Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi i was wondering if housing a male bearded and a male uro would cause fighting? since they are two different breeds also...what if it were a male uro and a female bearded would that cause mating? just curious because i see this alot..
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Lauren
Rico-Saharan Uromastyx
New Jersey

I talked to Doug Dix about this subject about a week ago. He said the only reason this pairing got started was because the first book to come out on the subject of uromastyx care said that it was acceptable to keep the two species together, and that in fact it is not a very good idea.

First of all, I wouldn't house anything with a male bearded dragon. They are completely belligerent towards any tankmates including females of their own species. Housing a male of each species together would definitely lead to aggression from the male bearded dragon. Housing a male bearded dragon with a female uromastyx could lead to attempts at mating. I have even heard of male bearded dragons poking their eyes out on the spiky tail of the uromastyx attempting to breed with them.

You probably could get away with housing a uromastyx with a female bearded dragon in the sense that they would not hurt each other. However, I would still not recommend it due to the fact that bearded dragons are known to carry parasites very often. Since the two species are from different parts of the world, something that is not very harmful to a bearded dragon could be detrimental to a uromastyx. I wouldn't recommend mixing the two at all though I see it done in the pet stores all the time.

Hope I helped
--Jeremy Miller

My beardies are a pair. And my Niger is male.

I agree with the issue of origin of species and native vs. non-native parasites to an extent. I have seen two species kept together that were in perfect health to begin with, and one began to shut down. Im not sure if it was all parasite related, or perhaps stress causing a breakdown of immunity, so the animal was more suseptable to getting ill from a parasite that it could normally fend off if not stressed.

Different species have different behaviour patterns as we know. I have seen this cause major conflictions, and even death... simply from stress.

Maybe I just got lucky with my odd trio.

I have seen uros being kept successfully with agamas. They live different lives and don't bother each other much.
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Mark Martinez
University of Florida

Hi i housed a breeding pair of beardies with a male malis for years and they got along fine. They would eat together, bask on top of eachother, and sleep together. But when people told me to separate them because of parasites i did. Eventually i gave the beardies and the mali away because i was moving. Now i just got a breeding pair of malis and the eggs are incubating right now.

I housed my male uro, and a female German Giant BD together for about 3 months without any problems.. until the BD just up and died because it was so damned old. I must say that that was probably the ugliest BD I have ever seen! Anyway, no problems at all.