Outdoor Pit?

[Imported_tuatara]

Planning to do a 10Lx10Wx5-6H ft outdoor pit, first things first, to find out some reptiles to keep in it,currently Thinking of alpine blotched blueys, eastern bearded dragons, cunningham skinks, water dragons.(What subspecies would suit Ballarat weather better?) and maybe some southern water skinks, unsure wether the beardeds or water dragons could cope with the weather as it sometimes will drop below zero in winter nights, and still not sure if i'll be getting lighting in it, along with not knowing if they'd fight or not. (if i sound very noobish then please tell me what i should and shouldn't do. Also, if anyone knows any plants that would be good then please tell me.

 

[Nero Egernia]

Choose what species you're interested in. It also helps to choose species native to your area.

 

[bluedragon]

Planning to do a 10Lx10Wx5-6H ft outdoor pit, first things first, to find out some reptiles to keep in it,currently Thinking of alpine blotched blueys, eastern bearded dragons, cunningham skinks, water dragons.(What subspecies would suit Ballarat weather better?) and maybe some southern water skinks, unsure wether the beardeds or water dragons could cope with the weather as it sometimes will drop below zero in winter nights, and still not sure if i'll be getting lighting in it, along with not knowing if they'd fight or not. (if i sound very noobish then please tell me what i should and shouldn't do. Also, if anyone knows any plants that would be good then please tell me.

hi in my opinion i like to use these

 

[Imported_tuatara]

names? pictures of them alone won't help much...

Choose what species you're interested in. It also helps to choose species native to your area.

i went off of maps for them in which they were all in the ballarat region, but i thought even eastern beardeds wouldn't be able to thrive in such a cold climate.

 

[Nero Egernia]

Reptiles are tougher than you think. They often find shelter in micro-climates while faced with extremes in temperature. Have you not seen any of these species in your area?

 

[bluedragon]

names? pictures of them alone won't help much...

1birds nest fern
2 bromeliade
3 tussock grass
snake plant

 

[Imported_tuatara]

there's basically no reptiles in my area because of cats and such, but i have seen the rare garden skink and bluetongue around.

1birds nest fern
2 bromeliade
3 tussock grass
snake plant

ty

 

[pinefamily]

I wouldn't recommend a water dragon in with the others you mentioned as it is likely to eat them. The others should be fine together.

 

[Imported_tuatara]

huh, well seeing it was gonna mainly base around them, anything that could go with them? (willing to have lighting if needed)

 

[bluedragon]

ty

what do you mean by ty

 

[Foozil]

what do you mean by ty

ty = thank you

 

[bluedragon]

ty = thank you

oh ok

 

[Imported_tuatara]

would it be possible to keep rainforest-ish species if i had misters and heating in the pit? dunno what the ambient temp in the queensland/nsw rainforest areas is tho, so i could sound like a complete moron in asking this.

 

[pinefamily]

It would be a lot of work, and still run the risk of losing them, if you try to put reptiles from a different climate outside. You could keep multiple water dragons together, as long as the enclosure was big enough, but putting smaller lizards with them also puts them on the menu potentially.

 

[sp.michael]

With temps like that it would probably be beneficial to have a large heated hide box for them over night if they are more tropical. Something like a styrofoam box with a heat cord inside. In Sydney I've just used outdoor lights for heating over winter.

 

[Bluetongue1]

Don’t be put off by your local temperatures. Canberra has plenty of below zero low winter minimums and it also gets stinking hot in summer. Yet there is a thriving population of Gippsland Water Dragons often photographed in the botanic gardens. And plenty of other reptiles, that all survive without artificial winter heat. They take refuge in burrows or below/amongst large rocks etc. to avoid temperature extremes. You can either duplicate this or provide heated refuges.

If water dragons are your ‘must include’ animal, then the Gippsland subspecies is probably the better choice as they come from the south. You can keep Alpine Blotched Bluetongues, Cunninghams and adult Jacky Dragons with these. I have seen full grown Eastern Water Skinks successfully kept with big Eastern Water Dragons in a large pit, but really don’t know how the smaller Southern species would go. In providing a water body for Gippsland WD’s you need to allow for the fact that Cunninghams in particular, and Bluetongues, are not good swimmers.

I would NOT include Eastern Bearded Dragons for two reasons. Firstly, they will tend to have a go at eating anything small enough to get their mouth around. Secondly, like WD’s, the males are territorial and signal their dominance through body movements. These are very similar between the two and I know of a case where a dominant male EBD caused severe stress in an EWD in a separate cage visible across the room.

Mixed collections do need to be very well thought out and there are reasons behind the above selections, along with other considerations required. If you are serious about going ahead, then I am happy to expand on these.

 

[Imported_tuatara]

Well currently this plan is put on hold because of another animal i may be getting very soon, but if i ever start up on it again i'll love to hear your input on the matter.

 

[Bluetongue1]

Not a problem. Will be happy to help as best I can, if and when required. Just let me know.

Cheers