Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Muffin, my big Mali boy, hates good food.He loves insects, all of them.I needed to starve him for a couple of days to convince him to eat greens and veggies.He ate them but he hated them!Since i forced him to eat veggies and greens he didnt stop losing weight!He was 310grs and his weight fall to 240grs!I became hysterical and in the last few days i gave him superworms to eat too!He ate them very happy because at last i was giving him something " edible" to eat and started to gain weight again.Today he is 300grs!

What should i do? I do think he will die of starvation if i continue giving him ONLY greens and veggies!

Hi,
Any kind of live food is supposed to be a treat, meaning once a week like 2 crickets. This isn't enough to live off of, so I'm assuming, the uros will eat the greens. Try giving him some fruit, like apple, or prickly pear cactus, mixed with greens to get him eating those again. It might work, since fruit is also a "treat" although can be given more often than live foods. I heard that bee pollen is a nice treat for them and gets stubborn uros to eat their greens if sprinkled on it. There seems to be a problem with uros liking the bugs too much, I'm glad I don't give mine any
Oh, by the way, for anyone who reads this, would a uro starve itself? That just seems counter-evolutionary to me. But I see a lot of posts (with torts too) that the person is afraid that their uro will starve since they only like fruit, or bugs, or mixed veggies, etc....but not greens. Mine have always preferred their greens (in most cases), but would a uro that loves crix, and is only fed greens, starve? I just wondered if anyone knew, since greens are their natural food source, it's not like there isn't any food around for them to eat.
-----
~Sarah
1.1 Mali Uromastyx (Draco and Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Tortoise (Pookie)
8.11.22 Millipedes (9 different species)

I am sorry but animals do not sarve themselves. Humans are the only mammal that intentionally starves themselves. Like fasting is a type of starvation for religion and then you have anorexic people and so forth. Animals are probably much smarter than people in this way they have the intent only to survive. If you give them no food, they will starve, but if you give them food their instincts will telll them to eat. Too many bugs is a bad thing for vegitarian lizards. My baby mali that i rescued was in horrible condition when i got him with a diet conisting of ONLY bugs. Once i gave him some greens he flew over and readily ate them. Uros by instinct know what is good and bad for them. I really would suggest you give him only greens with a side of insects per week, meaning maximum of 3 insects per week. His weight will even itself out. Bugs are high in fat depending on what you give them, he is probably gaining fat and not real healthy weight. This is kind of like the leopard geckos with Wax worms, people go in that fourm complaining about how they ONLY eat waxies since they like them the most and the people keep feeding them that. Everyone there always says the same thing, take them off of the wax worms and just feed another insect.

I have taken my lizards both uros and leos for up to 2 days if they are being 'picky', once they see food again they go nuts and wont go off feed for a while after that.

I might be a bit wrong on the starvation thing if there is an animal that does starve themselves. Let me know if there is i always want to learn!

This is just my 2 cents for what it is worth, good luck!
-----
Lauren
Leos and Uros
1.1 Saharan Uromastyx
0.0.1 Mali Uromastyx
1.1 Jungle Albino Leopard Gecko
1.1 Hypo/Baldy Leopard Gecko
1.1 Tremper Albino Leopard Gecko

Yes, some iguanas for whatever reason stop eating.Starvation is a nightmare for iguanas' owners.For instance if they dont like the food or if they dont see the food because the bowl is too high or too low they dont eat too.If they feel sad, depressed, anxious,cold, hot,etc...they can stop eating.Iguanas are VERY sensitive!Then they become weak and prone to catch a serious disease.As an iguana owner im very afraid of "no-eating babies!"
You said uros dont starve to death, but mine lost 70grs only because he didnt like his food!

You've got to keep trying for your uro's sake. My uros favourite treat is juvi iguana pellets. He loves them more than any bug! I can actually call him over to me by shaking the container and then showing it to him. I try to minimize how much he gets because he won't get enough nutrition from pellets alone. Yes, he'll snub his greens sometimes but you just have to be consistant. Don't worry about the weight loss so much because I'm pretty sure it is just fat, not muscle mass. Uros are a lot like children in that they depend on the parent (or in a uro's case, owner) to provide them with proper nutrition and not just with the foods that they love. Kids would eat junk food all day if you let them, so do uros
You say your uro hates his greens, but that may be because he's still not used to them since he's been fed a multitude of other things. Keep feeding the greens at all costs! He won't starve, he'll probably just nibble on one piece to keep him going (mine does that) when you're not looking. You could try different types of greens to see which ones he might like better.

Sorry this ran so long but I want you to know that this situation has happened to some of us too.

Good luck with your uros
-----
1 Mali Uromastyx named Ra

Soemtimes they get bored with the same old greens over and over, i mix it up alot for them like some weeks bok choy and dandelion. Other weeks soem collards and dandelions, some weeks kale and fruit etc etc. they are always interested in their food with this program and i give a super to them maybe once a week if that, and the baby always eats whatever i give him, i give him a waxie once a week or every two weeks to encourage growth. They also love the rep cal juvi iguana pellets but you have to watch that also since they dont get any moisture. Iguanas and uros are two totally different animals, the onyl thing in common is that they eat greens.
Good luck and please listen to this fourm we have all been there done that with some help here of course!
Every lizard goes off feed sometimes i think, my leos do it and a little variety they pick it right back up.
plus 200-300 grams i wouldnt be too worried about them starving, a few days really shoudlnt have your uro fluctuating 70 grams either, thats doesnt sound great...
have fun!

-----
Lauren
Leos and Uros
1.1 Saharan Uromastyx
0.0.1 Mali Uromastyx
1.1 Jungle Albino Leopard Gecko
1.1 Hypo/Baldy Leopard Gecko
1.1 Tremper Albino Leopard Gecko

Have you tried soaking them in water for a few minutes prior to giving them to your uro? I find it's a great way for picky uros to get their moisture up. Ra isn't too picky about the pellets being wet or dry but I think he likes the crunching noise the dry ones make
-----
1 Mali Uromastyx named Ra

>>Oh, by the way, for anyone who reads this, would a uro starve itself? That just seems counter-evolutionary to me.

Of course, I'm just going off of my own sense of logic and my own experience here, but I think it's possible. Not out of some deliberate desire to starve themselves would they do it, but if a uro stops eating for some reason (stress, change in enviroment, illness, whatever), he'll end up not feeling well, which in turn will make him not want to eat which makes him feel worse and so on. It can lead to a miserable spiral that can end in illness and death.

When I first got Joe, he would not eat. For weeks he got thinner and thinner, and I offered everything I could think of. I finally found out I needed to move him into a larger enclosure, but he was already well down the spiral. I ended up having to have the vet give him fluid and vitamin injections, plus I force fed him small amounts for several days. This kicked him out of his spiral and now he's eating on his own, though he has a long way to go before he's back to his original weight.

I believe that left to his own devices, he would have starved himself to death - not because he meant to, but because he didn't connect how terrible he felt with not eating. He was stressed by being in too small of an enclosure, and was focused on that.

So I guess yes and no. They do, but not on purpose. And probaby not ever in the wild - but that's a whole different story, I suppose!

Just my two cents.
-----
Torey
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
0.1 Anolis Carolinensis (Leeloo)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

Your uro will not die of starvation of the food is right in front of him. It's the same as with a small child. Sure, they want [bleep]ty foods like pizza to eat, but it's your responsibility to not let them get accustomed to a diet like that. So you have a choice, you can let him lose some weight, but get used to eating the greens (you should offer him some peas with the greens if you are worried about weight loss) or you can fatten him up with insects until he dies of congestive heart failure. I don't think there's much choice there?
-----
1.3 Uromastyx Maliensis (Ricky, Quinn, Anna, Drusilla)
0.2 Varanus Timorensis (Zealot, Willow)
1.1 Varanus Acanthurus (Eddie, Roxie)
0.0.1 Uromastyx Aegypticus (Kronk)
0.0.2 Ceratophrys Ornata (Mojo, Jabba)
0.1 Geochelone Carbonaria (Turtle)
1.0 Rhacodactylus Ciliatus (Smeagol)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh

Thanks again to all of you that answered my message!Ill continue trying to convince my stubborn child to eat what is good for him!

I dont know anything about that!But now im worried!Can you tell me?Thanks!

I was talking to Doug Dix at the Daytona show, because I have a male Mali that is a bit chubby. We discussed what constitutes "too fat" for a Uro (you want to make sure that their legs don't get fat, that they can still carry themselves around easily). "Congestive heart failure" is something that people have too, like a heart attack? Usually clogged arteries and such? Doug said that congestive heart failure can often occur with obese Uros.
-----
1.3 Uromastyx Maliensis (Ricky, Quinn, Anna, Drusilla)
0.2 Varanus Timorensis (Zealot, Willow)
1.1 Varanus Acanthurus (Eddie, Roxie)
0.0.1 Uromastyx Aegypticus (Kronk)
0.0.2 Ceratophrys Ornata (Mojo, Jabba)
0.1 Geochelone Carbonaria (Turtle)
1.0 Rhacodactylus Ciliatus (Smeagol)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh