I was banned! :0

[GottemOnDubs]

Would you believe I was banned from another herp site for asking a simple question that everyone jumped down my throat about??? It was completely harmless and reptile related, but some of them were on a high horse that day and must not have appreciated my intellectual rresponses and now I can't log in anymore. I just don't get it sometimes. But I love you guys. You have seen me through alot since I got back into the hobby. Who needs them anyways, right?

 

[vickson420]

Wow so they just banned you?No warning,nothing?Can I aks you what the questions was?
Who needs them anyway!Nobody is better then us!LOL

 

[GottemOnDubs]

No warning whatsoever so I wrote to them. They said I have been blocked for 10 days for profanity. I guess they are still using the 1902 Book of Profane words because I said nothing of the sort. Ok, I'm lying, I think I said a-hole once....but still, if you break it up into two words, its completely harmless.
My question (which will be paraphrased so I don't upset certain bleeding hearts, just in case they are on here too) was if certain reptiles (or any of them for that matter) were calmer, or more tolerant of handling and human interaction if they were in groups. In 16 years of being in the hobby, I have noticed that reps that were by themselves seem to be more "aggressive" or unpleasant than those that were housed with others. My hypothesis is that they become used to commotion and other living things around them and don't get spooked as easily as those that live a solitary life. Anyone care to chime in or should I show myself to the door? lol

 

[herpfreak]

lol I've been banned from a certain forum because my sig was too big. I got a warning email so I reduced my sig size by 50% and put it on and it seemed to work, but then a while later I got banned. :?

But I know what forum arguments are like too. I recently joined another forum (I don't think I'm allowed to name it here, so I won't) and I made a few posts and this one member was jumping down my throat about how great sand is for beardies and how adults only need a 40 gallon tank... you can imagine, I got pretty PO'd. Then, on a different post, he was telling me how BPs can be kept at 70 degrees... anyways, after being "stalked" ( :?: ) and contradicted by this one member on more than 5 threads, I decided I'm not going to hang out at that forum any more.

LOL, but who needs them? BD.org is the greatest forum on the net. I've never seen any form of argument anywhere here (and this forum is a lot bigger than the forum-that-I'm-not-going-to-name mentioned above). You guys rock!

In 16 years of being in the hobby, I have noticed that reps that were by themselves seem to be more "aggressive" or unpleasant than those that were housed with others. My hypothesis is that they become used to commotion and other living things around them and don't get spooked as easily as those that live a solitary life. Anyone care to chime in or should I show myself to the door? lol

That's a really interesting topic. I've only been in the hobby for one year and I have never kept any reptiles together, so I don't have much to say about this besides that it's very interesting and I anticipate seeing what others have to say.

 

[vickson420]

Well no there is no need to show yourself to the door.Honestly the cursing would have probably gotten you a warning here too or at least an edit but unless it was repeated all the time it wouldnt have resultes in a ban.

Now onto your question,honestly I think it depends on the reptile.I can tell you that from my experience with beardies I cant agree that grouo housing would make them less aggressive.I currently have 4 and one of them was a rescue cohouse with another and I can tell you he was my hardest to initially tame.His clutchmate who I have sinced rehomed to a friend was also far more aggressive them my males.I cant say for sure why but it definately took both if them quite some time to become more docile and temperant then my others who have been housed alone since hatchlings.This may not be true for all species its just what I have found in my experiences.I have also noticed that at my local herp store(and friend) he houses his in colonies and honestly they are no where near as socially interactive with humans as mine are.My assumption is that there may be 2 reasons for this.The first reason I am thinking is because there is always some aggressive undercurrent when housing in this manner so they will always be on guard.The other reason is any interaction they may need has probably been fullfilled by the colony so much so that I think its to the point where they would give anything to be left alone.Again just my opinion but its definately an interesting topic.

Now as a MOD I am going to say this to all who may post because I can almost see this being one of those topics that can cause a heated "discussion".Be Nice,no cursing and no bashing each other.Call it a pre-emptive warning.

 

[GottemOnDubs]

Here are my own personal examples:
I have 11 BD's of all different sizes and ages. Of course all of our males are separated. But I took in 2 3 year old males that were housed together. One obviously became the dominant one and beat the other one up badly. He is very aggressive, even now by himself, but in this instance, he was given the opportunity to become a dominant male. So I can see how this kinda changes my theory but the submissive one is a little puppy dog. While all of the other males turn black and do their ritual dances, he just ignores them AND the females.

I have 2 females that I acquired at a few months old. They are both together in an 80 gallon tank. When they got a little bigger, one must have nipped the others tail and it broke off so we divided the tank. Before we separated them, they were very loving and super friendly. Since we separated them, one of them turned into hell on wheels. She goes to bite you when you try to pick her up. She opens her mouth and hisses. The other one is perfectly fine. They are a year and a half now.
I have 2 other females in a 40 gallon tank, one is a little larger than the other. They are like 2 peas in a pod. The smaller one is usually found on the back of the larger one and both are very pleasant to interact with. The larger female in this case is our current breeder and after just one mating, she has produced 3 clutches. I jokingly said to my brother that we must be doing something right for her to voluntarily become pregant again on her own.

Now while the above examples niether confirm nor deny my theory. Observing the changes made me think about it a little more but I needed to find the right people to pose the question to.

Here is my best and most recent example.
I have 11 3 month old Savannah monitors and 1 5 month old (he is not much bigger) The 5 month old I purchased before the babies came along and I kept him in a small tank on my computer desk where I work from so that he would see me constantly and realize that I am not a threat. I know they are not the most pleasant but he was a little hard to deal with, but I understood.
So then the babies came along and I keep them in a super large tote all together. None of them are aggressive, at all. Now feeding time is quite the opposite, but I understand that. But to try to shed some light on my theory, I took 2 of the larger babies and put them in with the 5 month old and low and behold, he calmed down tremendously (after a few hours of huffing and tailwhipping the new guys) and now I can take him out and enjoy him as well as the others.
I might not have a ton of examples and like I said, some of these things happened under opposite circumstances but after you do all the factoring (species, age, size, sex, etc.) is there any kind of backing to this? It was just one of those things that make you go hmmmmm....

 

[Eventide]

Sounds like they broke out the nuclear weapons to kill a housefly. Sheesh.

Anyway, I agree it depends on the species. Then again, there are always unusual cases. Ball pythons are supposedly not social, but I've seen several times where balls housed together really seem to enjoy and want each other's presence. One friend has a male/female pair together, and when you take the female out, the male comes out of his hide and starts looking all over for her.