Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know I'll probably get some flack for this, but I have to just throw out there that my male chuck and male uro are thriving as cage mates. They are also accompanied by a pair of young collared lizards. Unexpectantly the uromastic is ALWAYS around the chuck, as in basks on his back and craddles up under him when they sleep. Chuck Norris (whos tears cure cancer, but too bad he never cries), seems indifferent to the pesty uro, but neither have ever shown any signs of the remotest aggression to one another, plus they are both eating their best that I have seen yet. They are housed in my pride and joy, a 6' by 4' by 4' cage with a rockwall that took me a month of solid work to build. This allows for three seperate basking spots, and ample floor space (rarely used). To my suprise at least the chuck and uro are always under the same lamp, while the collareds are running up and down throughout the cage and basking sites. I am not being naive in my assumptions, as it has been winter break for the last week and I have enjoyed many an hour watching the community tanks' inhabitants. All of its' residents come out each day to bask ( in they're seperate 4 foot cages this was not always the case), and all are eating, whether it be their crickets or various greens. I have even seen the uro take a leaf of mustard greens from the chuck's mouth. I was advised not to put two species from such different locales together, and believe me I am in no way forcing this. When I first put them together (opposite sides of the cage) I was expecting to have to take the uro back out, but after a few tense tail licks and what not, the matter seemed to have been settled. The collareds are also fine, although at first their antics would occasionaly startle the uro, they now jump onto his head with little reaction.

I don't want people to think of me as a careless keeper, but at least for these particular individuals there have only been improvements in appetite and activity level since their introduction to the new community cage. I have taken some pictures of them all and the cage, but I need to wait for my sister's card reader to come home so I can get them online. Feel free to respond to this with comments, questions or concerns.
Gooday,
Erik

I don't think you want people to comment on this, especially being advised not to mix species. I provided several links to scientific research proving not to do so in another thread. Just because you don't see any problems doesn't mean they are not there.

"I don't want people to think of me as a careless keeper"

Granted you have a large enclosure but the simple fact alone that your Uro is being fed crickets will get you enough critisism. Careless isn't the word I would use, Irresponsible probably would be though.
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1.1 Ornates (Lindsay Pike)(Doug Dix)
0.0.1 Mali
0.0.1 Egyptian
0.1 Weimaraner

The uro does not eat crickets. He shares a salad of collared, mustard, swiss chard, winter squash, and various vegetables with the chuck. And you say the problems may be there but I am missing them? Exactly what problems do you mean if he is basking and eating fine. I don't like to say this as I would not have believed it before, but the uro actually seems to enjoy the chuckwallas company. I think that if the uro or chuck were stressed by this there would be a decline in their activity and food consumption, both of which I have seen a distinct increase,

house, but that does not mean they can LIVE in the same area. None are stressed and all eat, but still They are all seperated by tanks, or by rooms or Dog and cat could go their seperate ways. NONE really eat the same thing either.

People fail to see that when putting alot of species into one enclosure they are FORCED to LIVE together, no matter how frieghtened, stressed, they may be. They want to LIVE.

I Have all three, I breed collareds, have 3 chucks, and 2 uros :

** Uromastyx need temps/basking of 120 some keep them warmer.
Uro's also have nasty bites, they Lock their jaws when they clamp down. I kept 2 together for 3 years as pals, and one day the bigger turned on the smaller and if I had not been there The one would have killed the other. They are very strong.

** Chuckwalla's temps/basking should be about 100 and should have a cool side of room temp to about 80

** Collareds temps/basking 100 - 105 with the rest of tank in high 80's to 90 Totally bug eaters and small lizads if provided. TOTAL size difference as opposed to the 2 other species.

Atleast the chucks and collareds come from same locales and can be seen basking together, My chucks and collareds do fine when out for romps and are pals, But still deserve their own enclosure.

Chucks are real sloppy as are uros as far as excretment and it's everywhere when they let loose. The poor small collared is left to sit in this mess , which even for a short time is NOT good and can spread bacteria and parasites one to the other.

The URO however should be removed IMMEDIATELY.

No one can dictate to another How Or what they can keep or how to keep them, as we can offer our experiences, and knowledge/ advice, but it all comes down to what YOU want to do with your animals.

**But sooner or later you WILL run into problems,and someone will be sick, or hurt or dying and it will be a shame as it could have been avoided.

YOU, will feel BADLY/ Guilty that you did not do the right thing for each animal.

Take care,

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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

The funny thing is it is a bad idea to even mix different Uro Species. Most are just territorial in general. I lost a young Female Ornate that was about half the size of her male and female cagemates when after 3 or 4 months of living together I came home and found her tore up and after a lot of money in vet bills she still died. I am pretty sure I remember somebody having problems with a pair of Egyptians on this board in the past as well. I'm not going to get into an argument on this board since there are plenty of posts supporting how I feel and I posted links to reasearch that had been done in other posts.
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1.1 Ornates (Lindsay Pike)(Doug Dix)
0.0.1 Mali
0.0.1 Egyptian
0.1 Weimaraner

Just to clarify,
There are 3 different basking spots each with varying temperatures. All of the lizards move throughout these spots, and as far as the mess is concerned, it is only 1 of 2 tanks I use currently so it is constantly cleaned whenever any animal poops. Also these animals are far from crowded, and there has been a noticable decline in glass scratching from all of its inhabitants. As for right now, I appreciate the advice but I am going to keep them together for the moment. I still have 3 seperate cages that can be used at a moments notice, so if there is ever the remotest signs of aggression or dominance they'll be seperated immediately. Also the uro and the chuck have never been interested in crickets so there is no food competition. I'm looking at this as a little experiment and I will keep you all updated as to the tank's success or failure. I am not trying to set out stubbornly to prove everyone wrong, in fact I myself did not expect any cohabitation, but based on my observations up to this point there have only been improvements in everyone's health.

years ago I did this as an experiment. 1 baby egyptian uro and 2 young chuckwallas. They were terrific together. After about 4 yrs the uro started to become sexually mature. My group wound up being 1 male egyptian and 2 female chucks. It remained pretty stable, but every spring he would attempt to mate with both of them and it got very sloppy, so he had to be seperated in the end.