Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone out there ever housed a leopard gecko with a bearded dragon? I have always been curious about this, as their rest/activity cycles seem to be distinct. Also, I am planning to start a leopard colony in a 90 gallon aquarium (48"long x 24" high x 18" deep). I plan to use calcium sand as substrate, multiple caves and securly stacked wood levels to allow temp gradient, have 48" UVB flourescent (I know they are not necessary) for day, red light for night, and ceramic bulb if needed for hot spot. Cover is screen. I want to get one male and four females (we have five in my human family and want to get one for each of us). We want to go to a reptile show and pick out sub-adults about 4 - 6" long. Can we then just place them all together in our little leopard paradise, or do we need to keep them all separate until adulthood? Thanks in advance for your answers and knowledge.

The phrase "yumm gecko" comes to mind... Considering Bearded dragons can get about 10x the weight of a nice sized leo... A leo can get around 100 grams, while a big bearded dragon can weigh up to 1000.

I would think there would be heat and humidity requirements that would be a tad different as well

First: Bearded dragons and leos should never be housed together
the reason? beardeds are a number one carrier of worms or other parasites, also..if theyt were to fight the beardie would seriously injure the leo with its sharp teeth, and they both come from different countried and both require a certain amount of humidity(beradies should have a very low humidity level but not to low to allow a good shed)

Second: all leos should be quarentined befor housed together, im sure you know what quarentine is so im not going to explain it, but is is a must and should have a time of 3 months
good luck

If you get all your new leos from the same vendor, & the vendor has raised them together, then you can keep them together w/o quarenteen. However, the males & females should be seperated at all times, both as juvis & adults. They should only be together for a week or so to breed, otherwise it's too hard on the ladies. Remember you can't keep males together. I'm sure you've seen the raging debates about substrate here, but I must reiterate that sand, even Calcisand, is the LEAST safe substrate for your leos. Paper towels or slate tile are much, much safer, particularly for sub adults.
Ditto to everone else's answer of "no" on keeping the beardies w/ the leos.
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1.0 Reverse Okeetee Corn snake Fuzzy
1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

Bearded Dragons are extremely territorial animals. They will kill a leopard gecko without the slightest hesitation.
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E2MacPets
http://www.e2macpets.com

Heres a link of how indestrectuable calcium sand is.
READ the WHOLE article!
http://pythons.com/calcium.html
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0.1 Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 ball python (felix)
1.1 feral cats (Fuzzy, and Bear; it used to be fuzzy, wuzzy, bear)

Thank everyone, for your feedback (much appreciated). Vosjoli states that he has housed leopard geckos with collared lizards with success, any thoughts about this combination? I was surprised as I thought collared lizards were extremely aggressive. I will definitely avoid calcium sand based on what I have now learned (great article), what about Vosjoli's recommendation of 2 parts play sand with 1 part potting soil? (I really want to make an attractive, natural looking habitat...if the above isn't good does anyone have suggestions for a natural looking substrate?)

Hmm..well, I wouldnt house different species together at all, especially since they are both from completely different continents. Plus i believe collard lizards need it a lot hotter than leos do. Its best to just keep one species per tank. your animals will be much happier that way.

For a natural substrate, try slate floor tiles from home depot. Leo's feet are not really made to walk on sand, and their little feet just sink as they walk. so a harder substrate is best for them. If you want, check out my website below and scroll to the bottom, i have a pic of my 40 gallon with the slate tiles.

good luck!
Link

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~Melissa~
1.3 Leopard geckos (Guido, Oasis, Gypsy, Marli)
1.0 Bearded dragon (Pharoah)
1.0 Hog Island Boa (Michelangelo)
0.0.1 Crested Gecko (Picasso)
1.0 Ferret (da Vinci)
0.1 Chinchilla (Eevie)
And Jack the cat!

Melissas Menagerie

Thanks for the advice...I enjoyed the link and I think your set-up looks nice. I will investigate the tile option.

I'm not doubting that vosjoli has said that, but do you have a reference of where you read it? Are you sure he did not say leopard lizards?
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Bill DiFabio
Garden State Herpetoculture...website to follow...
Email Me
"The poetry that comes from the squaring off between,
And the circling is worth it.
Finding beauty in the dissonance." - Maynard James Keenan

It is in his book "The Leopard Gecko Manual" by Advanced Vivarium Systems under the section "Other Animals" and reads: "I have successfully maintained pairs of collared lizards (Chrotaphytus) with these geckos". He also mentions that South African Flat lizards and small girdle-tailed lizards have been kept successfully with leopard geckoes.

Thanks for the info...must be a new edition of the leopard gecko manual as it is not in mine. Well, I would suggest if you are really interested in multi-species set-ups, that you ask the source of the info. You can get his email from giantgeckos.com. I not against the idea, but you had better have a good understanding of lizard behaviors. He also talks about these types of set-ups, in the Rhacodactylus book. I may try one out later this year.
good luck
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Bill DiFabio
Garden State Herpetoculture...website to follow...
Email Me
"The poetry that comes from the squaring off between,
And the circling is worth it.
Finding beauty in the dissonance." - Maynard James Keenan

It is the 1998 edition (co-author with Viets, Tremper, Klingenberg)

no other critters need to be housed with your geckos. they must be in a cage all by themselves. for many reasons... climate, humidity, stress would be caused by the presence of another animal, they could be eaten, and geckos can be effected by parasites carried by other animals (this could be deadly!).
alot of us here at this forum have the desires for different species of animals, just look at our profiles/signatures! but we have to do what is best for our animals. that means housing them seperately. i love collared lizards, but i am out of room for cages. so i decided on leos rather than collareds.

as for the substrate dilema....... like you, i didn't want to give up my naturalistic cage. i knew i had to give that up for the good of my geckos. basically i decided i needed to give up my own selfish desires and be responsible to my geckos. for me, the final and most important reason that led me to give up on sand was keeping my tank clean and parasite/disease free. it just made sense that tile would be easier to keep clean and disinfected. tile would not harbor bacteria, parasites, germs and whatever else could harm my geckos! i hated the idea of paper towels, that is about as far away from a natural looking environment that you can get! so i was really excited when the idea of tile came to be, afterall, it is more natural in appearance that paper towels!

i apologize if i sound like i am on my soap box!

check out the pic of my tank below. try to keep an open mind regarding tile, even if you have to give up a little. i am really glad i did!

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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Lizards

1.4.0 leopard geckos - raine, mango, noodle, jaws, & sobe
0.1 bearded dragon - sydney
0.1 king snake & 0.2.3 corn snakes
1 red eye tree frogs, 3 green tree frogs, 2 firebelly toads
5 anoles,8.0 bettas & numerous tropicals
1.2 dogs (dachshund-pepper, brittany spaniel-jenni, lab-kaci)
1 hubby & 2 boys

www.skayart.com

use reptile carpet and put nice looking hides. A great book about habitat design is called: "Terrarium and cage construction and care"
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2TK0529UPZ&isbn=0764106732&itm=1
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0.1 Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 ball python (felix)
1.1 feral cats (Fuzzy, and Bear; it used to be fuzzy, wuzzy, bear)

Sand is a matter of extreme debate on this website...ultimately it comes down to your own decision. It's been shown that some of the areas leos live in in the wild have a hard dry clay base, covered with an extremely fine, dusty layer of sand. Now obviously impation isn't a huge issue for them or they'd all be dead. However they don't (purposely) hunt on the sand, and it is much more fine than anything we have available commercially here. This means they don't normally injest sand, and if they do it probably moves through the GI tract more easily than what we put them on. Now obviously there is a risk of impaction keeping captive leos on sand...however the severity of this risk is still highly debatable, and many people have different opinions on it. Personally I think if you use it right its safe. By using it right I mean most of the tank not sand, feeding something like mealworms in a dish to prevent eating in the sand, providing a calcium dish (so they have somewhere to get calcium other than the sand...if they start licking at the sand, take them off it!), not putting babies on it, and checking stool for sand (if there's any in the stool get them off the sand!). That's personally what I think. To do that, you can use slate pieces as the main substrate and use sand to fill in the cracks (very natural!), or you can use tiles and fill in a space where tiles won't fit with sand (like my tank). Basically its up to you if you think its worth the risk...many don't, but they also believe that the risk is extremely high. I personally don't think the risk is high with my method, and so I do think its worth the risk to use it.
Anyway here's a pic of the set up I have with sand:

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Christina

1.3.1 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (aoy unnamed...)
1.0 australian shepherd/cattle dog (Foster...although he was being fostered before I got him...that has nothing to do with his name...It's after the beer!...lol since he's australian and I'm a college student!)

A most interesting point of view, thanks. On your photo is that slate on top of river pebbles? If those in fact are small rocks under the slate...why?

lol...I used linoleum tile...the rocks are just river rocks I had laying around from a turtle tank that I used to lift the tiles up so I could use the sand.
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Christina

1.3.1 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)
1.0 australian shepherd/cattle dog (Foster...although he was being fostered before I got him...that has nothing to do with his name...It's after the beer!...lol since he's australian and I'm a college student!)