blue tongue advice

[bump73]

Hi all I have just upgraded my Bluey enclosure from a 2.5ft x 1.5ft x 1.5ft glass tank (I know this is small but he's only 4 months old), to a masssive 1.5mt x 75cm x 75cm cabinet (got it on ebay for $160 and came with 2 sets of drawers and a 2mt x 80cm laminate bench for the top, soon to have a big turtle tank on it ) I'll get some pics up soonish....

Anyway my question is can i put other species of lizard in with my eastern bluey, i'm looking for another bluey but was thinking about putting some water dragons or pygmy beardies in there as well or if i can find one a chameleon dragon( saw it at taronga zoo and they look great)...

Does anyone out there keep multiple species in the same enclosure and if so how do they get along???? Any help here greatly appreciated..
Ben

 

[peterjohnson64]

Hi Ben,

I keep multiple species together being water dragons, turtles and blueys but they are in an outdoor enclosure. I also know a number of people that keep blueys and beardies together in indoor enclosures. Whilst it will work you need to be mindful of the best way to keep each species. An Eastern Water dragon isn't really a species that you would want to keep inside so I would rule them out first. A Blue Tongue is kept in a tank probably wiht mulch or th elike as a substrate. They need water and east mainly vegetable matter. Central Beardies are bascially a dry werather species and are susually kept on sand.

Another thing I have found is that the blue tongues are quite aggressive towards my dragons. The dragons are bigger and faster so it is not a concern but they do scatter when the blueys hit the feed bowl.

Personally mate, get yourself another bluey and hope that they are a pair. And before you put up a post about sexing them, it can't be done with 100% accuracy short of actually breeding them to confirm. (and that is from Dr Glen Shea who has a PHd in Blue Tongues)

Also, make sure that your enclosure is set up to take the weight of a turtle tank. Remember that a 4x2x2 fish tank full of water weights 400kg.

 

[Tiliqua]

Hey mate,
I keep mixed species together at times of the year. Blotched blueys seem fine with eastern blueys and are on the class 1 licence. Zoos seem to have blueys mixed with other species also with the Australian reptile park exhibiting Blotched blueys with cunninghams skinks and jacky dragons, and Taronga exhibiting Eastern blueys with land mullets and eastern bearded dragons.
Keep in mind in the last 2 examples they are housed in large outdoor enclosures with plenty of room/hides to retreat to if a fight with another cage mate breaks out.
Chameleon dragons are on a class 2 licence from memory and they are rather rare in captivity.

 

[hydro noun15]

ive seen frill neck lizards mixed with central blueys, but it was a big enclosure

 

[bump73]

Thanx for that peter.. think breeding the blueys could be fun so may get a couple more to be sure i have a male and female.. will 3-4 be okay together do you think??

The turtle tank is going to be 5 x 2 x 2 and the bench itself is 40mm thick (was an old display kitchen) so it should hold no problem. the turtles go outside in to their pond in summer, an 8foot dinghy full of water plants yabbys and fish and a couple of land areas,( i rent so needed something portable that i could take with me)
ben

 

[DA_GRIZ]

i had cunninghams ,blueys and turtles together. cunninghams arn't the nicest of all lizards but mine cuddled up with each other. me and my dad are starting on a outdoor enlosure again which will old 4 blueys,2 turtles,1 eastern water dragon and some eastern beardies when i find some or my little one gets big

 

[Dan123]

3-4 blueys should be fine together your tenclosures definatly big enough. if you want to be sure you have at least one male and one female just get them sexed at a vet when there a little bigger.

 

[ace#74]

if you want to keep more than one speices of lizard together try and pick ones that live in the same climate and habitat

 

[bump73]

pics of enclosure

Here are some pics of how enclosure fit out is going

Empty cabinet

walls getting prepared

electrics installed and walls get a test fit

God ...or Godzilla to be politically correct, testing the walls who says blue tongues dont climb think i'll have to block up that hole

Thats all for now time to finish the walls off and put in substrate and decorate....

Thanx to all who have posted threads on how to make the walls, one thing i noticed is that you can actually shape the foam with your hands to get ledges once it has set for an hour or so
Ben

 

[Stealth_Raptor]

Geez... here in North America... we wouldn't even keep a pair of BTS together... let alone similar species in fear of hybrids, or even other species of lizards due to aggression and different environmental needs, however we don't have the luxury of keeping them outdoor or getting a fresh stock from the wild.

Your setup is looking nice. Going to paint that thing?

 

[Aslan]

3-4 blueys should be fine together your tenclosures definatly big enough. if you want to be sure you have at least one male and one female just get them sexed at a vet when there a little bigger.

Dan - Not sure if you actually read the rest of the thread or not so I will repeat Peter's first post - Blueys cannot be accurately sexed short of having them breed...if your vet is telling you otherwise, get a new vet...

Bump - That enclosure is looking great, keep us posted on it's progress...

 

[spongebob]

Hi
Here's a USA based website:
http://bluetongueskinks.net/blue.htm

They recommend keeping every individual separately. Also have info about sexing through sperm plugs..... Havent tried it though.