Placing a Tegu to live together with a Monitor

[reachsam]

I see that it is common to keep two different Tegu species in the same reservoir. However so far I never saw anyone placing a Tegu with a Monitor in the same environment. Since these two lizards belong to separate biological Orders, I would love to read expert opinions regarding such a combination of habitat, or would that necessitate to build two separate terrariums because the two unrelated lizards may kill each other?

 

[rrcoolj]

I wouldn't risk it. Tegus and montitors might look similar but are very different. Aggression is a constant issue and tegus often live in a much different enviornment than alot of varanids. It's not worth the risk IMO.

 

[reptastic]

i wouldnt risk it either. not only would agression be a issue but you also have to deal with parasites. also sizes could pose a problem since tegus grow faster than most varanid species(fom what i have seen)

 

[TeguKid80]

That is a simply awful idea. There would be no reason to try it to be honest.

 

[isdrake]

You should never mix two different species. However it's fine with Argentine B/W/blue/red because they are so close. But you shouldn't for example mix Argentine and Colombian Tegus.

 

[TeguKid80]

I have heard that some people have kept Argentine and Columbians together, if it is an adult fairly large Columbian and a regular sized adult Argentine I could see there not being a problem.

 

[Toby_H]

"Monitor" covers a large range of animals (Varanus Genus), not a single species. Are you guys suggesting that there is not one species amongst them all that could share a cage with a Tegu?

I'm not well spoken enough in the Genus at large to know every option, but I would have to imagine there is at least one or two that would be a suitable tankmate for a Tegu.

While I would discourage a "trial and error" approach, I would encourage you to read up on different Monitors species and see if there are options members here (thus far) have overlooked.

Whenever we are dealing with living things we should employ caution. But caution doesn't mean not doing things.

 

[TeguKid80]

Actually I have heard of savannah monitors and juvenile black throat monitors being temporarily and successfully being kept with tegus but I would definitely not recommend it.

 

[rrcoolj]

Savannah and black throat monitor like a much higher basking spot than tegus around 130F. There are no members of the varanus genus that lives in the new world so the enviornments are different. Are there tropical monitors? yes but they are usually arboreal like the tree monitors. There might be a monitor that likes similar enviornments to tegus but none will like the same enviornment simply because of location.

 

[isdrake]

If you should house two different species together then they will have to live in the same place in the wild and require the exact same environment.

But even if that matches the lizards would probably just get stressed by each other. They will not enjoy the company so housing them together is only for the humans own amusement .

About housing Argentine and Colombian I don't think it's such a good idea. I don't know much about Colombian but doesn't they live in a tropical environment while the Argentine live in sub-tropical environment?

 

[Adam87]

i agree with everyone else but im curious to know what kind of monitor i would hope not a nile haha

 

[TeguKid80]

Haha well when I heard about such caging it was very briefly and didn't last. Also an Argentine and a Columbian have really similar care....

 

[Hoadinh]

Even though you should never mix species together; but I was building my argentina tegu a new enclosure. I housed them together for about a week and they seem fine, they did not show any sign of aggression toward each other; they also have never seen each other. But then both of them are are dog tame and are used to seeing other animals. you can try if you want but i still wouldnt recommend doing so.

 

[Simbaandsheldon]

I have my nile and tegu together and they seem pretty happy together. He was getting bored by himself (sheldon my tegu).