5 Reptiles You SHOULD Cohab and 5 You NEVER Can

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Cohabitating reptiles is probably the biggest controversy in the entire hobby.

[00:00:05]So today, let's set it aside and talk about five reptiles you can cohab and five you definitely shouldn't.

[00:00:17]Now, obviously there are some exceptions to every rule. So a big blanket statement before we start with number five here. I'm not encouraging you to keep reptiles together. Almost every reptile can be kept solitary. The point of the video isn't to make people cohab or encourage them to. The point is that some reptiles actually do really well together and thrive, which is what the threshold is for the top five reptiles that can cohab. And some reptiles just almost never for any reason can cohab.

[00:00:44]And I want to talk about the differences cuz I think it's really Anyway, I've been talking too long. Number five, pictis geckos. Aren't they so freaking cute? These are animals I almost never talk about and almost nobody on the internet does either. Most people don't even know that pictis geckos exist and it is such a tragedy because they are so darn sweet and amazing pets to keep. If you're looking for a small gecko that I wouldn't consider yet to be a micro gecko, but you don't want something that's the size of a leopard gecko or African fat tail, this is probably the perfect gecko for you. It's an animal that is small enough where it might be still a little fragile. I probably wouldn't give this to a kid as their pet, especially if they want an animal to handle because these aren't the best handling of geckos in the world. But if you're looking for a gecko that is really cute to look at, that's fun to photograph, and does wander around the enclosure during dusk and during the morning, this is the gecko for you.

[00:01:36]They're so fun to watch hunt. And although there is no science to back up that these animals hunt together, it does seem like maybe just because of the way it looks, they almost kind of corner insects. Now, this is probably just them both hunting the same insect at the same time. I don't think they're super intelligent or hunting like raptors in Jurassic Park by any means, but it is fun to personify them and think of them that way. However, to talk about why I think that they do really well in cohabs is because in the wild, that's where they're found. They're found in colonies in Madagascar. You're not going to find them alone. And because of their size and where they're from, it actually behooves them to be in those colonies.

[00:02:10]Now, in captivity, showing aggression is something that could happen between males. And some people do put males together. I would not recommend this. In fact, with the exception of a few species I can think of off the top of my head, almost every reptile species, males probably shouldn't be put together full-time or really at all for the most part. But these animals don't show aggression towards each other. Females generally get along really, really well.

[00:02:34]And of course, the threshold for these cohab setups that I'm talking about is you set up the enclosure properly. I don't want you to go and put two pictis geckos in a fivegallon enclosure with nothing but a paper towel and a water bowl. That's going to lead to stress and stressed animals sometimes show aggression when they normally wouldn't.

[00:02:49]If you're setting them up, make sure you give them a lot of space. A 40-gallon enclosure with say three or four females and even one male in there would work great. They do breed really easily. So, make sure if you put a male in there, then the females are of age to breed because they can breed really really young, but they probably shouldn't. And if you're looking for pectis geckos, go see my friend Daffy's Reptiles. He is a bunch for sale. Contrasting how easily these are kept together. For number five that you can't keep together, chameleons. This, in my opinion, is a never. Now, there is one species I can think of, bchesia, or one genus I should say, where a lot of chameleon keepers do keep them together. Now, keep in mind, I am not a chameleon expert. I'm not advising this. I'm just telling you the chameleon expert that I know even that the snake discovery buildoff Bill Strand made an enclosure for several bchesia.

[00:03:36]So if you want to learn more about cohabiting brachesia go talk to somebody like that. But every other chameleon we're talking about Jackson's parsons veiled chameleons and the most popular panther chameleons. I don't know of any time where it would be acceptable to put them together except for breeding.

[00:03:52]Chameleons stress really easily and they don't deal with stress all that well.

[00:03:56]Which means if you put a chameleon into a stressful environment, a stressful situation, they probably won't last that long and it's a really bad idea. So keeping chameleons together for any length of time that isn't for reproduction is probably a bad idea. So I'm going to say never cohab chameleons.

[00:04:11]Number four, best species to cohab, monkeytail skinks. Now monkeytail skinks live in communal setups. In fact, they can get stressed when you keep them alone. Some people do keep them alone and they would disagree and say that they're fine. But from what I look at and from what I see and from my own experience keeping monkeytail skinks, generally in groups, family groups, they do much better. And this is how you find them in the wild. And this is how it's recommended to keep them. Keep in mind, this is the biggest skink in the world.

[00:04:37]So, you'll need a pretty big enclosure to do this. You can't buy a 4x2x2 off the shelf and hope it works. These are an aroreal species that need the height.

[00:04:45]They need the room. So, it's going to be something that is going to be difficult to do, but you can do properly, and it is something that is generally considered safe. Now, of course, as with any reptile, watch the behavior. Humans are communal animals. We need to be around other humans. In fact, the worst punishment that we give to people in the United States or North America that is considered safe or acceptable is solitary confinement. However, not all humans get along. And if you go to any football or baseball game, you're probably going to see a fight break out.

[00:05:15]Same thing with monkeytail skinks. Just because they're really good species to keep together doesn't mean there aren't exceptions. So, you always have to watch and make sure they get along, which is why observation is the most important part of keeping any animals together.

[00:05:27]And what's really interesting is the babies need the mothers or it's a really good idea to keep them together. The babies will actually eat the poop of the mothers for the first little while, which is kind of crazy. But where most animals will try to kill their young, these animals don't. They nurture their young. And because the females give birth to one baby likely every 2 years, that baby's going to grow up right alongside the parents. It's really, really cool. Great species. However, a skink species that in my opinion you should definitely not keep together.

[00:05:54]Blue tongue skinks. Blue tongue skinks are an interesting animal. Until recently, there was no way genetically to tell them apart unless you did a blood test. Now, there is now. Anyway, we might get to that in a future episode. I knew our company has kind of created a new way to test really easily, but anyway, just by looking at them, you generally can't tell if it's a male or a female blue tongue skink. And if you put two males together, they will fight. And a lot of the times if you put two females together, they will fight. And a lot of the times if they're not in breeding season or don't like each other, if you put a male and a female together, they will fight. It's just a bad species that offers no benefit whatsoever to being putting them together. And in my opinion, if you're going to cohabort of a positive effect for the reptile, not just you. Don't cohab.

[00:06:40]Cohab because it's good for the reptile and it's fun to watch natural interaction between them. So yeah, uh, blue tongue skinks, not a good idea.

[00:06:48]They're probably going to fight. And of course, if you see exceptions, let me know in the comments section below. I'm just airing on the side of caution. I'm not saying that I know everything about everything. In fact, I'm telling you that I don't. Number three, best reptile to cohab, garder snakes. Which breaks the mold because I would say most snakes in general don't do well in a cohab.

[00:07:08]However, garder snakes live in a harmony together. You could even put males together in a lot of scenarios. Of course, this isn't always, and there are exceptions, but most of the time, people would tell you, especially if they're seasoned garder snake keepers, you shouldn't keep them alone. They do much better in colonies or family group settings. And in fact, the biggest collection of reptiles in the world where you see the most of them together are garder snakes. Anyway, in the spring, after they come out of their hibernaculum, which is the the word for a den that snakes broomate in, kind of like a hibernation, but not. And in the spring they go into these breeding balls and then the the males go after the females and sometimes the females will put off hormones or pherommones rather so that they act like males. So the males will leave them. It's really interesting. I'll do a whole video about it one day. But keeping them in captivity, most species of garder snakes, keep in mind garder snakes, there's a bunch of different species do really well in captivity and do really well in colony settings. Plus they're fun to set up. A lot of them do well in paladariums. Everyone has their own unique needs and structure and personality. Let's say the opposite of an animal that's good to cohab. Number three for that would be teos. Because teus, if it's a black and white or a gold or a red, whatever, it doesn't matter. These animals are very powerful and don't like company. If you're not putting a male and female together to breed, which you should definitely do cautiously anyway, I wouldn't put them together at all. Even females sometimes will fight, especially if you don't give them a giant enclosure. I'm not saying it's not impossible to keep them together. If you have a freaking greenhouse, let's say, if you have like an 8ft enclosure, which is what's good for one teu, and you put two of them together, it's probably going to be bad news bears. You're probably going to have one of them not breathing in the morning, it's going to be really, really bad. Males, for sure, almost always will fight. Males and females, the male will try to breed the female, and once that's done, they don't want to be around each other anymore, and they will fight. This is kind of the same thing as blue tongue skinks, but much more dramatic because they're much bigger and they are much more dramatic when they fight each other. Crazy teeth, very powerful, very fast, and yeah, just in general, don't put your tagos together. Number two, frogs. Not all frogs, so do your individual research on individual species. There are some really good ones. Dumpy tree frogs, for example, do really well. Dart frogs do really well.

[00:09:25]And there are some rules, right? So for most dart frog species, for a lot of dart frog species, you actually want to keep males together. Where almost everything else in the animal kingdom, males will be kind of territorial against each other. It's females with dart frogs. Most tree frogs do well in communal setups if you give them enough room. Of course, the ones that I've done, I've done redeye tree frogs, which have all done really well. I kept a 2.2, which means males and females, so two of each, and they did really, really well together. They were cohabbed forever basically in a 36 3618. So, one of these and then I moved them into a big giant enclosure just for fun cuz it's multiecies. We can do a multiecies cohab video. If you want to let me know in the comment section below. Dumpy tree frogs did really well, but keep in mind if you have males, they are so freaking loud.

[00:10:10]Amazon milk frogs did really well in a cohab setup for me. And then dart frogs, too. Now, if you're following the rules for each individual species, I think you're going to have basically no problems. Most species of frogs aren't going to be territorial against each other. Now, there are, of course, exceptions. Putting African bullfrog males together or Pac-Man frogs is probably a really bad idea. So, in general, I'm saying most frogs, but definitely not all of them. But, if we're looking for the number two, don't cohab species, we're talking about king snakes and hognose snakes. King snakes are well, they're snake eaters. That's why they're called king snakes. Even breeding these species can be very difficult, and some species are more apt to eat each other than others. But cohabbing king snakes is generally going to end up at least 50% of the time with one of the snakes getting really big overnight and the other one just kind of disappearing or you get one that half eats one and then it they're just both dead because you can't fit that entire snake in their belly. But they'll definitely try. So king snakes are an animal that seeks out snakes as prey and they're going to try to eat each other even during breeding sometimes. And a hognos snakes are very much the same.

[00:11:16]There's been lots of documented cases of a female eating a male during breeding and it happens just like that so darn fast that if you blink you might miss it. Even keeping females together for hognos snakes is a bad idea. Keeping males together is definitely a bad idea and even breeding them can be a little bit difficult to do. So if you're looking for a snake that acts like a magician and makes another snake disappear, king snakes and hognos snakes might be for you. This is a joke. Don't do it, please. Let's talk about some honorable mentions rapid fire before we get to number one. Reptiles that do well together. Colored lizards. I've kept colored lizards together. I had a male and two females and they did really, really well. They were fun to watch.

[00:11:56]Scorpion geckos. This is a gecko species that people will tell you never to keep alone. Generally, they do really, really well together. Binos geckos for the same reasons. Morning geckos, house snakes, and I'll say it even though maybe it's controversial still, hopefully not.

[00:12:11]Leopard geckos can do really well in communal setups, too. Now, obviously, there are rules and you have to do it properly, and I tackled it in this video right here at the end of the video talking about why I think that in animals that you shouldn't honorable mention, most monitor species, a lot of monitors will go chest to chest and fight or a big male will take a smaller male and just fling him off of a ledge or a rock and break his neck and kill him. Monitors in general don't do well kept together. There's some exceptions, most of them probably shouldn't do that.

[00:12:40]Bearded dragons I do think can be cohabbed if you give them a really big space like at a zoo type enclosure. Like if you had an enclosure that was the size of one of these or especially the one at the very back. You could probably put two females together and they wouldn't stress out. It would be fine.

[00:12:54]It would just be difficult to do. But safely I would say don't keep bearded dragons together. If you have a 4x2x two, don't put two females together.

[00:13:01]It'll stress them out likely. Most snakes, there are some snakes that do really really well, especially if you put them in big enclosures. If you have a big zoo type enclosure, putting your treeboas together or even reticulated pythons together and separating them at feeding time do really well. Rhino rat snakes, for example, are another one.

[00:13:18]Malagasi cat eye snakes. But in general, putting snakes together often creates more problems than there are positives.

[00:13:26]And for that reason, most of them should be kept apart. Number one, in my opinion, the best of all the reptiles to keep together, Stenodactylus. This is the most stress-free one. I've never heard a case at all ever of them hurting each other or being aggressive towards each other. Even males, males can live together, obviously. Give them a proper setup. But males live together, females live together. They're super tiny geckos. Easy to set up, easy to keep, maybe the easiest gecko of all the geckos, and you don't have to worry about them fighting. I love them. I think they're great. If you want some, go to Daffy's Reptiles. He breeds them, too. And if for the number one that you can't, I would say iguanas. Aiguanas just generally are a bad idea to cohab.

[00:14:06]There are exceptions, of course. I'm talking about green iguanas. Green aiguanas are big, they're powerful, and sometimes they can be ordinary. There are some that might work, but those are such a low percentage unless you have a zoo style setup again, and there are definitely rules, but I'm going to tell you, don't cohabas.

[00:14:23]Let me know in the comments section below what you think is a good reptile to cohab and why you think that and one that is really bad and why you think that