Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if there are any serious problems if I put a 3 foot argus and a 2 foot nile in the same cage. I am in the process of upgrading to a larger cage.
Would they be able to live in the same enclosure if they had enough room?
They seem fine with each other now...

Varanids are opportunistic feeders, territorial, and can be very aggressive when necessary. They engage in cannibalism and will not hesitate to kill one another to survive - its natures way. Separate them ASAP!
Good Luck,
mbayless

You cannot imagine the amount of stress that this is causing. I have done this in the past, so I can say from experience, dont do it to them. Its abuse. You see, they cant outright tell you how they feel. There are very few people who have the ability to read monitors(and even those people wouldnt do it). Dont think you can. Dont risk their welfare out of convenience.

Honestly, you can do whatever the heck you want. But I really don't understand the other 2 posts. If they are saying don't put "any" monitors together then how the heck would you ever breed them? If they are saying don't put different species together because they are different, does the nile know it is a nile or the argus know it is an argus? To each other they are probably just other monitors, roomies, maybe pals hahahahha. I keep a male with 2 females half his size, does that mean he will eat them because he is oppurtunistic? They are fine so far. What about all the people keeping ackies together? Should they stop because monitors are territorial? Now if you don't feed them enough that is a different story, or have 2 males and one female but that is getting ahead of your situation. Also can you meet the needs of both monitors in the same cage? Just a few thoughts and maybe something to think about.
Alan Stevens

keeping two species together. That was a given, am I wrong? What I said was from experience. These two species have completely different behavioural adaptations, not to mention, come from completely seperate continents. I dont know about you, but Ive never heard of any ArgusxNile. Enlighten me please.

Best Regards,
Michelle

I am sorry, but I would put tons of money on this, more monitors are eaten, killed by conspecifics then by other species. Do you care to bet?

I know, you are going to say, but not many people put two different species together. But that does not explain why members of the same species eat eachother.

Well the answer is very simple, monitors in my experience, do not eat eachother, except, let me say, EXCEPT, when they are starving. Then they will indeed eat anything. This I have mentioned many times. Before you go about saying this and that about cannibulism, you must first understand, the difference between monitors being hungry, really hungry and starving. A starving monitor will indeed eat anything.

Unfortunately, this is not understood by many. If you keep a healthy hungry monitor hot and not feed it for over three days, you better expect a healthy monitor to be very dangerous to others. Normally, in nature they feed when hungry. If for some reason there is no food to be found, then survival mode is dictated. Humans have done the same. F

You make some very worthwhile points though on that subject.

You make some very worthwhile points though on that subject.

I DO understand about not letting a heated n healthy monitor miss a meal! My BT is quite the advisary when hes gone more than 24 hrs without a bite to eat! Its amazing how fast that dude can move when he wants to! I cant imagine having a lacie or croc like that. That would be scarier than any chainsaw wielding, massacre inclined person out there!