Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My fiance and I purchased a niger uro(as the pet store called it, I believe it is saharan, not sure, may have to post pictures.) But we have had him for about 2 months Id say, and we just recently purchased a 40 gal tank for him, he is about 6" long Id say. But to the point, we bought a ceramic infrared heat emitter by zoo med, 150 watts. It says for use with zoo med reptiPorcelain lamp, but can you just use any clamp lamp that is for a 150 watt bulb, or because its a ceramic heat source, should I have the porcelain for safety? Im not even sure if this bulb is good for a 40 gallon glass tank with metal screen top. I do live in a basement and it is a cold area(north dakota) so his tank on basking side is around 110 degrees, and the other end is between 87 and 90, I am trying to get it up, so any advice on that would be appreciated as well.

Use the porcelain socket - better safe than sorry. Heat emitters are fine, but I prefer heat sources that emit light, too. Uros need bright enclosures. For keeping night heat up, the heat emitter is perfect.

You can raise your basking temp by raising up your basking surface - stack slate or stones higher. The basking temp will raise without affecting your cool side temps, which you don't really want higher than 85 or so.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, and Tank)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
0.1 Collared Lizard (Rorschach)
2.1 Green Anoles (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo)
1.1 Chubby Housecats (Roscolux and Jenny)

Thanks, at night I turn the heat emitter off and use a, I wish I remember what it was called, but it gives off a red light and heat, I used that in his smaller tank. I use that one for the lower heat levels at night. But yeah I was thinking I should have the light source too. We have a uvb bulb during the day for him. But man since we got that bigger tank he has been running around like crazy its good to see him happy.

And if anyone reads this again, is romaine lettuce a good source of food for him, or are there better greens he should be getting?

Romaine isn't that useful, nutritionally. It won't hurt him as long as he's getting other things, but the stomach space could be filled with more nutritionally dense greens. Better choices are curly endive, escarole, and dandelion greens. You can throw in other things now and then for variety (bok choy, nappa cabbage, turnip greens, etc), but those first three are excellent staples.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, and Tank)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
0.1 Collared Lizard (Rorschach)
2.1 Green Anoles (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo)
1.1 Chubby Housecats (Roscolux and Jenny)

Alright, yeah we are fairly new to uros. We got him from a pet store, and they were feeding him frozen veggies, and had one lamp on him the whole time, and they gave us a 10 gal tank for him and said it was good, but I looked into it and found this site, and realized they didnt know. I do know he was wild caught. We fed him the romaine because it was all he would eat and I looked it up some nutrition site and it looked like it was healthy for him, but maybe thats for humans. I tried endive greens and he didnt want them, but maybe curly endive is different. Ill try the escarole and Im not sure where to get dandelion greens around this area, any suggestions on that. Man I had more questions then I thought with this bulletin. But Id rather ask questions then do something wrong, he is a fun little guy, I never thought I would fall in love with him like I did, I got him for the fiance. Thanks for all your help and any future questions i think of.

I agree with Torey on the issues. Especially the need for brightness in their enclosures. We paint the interiors of our cages with high gloss white for that purpose.
I've seen many posts where folks are struggling to get the basking temps correct. Most cases, they're trying to project the right temps (120-140) to the BOTTOM of the cage. Often, that throws the ambient way off. So much simpler to raise the basking site, attach a dimmer switch to the basking bulb & tweak the temps to just where you want them. Sooooo simple... "even a caveman can do it."
One thing I see so often missing on nutritional advice is the need for "hard foods." Along with a varied diet of greens, they need a "seed bowl" containing a wide variety of seed & grain items. I'll be glad to provide our "blend" if you wish.
Glad you're doing your homework.
BTW, a wc Saharan could be problematic. You might want to post a pict here since it's your first Uro, just to maybe head off some future problems.
Good Luck,
A.

Yeah, I would love to know your blend, anything to get him healthy. And I will post some pics, I need to figure out how to do that. The pet store had him listed as a red niger uro, he is more green and yellow to me. A girl I talked to that knew the pet store was the one to tell me that it was probably wild caught, because of this particular pet store. I have read they like to try to get out of their cage alot, and he has done that crawling on the glass for long periods of time trying to get out. He seems happier with his new enclosure. We are waiting on some desert winter bedding, is that a sufficient substrate for a young uro, right now we are using paper towels, and not sure how you lay it in, he tries to get under it, which I dont see as a problem, but not sure. But I will try to get those pics up soon.

OK, here goes. Start with a base of parakeet food ( Pretty Bird is good, so is ZuPreem ). Add buckwheat & oat groats, barley, crushed 15 bean soup mixes minus the kidney beans, lentils, mung beans, bulghar wheat, & toss in a few pine nuts as a treat. Sprinkle on some bee pollen but don't over-do it.
Go heavy on hybiscus/dandelion flowers AND leaves for your greens diet.
Lots of other things out there. Check Doug's care sheets.
A.

I'd love to know the mixture that you use for your uros. Do you leave it in the enclosure all the time? I could see my uro eating just the dry stuff and skipping the greens.

Sorry for this late response. We mix parakeet feed with oat groats, buckwheat groats, barley, bulghar wheat, crushed beans, lentils, mung beans & often some bee pollen. There are times when we pull this from their diets if they appear to be ignoring their greens. But, overall, it's worked for us for quite some time.

Alright I will have to try that. Thanks alot. I still need to get a picture of him up for you soon. He is shedding a bit lately. But there is one concern with the right side of his mouth, it looks a greenish color. I must have came recently, unless if it is just from his greens maybe. But he has been pretty energetic as of late, we've had him for 2 months so far. Ill post pics from when we first got him, to now so you can see how he looks.

You mentioned your cage has a screen top, so heat is lost throught this large screened area. On some older cages I had, I went to the hardware store and had them cut plexiglass which I put on top of the screen about 2/3 of the area and just used electrical tape to tape it into place on the screen. This helped keep the heat in the cage more constant. I see that you already had responses on the temps and food, so just follow what the others mentioned to you and you should be off to a good start. Best of luck with him.

Pam
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1.1 u. macfadyeni (Amani & Abeba)
1.2 u. ornata (Husani, Zari, & Bintu)
0.0.1 geochelone carbonaria (Rojo)
0.0.1 cyclura hybrid lewisi x caymanensis x nubila (No Name)
1.1 hyla chrysoscelis (Pudge & Squirt)
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