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I'm assuming cause a uromastyx is a reptile she is going to shed her skin. I noticed the skin around her head,especially on her nostrils are white, maybe even beginning to peel. is this normal and is there anything i can do to help her?

My girl is an adult and I feed her every day in the morning dandalions and collard greens, i also put a little mixed vegetables in it. I also have a small dish of dried beans that i soaked and left in there. She obviously doesnt eat all this. How much should I feed her and how many times a day/week. The pet stores tend to give me different info ranging from twice a day to 3 times a week. Thanks again!

You should have a little bit available everyday. They never tend to eat it all somedays more then others. SOme others say feed ever other day.

The white stuff around the nose could just be salt. They excrete their salts from their noses. If it's shed, don't peel off get a q-tip wet and see if you can assist a bit but other then that they usually will get it off themselves and they tend to take a while to shed.

Few of my Uros have ever cared much for thawed mixed vegetables though if it works for you, all to the good. I'd recommend go less on the collards & heavier on bok choy & endive, along with turnips & mustards. Dandelions whenever you can ( leaves too! )along with nasturtiums & mallows. Bean & alfalfa sprouts are good. A constant source of "dry goods" should be available. Parakeet food, barley, groats, cracked beans, bulghar, etc. Many of them love clover. The list is long & that's the key, I believe, LOT'S of variety. Generally speaking, they don't eat much food at any one sitting but tend to graze at a slow leisure.
D.

See i disagree there should be more collard then bok choy! Bok choy is on the list of every couple of days, as collard is on the everyday list, along with mustard, dandelion, and many more.

OK, you nutritional experts, give us guidance. I've always thought collards are a bit high on the oxicalate list.

The problem with collard greens is they are high in mustard oils which bind iodine among other things. If fed in high amounts, they tend to disrupt the function of the thyroid gland and you get metabolic problems. All plants in the mustard family can do this - including Bok Choy, but Bok Choy seems to be less prone to causing problems. Ideally, keep mustard plants to less than 25% of diet, even less so for Ornates (10%). Ornates are overly sensitive to a heavy collard diet in particular for some reason.

As far as variety, the big advantage to variety is that the Uros tend to not go off feed if you always offer a good variety. No matter how well they like a certain food, if this all they see they eventually stop eating. If you feed a variety, even if they seem to not eat many of the other foods, they tend to be overall better eaters. Also, if you just feed one item, in the log run they'll end up with a health issue. I can't think of a single food that is "perfect" all by itself. Even Uros that do feed heavily on one or two species of plant in the wild, still add other foods to the diet - even if in small amount. Those small amounts may well be critical to their health - we don't know. So far I've not been able to find nutritional data for many of the food plants Uros eat in the wild, so it's hard to know what nutrients they are getting from each plant.

All in all, it is MUCH safer to feed a good variety. There is no down side to offering variety.

Doug

Deer Fern Farms

Not positive on that for sure.

Uros, can live their whole life in the wild and never eat anything off of a different plant ever! Therefore, the whole variety issue, is all peoples experience with what foods have lead healthier and longer lives for uros. All supplemintatin and so on, is all because it's been researched by many breeders. That is how any will really find out anything. FROM EXPERIENCE!

” Uros, can live their whole life in the wild and never eat anything off of a different plant ever!”

Where do you pull this stuff from?? And an exclamation mark to boot?

I have done quite a bit of research on uromastyx diet including work with people from various countries who have studied these animals in their natural habitat so I am extremely interested on this one. (I have one study that lists over 39 different plant items for one species alone.) I would like to know which species of uromastyx you are referring to above, what specific solitary plant the animal is eating from, and what study followed the animal its entire life. Heck, just give me any long-term study that verified any species that eats solely from one individual plant source. I do not have data on every species so this new data is greatly anticipated.

While you are at it, please also let me know the reliable resource on your statement (recent post-different thread) that most female uromastyx will produce eggs without being in the presence of a male. I have not read this in any of the credible literature I have come across nor has this been my experience or the experience of many other keepers that I know. Granted, some female uromastyx may produce eggs outside the presence of a male (yes, even unhealthy ones kept in poor conditions), but that is not the point I am addressing here.

I would also like to know how you arrived at the conclusion that stick on thermometers are about 20 degrees off digital thermometers (recent post different thread) rather than 10 degrees or 15 degrees. Did you conduct experiments on this yourself or find this data in a reliable study? If so, please share your findings as I would love to be passing this information on to others when advising against stick on thermometers. (Please do not link me to a biased thermometer site with a sales agenda). While I agree that stick on thermometers are often not as reliable as digital, I would hesitate to throw out numbers into thin air unless I had the resources to back it. If I had the resources/data to back it, then I would add that information to my post. I would certainly not want it to appear that I do a lot of wild guessing in my posts or that I am intentionally twisting guesses to look like factual statements.

Haha have you ever watched Jeff corwin? He said on one of his shows and so did steve irwin! When they also to caught LIVE real UROS on TV. Haha. I don't need to "explain" anything to anyone. This is a forum, for people to come and talk and share their information, not push crap on people and say all sorts of nonsense. You may think that they can't live off one plant becuase your friend said so...blah blah blah, i personally would trust steve irwin and jeff corwin verse your friend who probably has no degree in anything.

You think you are all god on uros deb, everyone has their info, and their own experiences, and you could as well be lieing about everythig YOU claim you know. I could also be a hairy fat dude and not a cute girl!

GOOD DAY!!

Stick on thermometers, haha this a on going study mby many many of people and their own experiences. If you use stick on thermometers, you are a newbi and should not even be concered about anything else.

Maybe you need to look on google and google some info before you decide to go mouthing off to people about something you clearly have NO information or Knowledge about whatsoever! Why don't you just leave this forum and not respond if you have clearing nothing to say about this THREAD or any other thread in that matter!

“Stick on thermometers, haha this a on going study mby many many of people and their own experiences. If you use stick on thermometers, you are a newbi and should not even be concered about anything else.”

Did you read my post Leolady or are you once again just spewing? How you came to the conclusion that I use stick-on thermometers or feel they are accurate is beyond me. But then again, so are most of your posts. The point, which flew right over your head, was the way you twist and mangle something and/or throw crap out as fact to others.

” Haha have you ever watched Jeff corwin? He said on one of his shows and so did steve irwin!”

Well, at least you show consistency. Your relaying of information you hear seems to follow along with your ability to interpret posts. Did you have the volume up when you were watching Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin or did you just look at the cute little animals?

To answer your question, yes, I have seen at least one episode where Jeff Corwin caught and discussed uromastyx. The one I remember most clearly dealt with an Acanthinura nigriventris. I remember another program that dealt with a hardwickii but I cannot swear this was Corwin so I cannot verify that I have seen two episodes with Jeff Corwin and uromastyx. Regardless of how many shows I have seen, I do not remember Jeff Corwin ever mentioning that uromastyx live off of one plant for its entire life. I did not see Steve Irwin discussing uromastyx (nor will I exaggerate or lie to pretend I have) but like most people out here- I find it hard to believe that the man would have made a statement that uromastyx live off one plant source its entire life.

So I take it that you once again cannot substantiate one of your claims by providing the species or plant or any credible data for your odd statement? Didn’t we just go through this same thing a month or two ago which resulted in you suddenly disappeared for a few weeks only to resurface and restart the same nonsense?

” This is a forum, for people to come and talk and share their information, not push crap on people and say all sorts of nonsense.”

I could not agree more with this statement. Share information and not push crap and nonsense- this is what I am all about.

"You may think that they can't live off one plant becuase your friend said so...blah blah blah, i personally would trust steve irwin and jeff corwin verse your friend who probably has no degree in anything."

I referred to more than one person in my last post and all have degrees and some a PhD. I did not refer to these people as ‘friends’, these are people that I correspond with. One gentleman that I have had the privilege to communicate back and forth with regarding diet has spent a number of years studying these animals in their natural habitat, has published books on reptiles, has written over two dozen papers on reptiles (several on uromastyx), and has held positions on the International Herpetological Committee and the World Congress of Herpetology. You stick with Jeff Corwin who comes across a uromastyx once every few years for ratings and I will stick with my sources that focus on these animals on an ongoing basis for research purposes. Then again, Jeff Corwin never made the statement that you are claiming he did so this is all irrelevant.

"I could also be a hairy fat dude and not a cute girl!"

I never gave a thought to what you are as I could care less. What I do care about is your continuous posts filled with nonsense and crap.

Why don't you just leave this forum and not respond if you have clearing nothing to say about this THREAD or any other thread in that matter!

I did have something to say in this thread and hopefully this poster and every other poster will recognize my point, which is that they should put little weight on your exaggerations, misinterpretations, and outright lies. Although this is not news to most people on this forum, it will hopefully serve as a ‘reader beware’ type of post that sheds a little light on how sound your current and past uromastyx advice has been.

Look i don't need to justify anything to anyone about anything. This is the damn internet, and i am glad you love to ramble but i have better things to due then sit here forever and read your whole post and then respond because it's all nonsense and anything you ever say is nonsense and never has any justification to the thread what so ever. Just leave here noone needs your crap. I personally will not respond or even look at anything you post as it has no real clarification or anything at all.