Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone. I just bought a Mali Uromastyx today, and I just wanted to see what you thought of his setup so far.

I have a 90w halogen lamp over his basking rock, a 7% UV lamp, and a 50w next to it to bring the sand teperature up a bit.
The temperatures I've seen today are roughly 120-145 on the hot rock, depending on which spot you point at, about 90-95 around the sand, and on the far right, in the cool spot, the sand gets down to about 85. The timer goes from about 7:30-9:00.

I'm offering him a salad of collard greens, kale, and shredded carrots. I plan to give him a water bowl every day or two for a few hours. And I'll try to toss in some crickets every week or so.

At the moment he's 10.5" long, living in a 20 gal long... I may upgrade depending on how much bigger he gets. I was planning on giving him about 4 or 5 days to acclimate before I start handling him too much.

So, does everything sound good?

Thanks for your advice, everyone. I'm looking forward to having such a sweet herp.

Congrats on your new guy! They're great lizards.

Couple things I would mention: most important is the cage size. A 20 gallon is really just too small for a uro - even a smallish one. A 40 gallon breeder (36" x 18" ) is really the bare minimum to shoot for. I'd recommend upgrading as soon as you possibly can. Be very vigilant in watching those temperatures in the 20 - it doesn't take much for it to get way too hot in a small tank.

The diet sounds ok - there are other greens that are better nutritionally than collards and kale (though those aren't terrible by any means). See if you can find things like dandelion greens, curly endive (chickory), and escarole to add to it. Carrots are ok, too, but try adding shredded winter squash, parsnip, etc. They also like birdseed and some raw red or green lentils on occasion. Crickets are optional, but keep them to a minimum if you do feed them.

Make sure he can get within 12" or so of that UVB light. The fluorescents don't throw UVB very far - especially through a screen. A piece of wood or stack of rocks will let him climb up close enough. Plus he might like to climb on things.

Sounds like you're on the right track - just flesh out what you're doing and you'll be fine.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.1 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, Tank, and Lilly)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
2.1 Green Anoles (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo)
1.1 Felis domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

New cage under construction.

It's roughly 35" x 20" x 18" high

Absolutely flawless construction. Nails breaking through the wood, glue everywhere, uneven edges. A thing of true beauty.

I've been meaning to ask-
I haven't heard too much about dusting their food... I read the ingredients on 'uromastyx dust', and it contained quite a bit of D3, which I've heard should be taken out of their diet if ample UV is supplied.
Should I let him eat the veggies straight or give them a dusting before?

Yay for new cage! I had a rather Tim Taylor experience with building my one wooden cage - turned out ok in the end, though!

I don't have an exact answer for the supplement question, but here's what I do. I feed the best diet I know how to do and provide as much UVB as the cage will allow. Most of the time I offer straight salads, but add a very small amount of calcium once or twice a week, and a multivitamin maybe once a week. Once a month one of those dustings will include a little D3, twice a month on the lower UVB cages.

I don't know if that's the "right" way to supplement. Hopefully others will chime in with experiences, opinions, and info.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.1 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, Tank, and Lilly)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
2.1 Green Anoles (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo)
1.1 Felis domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

You mentioned kale...

Im just visiting this forum, as I usually only post on the skink forum--for my blue tongue.

You should all try chopped up sphaghetti squash. One of the highest in Ca ratios available.
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1 Eastern Blue Tongue Skink
2 Tarahumara Mountain Kingsnakes - Knoblochi
1 Thayer's Kingsnake - Thayeri
2 Golden Greek Tortoises
1 Pyxie Frog - 14 years old

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I need to start planting my own veggies for this guy.

Here's the new cage, set up and (nearly) finished. I'm probably going to build a way for the UV to sit a little lower, but aside from that, the lights are getting the job done. 120-130 in the basking spot, 90-100 in the warmer sand, and down to the mid 80's in some spots.

So I was thinking about adding a cactus or something for looks... any successes or failures in that area?