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Mixing species

cyber_crimes Jul 23, 2003 04:56 AM

I am wondering if I could house the following species together in an old above ground pool without risk.(roughly 6 of each species and of unknown sex)

Water dragons,Bearded dragons,Blue tongues,Shingle backs,Cunninghams,Long neck turtles,and Jackie dragons.

My main concern is would they interbreed????
Also what would be the process of attaining the most possible eggs/young if these breed????
I guess seperating any gravid/pregnant species alone to give birth/lay eggs would be the best bet.(I am scared other species may dig the eggs up for a feast if I miss them by any chance).
Also the pit will contain a 6 foot pond that is 2 foot deep but has planks to enter/exit the water,Do you think any species of the above mentioned maybe at risk of drowning????
Any help/info would be much appreciated...

Replies (4)

dsgnGrl Jul 23, 2003 07:04 AM

All of those aniamls have different requirements, for example, beardies are desert lizards that need basking temps of around 110 degrees. Meanwhile, the water dragons are tropical and require 70 percent humidity and basking temps aorund 90 degrees. Plus, all of these species are from different continents, making most of them natural enemies. Turtles should never be housed with lizards, and lizards generally should only be housed with their own species. None of these species would interbreed, that should not be your concern, the problem is they will kill each other, or at least all be severely stressed and sick. You didn't say how big this pool is, but there is no way it would work no matter how big it is.
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cyber_crimes Jul 23, 2003 08:24 AM

OK,
A few parks around the area such as the Australian reptile park,
Featherdale wildlife zoo and even taronga zoo keep a few of these species together in the 1 enclosure so I thought I would put it out there and get a few peoples opinions on this.
Water dragons,beardies and blueys are endemic to my local area so I cant see the problems with different housing requirements as they would be outside in natural weather.The pool itself is roughly 20x12 foot in length.There would be plenty of room to escape any unwanted attention from rivals IMO.Anyone else got an opinion on this????

dsgnGrl Jul 23, 2003 08:30 AM

So you think 42 large animals would co-exist happily in a 20x12 foot area? No zoo would ever consider a set up like that, or consider that to be "plenty of room".
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meretseger Jul 23, 2003 09:33 AM

My city's zoo pulls stuff like that... Makes me wonder sometimes. Most of their exhibits can be described as 'a big pile of snakes' or 'some tortoises and a lizard we couldn't bother to make a sign for'...
I just wouldn't be comfortable housing a bunch of mediumish size carnivorous lizards together like that... at some point someone's going to get in a fight, and lizards really seem to enjoy eating each other. This may be acceptable to you, I don't know. It would also be tough to make sure that all 42 animals in the same enclosure are getting enough to eat and are all basking ok and generally healthy.

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