Mixing Savannah Monitors

In many pet stores, I've noticed that Savannah Monitors are housed in the same tank together, but I've rarely heard of people keeping more than one @ their homes.
I know of their aggressive nature, but seeing them @ the pet stores unharmed by each other has made me wonder if they can be housed together for a long period of time. Is this true only of babies or can older savannah monitors be kept together as well? Do males fight with only males, or females too?
Any information anyone could give me would be greatly appricated. Thanks.
-Alex

I know of a person that houses a Savannah with a Black Throat Monitor. One is a male the other a female. Both do fine together and do not fight. Of course his may just be the exception to the rule. Than again they have not read the rules either.

You can keep more than one savannah together...but you really need to consider what your reasons are for doing so. The pet store's is simple: maximizing profit potential overrides ideal care/housing. If you are willing to devote enough cage space you can do it, but it doesn't detract from the problems...if one has parasites, they both have parasites; eeeeeww! which one of them did that?; feeding time hassles; accidental injuries; territorial sqabbles; etc.

i have a adult sav living with a adult red, and blue tegu and two young sav's. they all free roam my bedroom and all sleep togther in the one hide box. (despite the other hide boxs i had out) there has never been a issue with anyone. they even let the iguana come in and lay in thier basking light. so sometimes it will work and sometimes it wont.

I think the main reason you never see savs fight at the average pet store is because they are sick with parasites and have no energy to fight. This is not all pet stores but a good portion of them

cage size. We kept monitors and Rhino Iguanas together but is was room size then another time Niles and Savannah monitors in a garage urned into cage. One can do the same thing with large common iguanas as we found out with one male and multiple females. The sexes among the monitors didn't cause problems as the sexes among the rhinos did !

the parasites are not, in and of themselves, the source of the problem...everybody makes a huge deal about them, but seems to forget that they are present in freshly WC specimens. It's the stresses of captivity that weaken the monitor and let the parasites gain the upper hand: dehydration, malnutrition, improper temperatures, and especially OVERCROWDING. Think about it, parasites and eggs are shed in feces - in the wild, the animal keeps walking and doesn't get overloaded. In captivity, it can't get away from the feces (and the parasites)...factor in multiple animals in a small environment, and its no wonder so many of them do poorly. The overcrowding also manifests itself by stressing the animals (they would not normally be that close to 4-6, or more, other monitors)...they don't necessarily fight, because they are all thrust into this environment at the same time. This means that none of them have established territory. (you will sometimes see considerable aggression, esp concerning food and basking rights, when a newbie as added to an established group). Most petstores don't understand the habits of monitors and don't feed them enough... in terms of frequency or quantity. The only saving grace there is that the temperatures are usually well below the ideal range, so weight loss is slowed somewhat. Even pet stores CAN do it...when we had the shop, I would sometimes put some monitors out. The difference was, I purchased those animals with MY money, and treated them as if they were MY pets. Sure, I might have put 2-3 in a tank (usually a 30 gallon), but the temps were right, the animals were well fed, and the cages were cleaned daily. just realized how long this post was getting - sorry all

Originally Posted by hhmoore

the parasites are not, in and of themselves, the source of the problem...everybody makes a huge deal about them, but seems to forget that they are present in freshly WC specimens. It's the stresses of captivity that weaken the monitor and let the parasites gain the upper hand: dehydration, malnutrition, improper temperatures, and especially OVERCROWDING. Think about it, parasites and eggs are shed in feces - in the wild, the animal keeps walking and doesn't get overloaded. In captivity, it can't get away from the feces (and the parasites)...factor in multiple animals in a small environment, and its no wonder so many of them do poorly. The overcrowding also manifests itself by stressing the animals (they would not normally be that close to 4-6, or more, other monitors)...they don't necessarily fight, because they are all thrust into this environment at the same time. This means that none of them have established territory. (you will sometimes see considerable aggression, esp concerning food and basking rights, when a newbie as added to an established group). Most petstores don't understand the habits of monitors and don't feed them enough... in terms of frequency or quantity. The only saving grace there is that the temperatures are usually well below the ideal range, so weight loss is slowed somewhat. Even pet stores CAN do it...when we had the shop, I would sometimes put some monitors out. The difference was, I purchased those animals with MY money, and treated them as if they were MY pets. Sure, I might have put 2-3 in a tank (usually a 30 gallon), but the temps were right, the animals were well fed, and the cages were cleaned daily. just realized how long this post was getting - sorry all

I guess thats true