Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know that in the wild, an adult bt would probably eat a sav. But I was wondering ifmit is possible far a sav and a bt to be raised together as babies and live together as adults. Has heard any heard or seen anything like this?

I am definitely not in the "pro" realm on this though have housed, kept subadults together a few years back without any incident. They were roam our home together, bask on each other, eat of the same plate. They were raised since the sav was approx 12" and the BT pretty close to that same mark. Since they are considered distant monitor "cousins" I tried this at the time due to space constraints and their husbandry/environmental aspect were fairly close. Is this considered an ok for the norm? May be not. I kept close eye on any aggressivess, etc. They both were quite tame.
I lost all photos do to an old computer crash over 5 years ago, so no pics.

It's funny though we have Abbey( Argentine Black & White tegu) and Neko (my daughter's sav) Now totally different temp requirements (Savs, needing a basking spot approx 20 degrees warmer), etc. Both are approx 3 feet, quite docile/tame and free roam when we are home. Well Abbey has free roam 100% of the time. They hang out together, follow each other around the house, bask laying on top of each other, usually Neko clsoer to a bask spot.

This is an exception, rather than a rule..........

Greg

Here's a pic of Abbey & Neko, in one of their free roaming basking spots in our home.

Greg

your dangerous!

Hey Jobi. Dangerous? Perhaps, though very careful and observant of behavioral tendencies, warning signs, etc. Abbey and Neko are definitely never left unattended. As most are aware, trust only goes so far in the monitor world, especially with differing species of herps. :0)

I was more concern about the plugs!

Oh, yeah, that was only a few-hour situation. LOL Yes, very dangerous regarding their toes/nails getting BBQ'd. All our wall plugs have child inserts in them and no exposed outlets, surge protectors. :0)

Greg

That's an interesting photo. I know this is a monitor forum, but participation on the tegu forum leaves something to be desired so I'll ask you here. I was wanting to let my 3ft Argentine roam during the day. I have a large plastic kiddie pool I was going to fill with mulch or dirt so he can still dig, and so I can add ater to it to keep it damp someplace in the room. I've also got 2 large plastic sweaterboxes I can fill with moss/mulch to give good hides. There's not much else in this room. Just a small desk. How has keeping yours free worked out? It's a big leap and I want some information to work with before I try an experiment. I've seen free roaming albigs and savs as well as a gator in some pet shops and thought they would have been better served with enclosures. My tegu seems a bit more hardy than my monitors, though, especially in terms of humidity requirements.

Hi there! Sounds like you have a good concept to start with!
I know this is not the tegu forum and have been absent from there for a while......Actually Levi has two of my former reds. :0)

One thing that works well is the coconut beeding (sold in bricks), works very well, holds humidy very well and works terrific in their hides. Reds tend to need more fruit and humidty to aid in shedding, versus reds.

Any questions email: lizardmania@comcast.net

So try looking it in the archives if you really want to know what people think.

Cheers,
Sean

Thanks to everyone that replied. Your experiences and advice has been helpful.

Get them. They need to be apart. If I put 2 free roaming same sized monitors such as them together and they survived for a while I couldnt claim they got along. Albigs are lizard eaters, thats why in the one place boscs are found with albigs they are on the albigs menu.
Now, why would you consider putting one of these(albig)....

With one of these, unless you were planning an expensive meal for the albig? By the way this bosc is an exceptionaly large example, the albig is 3 times his weight, and she is a female.

Anyone who says its ok or has tried it with what they call subadults, when both are 12" long, has no clue about either species. The albig above in that picture is only 3 years old, the bosc was wild caught, but he went from 6 inches to 4.5ft in 2 years time, so he wasnt very old either. The average size of an adult bosc is 3ft long, the average size of an adult albig is 6ft long, do the math.

Hi there and thank you for the kind remarks! Yes, their size reference is very correct, so the subadult aspect was off being their SVL was at 12". Albig are definitely a lot larger than savs, as you stated. You need to also heed to my reference of exceptions, versus generalizations. I stated mine as an exception versus the rule. So as far as doing the math.......please ask before you "assume" this as a preachable normal practice on my part.

Greg

"preachable normal practice", no its common sense.
If you keep monitors free roaming they are not living or performing to near their normal needed metabolizm, also dehydrated, therefore they may show up as getting along very well, ie laying around all over each other as if they enjoy each others company. This is a common mistake some new keepers have.
Also 12 inches STV is still a hatchling for an albig, if the average adult size is around 6ft full grown, and they seem to average between 5.5-6.5ft plus that puts their average subadult size at around 4ft, this comes to around 21 inches STV.
Ill say it again, if you cannot keep them properly in full separate cages dont keep them, you are risking their lives and stressing them out.
This is a public forum, nobody needs anyones permission to comment on a thread or subject posted here with the facts or their opinion within the terms of service.
I remember years ago FR making the comment to many keepers about how he could put most of those tame, friendly, affectionate monitors out there in his cages, and in a few hours they would be acting like normal monitors. Its true, when I see overweight, obese, free roaming, or sickly monitors they can be fixed by keeping them properly, all of the sudden they have energy, an appetite, and 90% arent tame anymore. Ive demonstrated this to a few keepers in the past, I had them put their monitors in one of my cages. Its like those who see their tame monitors go crazy outdoors, there is something wrong with their cage.
Dont get me wrong, Ive had a few separate species of monitor get along (all similar sized), and some of the same species, but Im skeptical when I see predator and prey laying around getting along, when they are free roaming, or living in screen top aquariums.

From experience albigs (when physically capable from a proper environment) move dangerously quick, to "ASSUME" that they are fine together is your mistake, Ive already seen similar sized albigs that seemed fine together, then one gives no warning and has the others head, leg, tail, or neck in their jaws crushing away, even if you are right there within reach its almost impossible to stop and extremely difficult even for those who have experience with it happening to get them to release. An albig similar sized to a bosc is a much much more powerful animal, they can kill them in about 1-2 seconds.
Then again I saw argus do that to each other once, they werent in my collection, they would have been separated long before with the problems those 2 lizards had.