Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recieved a new uromastyx Friday as a gift since I had wanted one for the longest time. I have the set up perfect for her with climbing areas and hides and 125 degrees basking temp and then 90 for the cooler side. She is about 11in long already but not sure of age yet. She has a strip uvb bulb with a heavy duty basking lamp. I have her on washed, sifted play sand as the substrate. I was just wondering besides mustard greens and collard greens what can I give her? She's barly touching the food now so I am getting her some boc choy, and dandielion greens with birdseed tonight to see if that helps but how long can she go with barly any food.

The staple greens for a Uro are dandelion greens and endive/escarole, with a little bit of bok choy every couple of days. I don't ever feed collard greens, mustard greens, kale, spinach, broccoli, or turnip greens. These can either bind calcium leading to MBD, or they are goitrogenic, meaning they can interfere with thyroid function.

Stick with the staple greens listed above, and rotate through other things every few days for variety like squash, zucchini, peas, soaked lentils, bee pollen (just a tiny pinch not more than once a week), edible flowers (100% pesticide free), finch seed (keep frozen to kill mites, no sunflower seeds), green beans, or lima beans.

Also, if you can, try to reduce the temp of the cool side to the low to mid 80s so she has a place to cool down more if needed. If the temps are too high, she can get dehydrated.

I can easily lower her cool side temps and have started to do so. Going to get all the items listed for her also for food. Thanx for the info

Is she a yellow-phase or a red-phase Saharan? I'd love to see a photo if you can post one. I have an adult male yellow-phase Saharan and two babies, one yellow (female) and one red (unknown).

Forgot to mention, bee pollen has been known to help stimulate appetite, and it's a good source of vitamins for them. You can buy it in the refrigerated section at just about any health food store, and a little bit goes a long way. I just add a tiny pinch to their food once ever week or two. I know it's the wrong time of year, but if you can get your hands on some edible flowers, that usually gets them going also. Maybe a high-end grocery store?

Good luck,
Andi

Good advice Andi, I would like to add that even though kale, turnip and collards are goitrogins, they do have some good nutritional aspects. A good diet is a varied diet, as long as these things are offered in moderation they will not harm the health of your animal. I also like to throw in a little bit of parsley every now and again and I usually add some raddiccio to the mix to add a bit of color. Another green that I actually mix in with my staples is romaine, it is a great source of hydration and does have some nutritional value. I would also advise that if you feed your animal any kind of bean/seed mix, you must make sure the animal is not dehydrated and in good health.
Just my thoughts.

-Nathanael

I went out and got some bird seed and mixed that with some dandilon greens and she became an instant pig lol. She is a red phase with some good coloration once warmed up enough lol. I am keeping some bird seed in the cage and then fresh greens every morning. This is right after I brought her home and didn't have the cage set up right. She was a surprise to me lol so I had to get the playsand that night.