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I have a 2 year old male collared in a 55 gallon tank. A few days ago I put a male round-tailed horned lizard (shown) in with him and they seemed to be fine together. Well today I catch my collared biting him on the back of his head and dragging him around rubbing him into the gravel. Then he stopped and kept trying to bite his neck and head and carried him again to the other side of the tank by his horns. It looked suspiciously like prison sex or something to me! Needless to say I seperated them. Poor little horned toad! So I guess I can't keep anything else with a male collared? Maybe he just needs a female...

He was trying to make a snack out of your little HL.
In the wild, predatory Collared Lizards at least C. bicinctores is known to eat small Desert Horned lizards. I would think that a Collared Lizard of any size would love to attack and eat a smaller, less thorny HL like your Round-Tail. You should not house them together, it might be the end of both of them. I learned that the hard way a while back.....no fun. Sorry about the "attack", I hope things get better.

-Phil

well your HL does not look that small so i do not think that he was trying to eat him. male collared lizards are VERY territorial and should never be housed with another male, so i am assuming that rule of thumb could apply across species. anyway he was displaying charactaristics of collared lizard mating practices. usually the guys do a little head-bobbing dance and drag their back legs on the ground and then the guys grab the girls by the neck and pin them down and do the deed. it is rather scary looking if you do not know what is going on. it is mating season for the collareds so maybe he does need a girl or a cold shower!
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vonnie
***One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne***

I have kept other lizards with Collared Lizards,
but you need something of comparable size or bigger.
I keep three huge Desert Iguanas and a big Chuckwalla with my pair of Mojave Collared Lizards, and I have kept large Desert Spiny Lizards with them with no incident. Another key I've found to keeping these guys with other lizards is to keep them well-fed. This is just my opinion and experience though. I have read about other lizards getting stressed by the presence of predators like Collared Lizards. So it might be better to house them alone. But I would imagine that your male would enjoy the presence of a female. again, just my thoughts/experiences, I'm just one person. Anyway, good luck
with your Round-tail and Collared.

PS, what kind of Collared lizard do you have?

-Phil

wow, that is alot of lizards in a cage. what kind of set up do you have for them? i just always like people's idea so one day when i am rich i can make large enclosures also.
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vonnie
***One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne***

Hey Vonnie,

you asked about my set-up so here it is. I live out in the middle of the Mojave Desert, so I built an outdoor pen in my backyard for the above-mentioned lizards. Its made of wood (stained wood, of course), and is 6'wide by 12'long. My lid is comprised of three sections, two openable doors on the right and left side, and the middle section is stationary. In the back of the pen, we put an extra 12' board on top of the base, and made it slope down to the front. I screen the lids with 1/4" wire mesh to keep out the predators, and keep my guys inside. On the left side, I put two bags of playsand as the substrate, in the middle I have the "rock castle" which is comprised of over 30 rocks from different places that I've caught the great many lizards that have lived in there over the years. It has hillside gravel as a substrate, and I plant desert hardy plants such as portualca, iceplant, gazania, desert marigold and the like on the right side, for the Chuck, and Desert Iggs. When i first set-up the pen, I released my tortoises in there for a time, and they dug some burrows which the lizards use as hibernacula. I hibernate them outside because with the exception of the Iggs, they were all caught within 5 miles of my house. My set-up has worked well so far, I've had my male bicinctores since '98, and he was an adult when I caught him, so I guess I'm doing something right. I have a smaller pen also that I keep my Horned Lizards and Zebra-Tails in, but that'll be for another day. I guess thats it.
there you go,

PS it all cost a little over 100$ to build.
Talk to you soon.
-Phil

My pen is about 8.5 X 9'...since I live in central Illinois, I cannot safely hibernate my guys outside. I'd love to see a picture of your pen sometime. I've posted mine a few times, but I will do so again if you haven't seen it.

My longer width and length have jeopardized my ability to put a nice looking lid on it. I have some warpage of the boards...I just built two frames, and they both sit on top. I have some bird netting to keep out the birds. The bad thing is, the stuff is so fragile, it gets ripped from the boards too often and I have to restaple it. I may go with hardware cloth, but I really want to find something that has greater visibility like the bird netting. My other plan is to sacrifice appearance, and just staple the netting to the top side of the lid instead of the bottom.

Sounds nice.

John Eddington

Hey john,

I used to use cloth screen on my pens until the neighborhood cats starting jumping on it, and ripping it from the lids.
I use the hard mesh cloth now to further deter these evil characters. I don't know how well you want to see in the pen, but I see through it just fine when I'm up close or at an angle. Having the pen slope downwards also helps viewing from far away. It also helps with feeding. I don't even have to really put my hands in the pen. I find some beetles, earwigs, caterpillars, etc. just throw them on top of the screen, and since the screen gets pretty warm during the day the bugs fall right on through, and voila! instant herp food. I staple the mesh to the outer door rims which are presently some 1"x2" planks. 2"x2" works better, it is thicker, and isn't as prone to warping. But all in all, viewing is still very good, so if you have a few bucks to spend, I was very happy with the results. If you try it, tell me about it. ok, I'll talk to you soon.

-Phil

I do have a few new cats in the neighborhood...I also have a small dog that keeps them in check, but I'd hate to have a cat get in there at any time. Thanks for the advice.

i always get do confused on the location of things since i am really from the east coast and not the west coast. i am in san diego so is that desert near me? california is very deceiving to me since it is so big and south carolina was so small. you could go from one end to the other in like 5 hours. thanks for the info on your set up
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vonnie
***One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. - A. A. Milne***

Hey Vonnie,

if you live in San Diego, the Mojave Desert is about 3 hours North of you. I live in Apple Valley, which is right at the Southern tip of this desert. The desert you are probably closest to is the Colorado desert. Lots of awesome herps there. You live in the Baja California Collared lizard's range, which are some really flashy guys. If you ever go looking, tell us about it. I live too far North to find them, but I'm happy with bicinctores up here. Hope this helps.

-Phil