Bearded dragon with Russian tortoise

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Gohstsky

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I was wondering if it would be possible to house a Russian Tortoise (not too small) in my 10 month old bearded dragon’s bioactive enclosure. The enclosure is 240 gallons 4’L x 2’W x 4’H. The Bearded dragon is fed outside of his enclosure and There are currently two basking spots (one near the bottom of the enclosure and one towards the top ) he has 5 hides, a lot of wood for climbing, rocks and live plants. He mostly just stays higher up on wood and hammocks so he doesn’t use too much of the floor space besides when he decides to dig... he also get a lot of time outside his enclosure. I wanted to see if it would be safe for them to be in the same enclosure being that it is on the larger side although, I do understand there are still risks involved.
 

AHBD

BD.org Sicko
I don't know if they would try to eat one another's droppings, inviting possible contamination of various viruses or bacteria that may be harmful to the other so it might not be a good idea. The risk might be small and some people might do it but you'l have to research + decide for yourself.
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
I would not house them together at all seeing as beardies are very territorial and might try eating or attacking the tortoise, Running through each other's poo, mixing up food and many other issues.

And Plus I'm sure that the care needs for both of them are very different, Like beardies would be fine with a 4x2x4, which is a excellent size and is great for the climbing ability, But tortoises can't climb to the top of the tank.

They Need a lot of floor space to roam and explore. A floor area of just 4x2 would not be enough for a explorative tortoise.

Heating and lighting as well and humidity, that would be too difficult to try and keep two different desired temps for two different animals. I'm also not the biggest fan of bioactive vivariums for desert reptiles either but that's just my opinion on things.

So if you really want both of the animals to thrive and live a long happy stress-less life then I would suggest not housing them together at all and having separate tanks for each of them.
 

ComicBookMama

Sub-Adult Member
HippieLizards":1h25oo9g said:
They (Russian Tortoises) Need a lot of floor space to roam and explore. A floor area of just 4x2 would not be enough for a explorative tortoise.

Reptiles Magazine says that RTs need a minimum of 5 square feet for their enclosure; RussianTortoise.org suggests a 50 gallon storage bin for young RTs, but bigger is always better. My classroom RT was housed in a modified bookshelf laid on its side, about 6' x 3', to give her enough room to roam around in, dig in, and forage in. Many people build a tortoise table http://russiantortoise.net/tortoise_table.htm to ensure that the needs of a RT can be met. They need to be able to burrow, clamber over things, hide inside of things... all sorts of enrichment is necessary for a tortoise, just like it is for a Bearded Dragon.

+1 on the suggestion of not housing them together. I'm not sure what a bioactive habitat is, but if it has live plants, they're likely going to be gobbled up by the tortoise, and LOTS of digging will be going on as well. I'd put my energy and space into having two super habs for both critters instead of putting them together.

Just my 2cents worth, from a dragon newbie perspective.
 
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