So I'm just curious...

[xephyr17]

Okay. I know this may be a completely idiotic question. So please restrain from telling me so. xD

Is there anything I could house with my Chameleon? Like other lizards. Or frogs or something.

I'm building two of my own 36x24x48 cages. One of them is going to have Crested Geckos and Gargoyle Geckos in it together and the other is just going to have Ender (my Veiled) in it. I know it's super rare to come across reptiles that you can house together, but I'm just curious...

 

[dacrazycanadian]

It's not recommended to have them housed with anything else otherwise if we could we'd have a better chance of actually being able to house chameleons together safely.

 

[xephyr17]

It's not recommended to have them housed with anything else otherwise if we could we'd have a better chance of actually being able to house chameleons together safely.

Lol that's a good point Can't even house their own species together...

Food for thought, I guess. But hey, he'll have a big 'ol cage to himself, then!!

 

[Carlton]

Lol that's a good point Can't even house their own species together...

Food for thought, I guess. But hey, he'll have a big 'ol cage to himself, then!!

The reasons for not housing individuals of their own species together are completely different from the reasons not to house different species together.

Unless the two species are from the same region and habitat they will either stress each other out, require different conditions (and trying to compromise won't help either one), be active when the other is asleep, compete for food, space, heat, water, light, potentially contaminate the cage with bacteria or parasites the other species may not tolerate, or injure or kill each other. In the wild, different species and individuals have the luxury of getting away from each other. In a captive situation they don't...they have to tolerate each other to the point one ends up sick or dead.

 

[sharp229]

If the other lizards or animals are smaller than the chameleon he will most likely eat them in short order Chameleons are well known for eating other lizards and even things like small mice if they get the chance. Obviously this is not recommended

 

[Connorology]

I was at the Cal Academy of Sciences in San Francisco a few months ago, and they have several large communal cages with chameleons and other species in them. It's worth noting that these cages are pretty large - If I remember correctly at least 48'' by 48'' by 48'' and they may have even been larger. I also wonder with zoo exhibits if those are the animals' permanent homes, or if they swap them out. I bet the stress could be minimized if you had two sets of animals you were rotating out of the communal viv.. But that's not realistic for most private collections.

I have always found it interesting that the culture of reptile keeping seems to be so against communal enclosures, compared to say, aquarists who consider it a necessity and just write off any casualties as the cost of maintaining an aquarium. I had a few herp books back in the day that gave instructions for communal vivariums, but they seems to have fallen out of favor.

I would say - yes - you probably could do it, if you had a gigantic enclosure and animals of roughly the same size that wouldn't be directly competing with each other (nocturnal vs. diurnal, herbivores v insectivores, terrestrial vs. aboreal) But with the dimensions you're describing I bet conventional wisdom would prevail and they would end up unduly stressing each other out.

 

[Connorology]

They seem*

...I swear I am literate

 

[xephyr17]

I was at the Cal Academy of Sciences in San Francisco a few months ago, and they have several large communal cages with chameleons and other species in them. It's worth noting that these cages are pretty large - If I remember correctly at least 48'' by 48'' by 48'' and they may have even been larger. I also wonder with zoo exhibits if those are the animals' permanent homes, or if they swap them out. I bet the stress could be minimized if you had two sets of animals you were rotating out of the communal viv.. But that's not realistic for most private collections.

I have always found it interesting that the culture of reptile keeping seems to be so against communal enclosures, compared to say, aquarists who consider it a necessity and just write off any casualties as the cost of maintaining an aquarium. I had a few herp books back in the day that gave instructions for communal vivariums, but they seems to have fallen out of favor.

I would say - yes - you probably could do it, if you had a gigantic enclosure and animals of roughly the same size that wouldn't be directly competing with each other (nocturnal vs. diurnal, herbivores v insectivores, terrestrial vs. aboreal) But with the dimensions you're describing I bet conventional wisdom would prevail and they would end up unduly stressing each other out.

THIS, good sir, is the answer I am looking for!

I think it's strange, really, that people frown so heavily upon putting reptiles of different species together in the same enclosure. But it does make sense that you would have to have a large enough enclosure for them to be happy together. And it would have to be a species that wouldn't naturally want to harm each other, I guess...

 

[Big Gulp]

Also, you should not house crested geckos and gargoyle geckos together.

 

[xephyr17]

Also, you should not house crested geckos and gargoyle geckos together.

Why? They have the same habitat.

I'm sure males may fight, but what about females?

 

[Connorology]

Supposedly gargoyle geckos are particularly aggressive towards everything. I don't know from experience, I've never kept them. Again, it probably comes down to the size of cage that would be required is unreasonably large.

What could be cool, as you are building your own cages, is to split them with subtle dividers but plant the same type of plants and use the same decor so that they appear continuous to the casual observer. Depending on how you do it the sections could potentially even share the same plants.

If you're dead set on communal vivs, I've seen cool and reasonably sized ones with small day geckos, leaf chaneleons, and mantellas.

 

[xephyr17]

Seems like a 36x24x48 would be enough to fit a few in there...

 

[Connorology]

Maybe. Like I said, I have never tried it. I'd advise reading up on it from other blogs/forums and seeing if anyone has personal experience with it. I think you're going to get a lot of people telling you "no" without any personal experience. They may well be right though. Conventional wisdom is often wrong, but probably more often right.

If you try it I'd be interested to know how it turns out. I'd weigh all the animals before placing them together and monitor them regularly for injuries and any decrease in body mass. I will say that I wouldn't be surprised if the two species do not get along. They occupy similar ecological niches, so they may be naturally aggressive towards one another. Again, that's just speculation, but keep it in mind. You'd probably be better off with nocturnal arboreal geckos and some sort of diurnal terrestrial animal with similar climate requirements.

 

[xephyr17]

I appreciate your input. I'll definitely look into it thoroughly and more than likely will find out for myself if it's doable and safe.