I have too many pets.
That’s a statement, not a complaint. Well, not a complaint from me, although it’s often voiced from family members ^_~
But for curiosity’s sake, how would a savannah monitor and a rabbit get along?
Let me explain: I have a pet monitor, yes, whom I’ve had since last August. He’s reasonably friendly, although he’s been growing some wicked claws lately, and I usually end up reasonably badly scratched after holding him, not because he’s mean or trying to get away, but just because he’s got claws, and my skin happens to be a surface with some give to it ^_^ Sadly, however, he’s not nearly as big as he ‘should’ be, as he was in quite poor shape when I got him (along with another in equally poor shape – that one did, in fact, die, as the vet had predicted for BOTH of them ;_; ) and has been full of complications ever since, but seems to be looking up in the past two or three months.
Likewise, I have a pet rabbit, who lives in the same room as Murdock. Murdock is currently living in an oversized, slightly reconstructed rodent cage (about 2’ by 3 1/2' foot floor space, but I’ll soon be building him something larger). The rabbit, who is reasonably friendly, doesn’t have a cage, but has run of a pen that takes up about a third of the room, giving him about 11’ by 4’ space.
Now, I’ve heard of Monitors getting along well with dogs and cats in some (rare) cases, when properly introduced – but what about rabbits? The rabbit is much larger than him right now, of course, (well, say that tip-of-nose to tip-of-tail is about equal on them, but the rabbit is a bit overfed). I know that neither is aggressive in general, that the rabbit gets along reasonably well with other animals in general, reptiles included, and that Murdock is far too small to pick a fight with the rabbit, but too big to feel threatened, and the rabbit wont pick a fight with him. Keep in mind that Murdock, although he’s not too fond of other people (vets, in particular...) seems to feel, if not necessarily ‘adoration’, at least a certain degree of ‘non-hate’ for me, and doesn’t seem to mind other animals. It might just be that he associates me with bringing food. Has never bitten anyone or anything non-food, however, including me.
Would it be wise to ‘introduce’ them now, so they don’t fight later, if they can meet one another without a fight? Would this make them at all friendly (or at least not blood-thirsty) to one another, or would it just make Murdock label the rabbit as going-to-be-lunch-as-soon-as-I’ve-grown-enough and start planning the herbs and sauces that best compliment a rabbit dish? He’s currently being fed crickets and live pinky mice (with occasional exception when the pet shop has other interesting feeder insects, or, in a pinch when there are no crickets, and my mice haven’t produced any ready-made meals, a bit of ground beef or some kind of meat baby food –kept in stock for these occasions).
As a final question, although I doubt myself that this is a good idea, and it’s quite a bit of a stretch to be asking – for curiosity’s sake – if I had the rabbit’s pen really cleaned up before hand, vacuumed and such, could the monitor run around in there for a while as exercise? Seeing as the pen is already animal-proofed, and as rabbits are far more prone to getting into mischief than any reptile I’ve yet encountered (exception going perhaps to one of my garter snakes, but she’s a case unto herself), I’m pretty sure that there isn’t ANY trouble that Murdock could encounter in that pen, except for remaining scents of the rabbit being around in there. I’m pretty sure the answer to that will be a resounding ‘No!’, with which I’m very much inclined to agree, but it never hurts to ask.
Thanks for taking the time to read my rather silly questions ^_^ all responses are greatly appreciated, and I’d love to hear some opinions from anyone on subjects like this in general, good OR bad.
Thanks again,
Whitney & a crazy menagerie
