Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am having an issue with what everybody is saying to feed my mali. She is from the desert. That means she wouldn't normally eat dandelion greens, carrots, parsnips, or squash. How do we know that they are herbivores? Mine wants to try and eat meat all the time and just vegetables when she needs water. I would think they would be mostly meat eaters since there aren't a lot of vegatables in the desert.

Please help me understand this. I want to do what is best for her.

just like a tortoise, uros do need protein. the occasional cricket or mealworm or whatever is not going to hurt them and will give them a bit of a protein boost. however their digestive systems were not built to handle the sort of protein that you or i or a carnivorous lizard such as a monitor would, they don't have the metabolism. meat also doesn't provide them with a lot of the nutrients they need, which is why we supplement monitor food with vitamins and such. i know, we supplement uro food the same way, but look at it this way: just because your black labrador prefers to eat canned food or treats that doesn't mean you give up the much healthier dry food and let him just get huge on the fatty treats and canned food. sure, a uro could probably survive (for a while) on nothing but meat and/or bugs, but the lack of a more balanced diet would cause them to grow obese.
my uros get a fresh salad every day that includes turnip greens, mustard greens, slivers of carrot, zucchini, squash, and sweet potato, and peas, all dusted with miner-all and/or calcium d3. the days that i feed my monitors crickets (1 or 2 times a week) they each get 1 or 2 of the extra crickets, if they like them.
i'm no scientist or biologist or zoologist, i haven't spent year studying these guys, but others have, and i think i would take their advice.
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1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
1.1 Yellow Ackies (Eddie, Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh