iguana and redfoot tortoises together

Hi All!

Have a question for all of you. I used to be a pretty active poster here but life got in the way and I didn’t have time to post. I have had my green iguana for about 11-12 years now and he has been great for the whole time I have had him. He is very laid back and as my GF likes to put it he is a dog with scales. A few years back we also got 2 redfoot tortoises. Now that they are getting some size to them I am contemplating moving them in to the same enclosure. In theory I don’t see an issue since they are both from the same area, have the same diets, the same heat and humidity requirements. I have the cages setup almost identical except the size/setup of the enclosures. The iguana obviously has ramps and such to get him up high and the tortoises are ground dwelling so do not have the ramps.

So besides the obvious issue of aggression coming about on the iguanas end and not so much the tortoises is there any big issue that I am forgetting? Obviously if I go ahead with this I will watch them like hawks for any signs of aggression between them. this wont be happening overnight, but just wanted some insight before I go ahead with it.

I'm only looking for constructive criticism with this. I have been keeping stuff for over 20years now so I know what I am doing. I'm just looking for advice from other keepers. So please only post helpful information, I have done some research and it looks like most agree it can be done. but just want some other opinions.

Mike

Thanks for the advice on the parrot bowls for feeding. I generally supervise the torts eying anyway since one is a hog and the other doesn't bull it's way in all the time. So the feeding shouldn't be an issue. Since I monitor it anyway. But will make sure to keep an extra close eye during this time.

I was cleaning cages today anyway and had to strip the tort cage so I put them in with the iguana for a few hours while I slowly cleaned the cage. He showed no interest in them at all. He would just give a glance down and leave them alone. I was in the room so I don't know if that had anything to do with that though. But he has been around other animals the whole time I've had him, dogs, cats, rabbit and so on. I'm going to give it another go this weekend. He spends almost all of his time perched on his shelf anyway so I don't see them causing an issue on the floor.

Will keep this updated and maybe throw a few pics of them up as well.