Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[Cleef]

I can't work out whether this is a really silly idea or not a bad one, so I thought I'd share my thoughts.

After a bit of research (on here) I understand quite a lot of people don't encourage communal setups, but others are all for it, providing they work.

Recently I've been looking into Rhampholeon Brevicaudatus, Bearded Pygmy Chameleon, and I'm rather tempted to get a pair at least, they're brilliant little things. I was going to buy a 30x30x30cm viv for some, which would be ok for a trio I understand, and then set this up accordingly. (They require a small naturalistic setup with live plants preferably, fairly high humidity and an ideal temp of anywhere between 70-80f) Their requirements are pretty much exactly the same to that of crested geckos, so... I wondered if it would be possible to house the two species together, safely.

Currently I have a 45lx45wx60h cm naturalistic setup for my crested geckos, heavily planted and growing well, I would add more much smaller twigs and maybe a Ficus Benjamina, in order for the pygmy's to have lots of suitible climbing branches.

During the day the cresteds(nocturnal) are flat out asleep, hiding, and hardly move. So I doubt the pygmys would disturb them, the same could be said for the pygmys(diurnal) during the night.

The only, and rather serious, problem I can see is if the crested geckos come across the pygmys at night, if they see them, and decide to try and eat them as they are only 2-3" long. It all depends on a)if they spot them and b) if they like the look of them for food. At 2-3" long leafy looking things I'm not sure whether they would bother.

Let me know what you think, I just thought it would be nice if they could be housed together without problems.

Thanks for reading
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Steve P

[HerpCrazy!!!]

Hey Personally I wouldn't mix these guys. Although the cresteds are generally nocturnal they will occasionally be alert during the day.......snack time! I also think that ideally you should keep chams on their own as they tend to be fairly shy and can stress easily, especially if a crested gecko jumpes on them in the middle of the night
Just my opinion really Someone else may hve tried it though.
Good luck
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Licking this cane toad was the worst flippin idea you.............whoa man that penguin just put something in your pocket.

[Cleef]

You're right, I imagine it would be pretty stressful for the chams thinking about it
Nice idea but not necessary, I'll stick to the normal plan and get a seperate viv when I get round to getting some.

Out of interest, what species do people keep together successfully? Would be interesting to find out what works
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Steve P

[lol93]

I saw a display viv recently at a garden centre where they kept rough green snakes, brown and green anoles, pygmy chams, gold dust day geckos and oriental fire bellied toads together. They said it had just been set up, so I don't know how successfully the species were co-habiting.
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[Scott W]

I think community vivs are fine, IF you choose the right species and set them up correctly.

I've had many vivs in the past with anoles and day geckos in, tree frogs and some nocturnal geckos, it was 3ft wide x 2ft across by 5ft high...worked really well.

Can't comment on the idea of mixing cresteds with dwarf chams as I've never kept the dwarf chameleons. I think it's always best to keep species seperate first so you can watch and decide first hand if they are a good match to set up a mixed species viv.
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Please DO NOT pm orders for reptiles, send email instead scott@captivebred.co.uk

[HerpCrazy!!!]

I actually keep anoles with PDFs and also anoles witth a rough green.They get on very wel
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Licking this cane toad was the worst flippin idea you.............whoa man that penguin just put something in your pocket.

[Mememe]

TBH, if a crestie walks on a pygmy cham, it will fall and really injure itself. Furthemore, the kinds of perches that each species needs are very different.

With perhaps a very small nocturnal frog species, or small house gecko, I can imagine it working.

However, pygmy chams are more likely to be carrying parasites duw to the likelihood of being WC or CH - I wouldn't want to pass that another animal.
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No man is an Island. Except the Isle of Man.

[uroplatus]

I have kept dwarf chams with uroplatus phantasticus (Satanic leaftails) and Uroplatus ebanuai (Speartail leaftails) and had no problems at all but I would think cresteds might be a bit heavy and if they did jump on the chams by accident they would probably cause some injury to them.
Here is a piccy of the viv I kept them in...

[gargoyle]

I'm in the middle of some research about a communal setup with my Standing's Day Geckoes. They are from the southwestern area of Madagascar which is scrubland and deciduous forests. Pictus geckoes have come up in my research. Anybody have any ideas whether they would work as one is diurnal and up the top - the other is nocturnal and ground dwelling.

[Berber King]

hi,im new to this forum but thought i would share my experience of keeping pygmys with other species.I used to have a pair of them housed in a small exo-terra viv with real plants,and a waterfall.They mixed very well with some small marbled reed frogs,i did try green anolis but they seemed to stress them out,I hope this helps.