there is a lot to what Frank says : ) i try and take what Frank offers, absorb it, try it myself, learn about it, combine it with our own experiences, and then spread the word without straight mimicking him like so many others do...



what are proven Uro results? "some results" do not equal "great results". i am theorizing that the current accepted results will be shown to be woefully inadequate in a few years, if folks would start keeping the Uros like the lizards they are, and get up to date with current "state of the art" lizard husbandry. heck, folks thought they kept monitors great in the 80's and early 90's, and now we look at those methods and laugh, because they are just so out of whack, and in retrospect, OBVIOUSLY out of whack.



"accepted standards" are just a big rut that folks are stuck in for lack of a better understanding or path.



for many years we used cypress mulch exclusively for our monitors. Frank said dirt this, soil that, it is easily superior, blah blah blah. but what did he know? i totally doubted him (while at the same time thinking he was a great monitor keeper and breeder).



we had the prettiest, best looking monitors in the country using cypress, i couldn't fathom that a soil substrate, digging, burrowing, would be very beneficial to our current level of achievement...



but then we made the switch with a few cages, and everything steamrolled, and soon all the cages were switched. that is the part that is unexplainable in a post... once you see the animals thrive in a good soil, you won't turn back, because everything else is so inferior and unfair to the animals.



once i got hip to using soil, and spent a year or two learning about it (still learning now ) it seems light years ahead of what we did with the cypress, and it is hard to stand by and watch folks use inferior substrates (not just cypress, but stuff much worse like newspaper, seed, or grain!)



just because keepers on the forum have Uros that live IN SPITE of the husbandry they offer doesn't make it acceptable, nor am i saying that we have solved this puzzle 100%. but if we are going to keep captive animals, let's keep fish in water, birds with seeds, and lizards like lizards!
-----
robyn@proexotics.com



Pro Exotics Reptiles

[ Show Entire Thread ]