them sorry.
 
#7 ·
wanna get in quick NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. Unless you want one rather large lizard
 
#10 ·
I wouldnt mix with beardie because they are omnivorous and theres always the risk it could turn and the males can be very trritorial so no. I have successfully mixed a saharan uromastyx with two arican wall lizards but i didnt skimp on the size of th viv and alot of knowledge is needed, i puchased my wall lizards from people who had successfully mixed the species so i wouldnt recommend mixing species to anyone but people have done it successfully. Please dont jump down my throat because im being controvertial.
 
#12 ·
hmmm this seems to be a interesting subject. after many no's i will throw the idea out of the window but it will be nice to see what people have succesfully managed to keep together and what failures have occured. the lizards i saw where definatly all adults.
 
#15 ·
As a rule no but there are always exceptions for example i have a female bearded dragon who never grew very big she was too small to live with other beardies so now lives very hapily with my rankins dragons group they all get on just great have done since day one and cause there isnt any real size diff in them she just thinks she is a rankins dragon now. Roll on breeding season and hopefully i will have some nice vittikins dragons from her too : victory:
 
#21 ·
If and when people try mixing species you have to ask yourself a whole host of questions first...

Firstly and foremost is do you have the space? Mixing species isn't a method of space saving, nor should it be either, If you have a beardy in a viv that is the correct size for it, then being able to find another species that lives with it whilst not interacting with it in a negative way and causing undue stress will be decidedly slim...

Mixing species isn't just the same as taking two animals from the same geographic region and bundling them into a tank, nor is it about taking two species which have the same environmental parameters and bunching them together either..

Making Community tanks is finding a balance between creating a space, large enough for the animals to act in a natural way without causing stress to one another, finding animals which share similar habitats but occupy different niches within it, finding animals which don't predate others (very important that one) and so on and so forth, you have to encompass everything from the macro to the micro (transferring of diseases) ...

To cut what could easily be a small book short, is it possible to mix certain species... With time, effort, knowledge and patience it has been proven to work...

Can you just put something in with your beardie? No, its not as simple as that sadly.
 
#24 ·
Just because a shop does it, dioesn't make it right, that shop will have a high turn over and ample space out back to take out the animals which fail badly (of which you can be assured there will be many), basically put they can get away with it because for them its a very short term thing, and even then the pairing that most shops choose would be considered poor (and thats putting it politely). By all means if the shop keeper has his head screwed on ask his advise, but owning a pet store by no means makes someone an expert.
 
#25 ·
Since you ask the question i am going to say no.

However it can be done. I have had and still keep community vivs, they can work but require alot of time and effort and huge tanks, alot bigger then what you would normally have for the animalls concerned. They involve alot of reasearch as to what speices need simular requirements and want might get along. Even then you will spend many many hours wathcing it for signs of aggression and will end up moving animals around untill you get a succeful mix, as not all animals want to share a tank, just like all people don't want to live togehter. You will need loads of spare tanks even if you have a succesful mix, as in the blink of an eye you could have to seperate everything.

Most shops don't fall into this mattor. Poor shops will often throw animals togehter in one tanks to save space, some wil even sell them all to you to make money. However, what you dont see is that animals will be injured in the tnaks they will be highly stressed. I can also quantee that they have had it go bad on many occasions and have animals out the back with injuries caused by their mixing.

Hope that helps mate.
Jay
 
#26 ·
I won't say 'no dont do it, or never do it' etc, as u seem to have had alot of that lol,

which is to be expected, however i have seen loads of mixed species vivs, everything from basilisks with water dragons, water dragons with tokays, plated lizards with basilisks, or with beardies, even with a young bosc which was removed when it started to get abit bigger, ive seen anoles with whites tree frogs and rough green tree snakes,

all of which seemed to work very well,

however before you would ever even consider it you should ask yourself,

can you supply ample room for both species within the tank (their own requirements each without sacrificing any due to the other rep)

if they dont get on do you have the money/ equipment to house them seperately

have you done enough research? if you think you have i suggest researching more lol,

would you feel comfortable mixing them or constantly be disturbing them to check them over?

and loads more questions which are all here on this forum, just search 'mixing specie' and you feel find hours of reading, i suggest reading all you can on here and elsewhere before even debating the matter on here tbh
 
#27 ·
Well i think this page proves that if nothing else there is alot more to think about than just emulating what you have seen in a shop, ask questions of all here but be prepared for answers which you may not like the answers to.
 
#29 ·
rather than can you mix them the question is really should you mix them ? In many cases the answer is absolutely not - different habitat etc pretty much rules out most combinations even before taking into account predation etc, so I do largely agree with the 'NO NO NO' responses. However it is possible to mix some species if you choose carefully - I successfully integrated green anoles and house geckos in a single viv for several years; same basic requirements but as anoles are diurnal and house geckos are nocturnal and they didn't even seem to be aware of each others existence. I think perhaps this is one of a limited number of special cases though, so unless you are thinking along those lines it's probably wise to go with the majority, which is a definite 'No'.....
 
#30 ·
this isnt suprising, i dont see how somone can say a "speicalist" wouldnt mix because for the purpose of experimentation they might to see if the animals mix well, get on etc. in the wild they dont all have their own parts of the rainforest or desert for example they could meet and probably wouldnt phase either, then i know people are going to say well their in vivs, and i think as long as the vivs resionable size(enough room to run, hide, enough food etc.) and the animals are around the same size etc. there shouldnt be too much of a problem if you WANT to do it. it also depends on the animal itself, like people your gonna get the odd grumpy one and then there will be the really friendly ones. untill recently when he died i kept my large male tokay with my wds, they all got on fine for a start and fed etc. i would have taken him out straight out if there was a problem but he livd with them for about 4years until he fell, bruised his back badly and an infection set in. he basked, fed and sat with them. ive recently aquired a baby cb tokay so we will see how it goes... but i think with bardies its tricky, ive seen desert iggies and plated lizards with them but havent tried as yet...
 
#31 ·
in the list of animals stated above as lizards you can mix, the most plausable one would have been the CWD and Tokays, they both hunt at different times of the day, req HUGE viv but have very similar req'ments and will and do co-habit but the problem is not the species, it's the lizard, me and you are the same species but i garauntee you wouldn't like to live with me cos i'm a complete loonatic, half nocturnal, and i say it how it is, no sweetening the blow's from me, anyway the point is each lizard has it's own personality and could very easily take a disliking to another of its own species never mind one that it's in cometition with for food.
It's not a simple as species "A" will mix with species "B" im afraid.
 
#33 ·
thats what im trying to say, each lizard has its own personality so even if their compatable species by nature they might not be in themselves, and yeah mine have a ermmm big viv lol. plus more often than not i found the tokay basking during the day and he always fed in the morning of the tweesers with the wd's i wasent gonna stop him, he was active during the day and night and didnt like hiding away really he would rather sit on the glass and watch me or whatver but then he was handleable and abit weird for a tokay haha. the new cb ones even better so far though dont open his mouth or even bark at me and his exo terras in th wd viv so hs used to them too.....i think ive strayed of topic here sorry could talk for ages about them my bad =]
 
#34 ·
yeah as i said the tokays and cwd are the most plausable for stated reasons, P.s there is a wicked tokay thread to spread the tokay love, i have 2 tame ones and a mental one, you will find that once they are tame or even handelable they are no longer scared of you or the suroundings so they bask and spend most of the day out in the open, lovely little fella's.
anyway as stated, depends on indervidual character of each per put they are the most plausable but no where near a begginer idea, you must be experienced with both repiles.

Sorry for hi-jacking your thread HeHeHe
TOKAY's RULE hehe:lol2:
 
#35 ·
haha yeah i dont see why most peopl dont like em... their just scared lol. my cb baby just walks around my bed at night now quite happily....and the walls...t.v etc. lol, but i agree you need experiance with both seperatley so you know if the animals happy, ive kept both species since i was 12 haha.
 
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