Thank you all for the answers!

Troy, I appreciate your experience with Uros, and I will certainly take your opinion in consideration.

I must point that U. ornata and U ocellata are different species though (although they do fall into same complex, along with macfaydeni, benti, and yemenensis), and their natural history might be quite different. I'm planing to buy a book "Uromastyx: Natural History, Captive Care, Breeding" by Thomas Wilms,(sept. 2005.) which aparently has strong scientific background, and natural history data should be suported by competent field studies.

In the meantime, I have found a website owned by mr. Gert Wetfahl (http://www.uros-warane.de/), a well-known german breeder of U. ocellata who keep this lizards for decades, and has produced very many generations of youngs. In the caresheet for the species he claims: babies/young lizards' diet should consist of up to 70% of insect matter, while adults should be fed up to 30% insects - the rest of the diet is vegetable matter, of course. I tried to contact mr. Westfahl, but he didn't answer my e-mail yet. Other Uromastyx breeders from France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany I had oportuity to talk to, also include insects in the diet of their ocellatas, although to a lesser extent. There seem to be quite a bit of difference in approach between European and US breeders - but the results are much the same: animals seem to thrive and breed in any of described conditions.



Best regards,

Nino

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