Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,
Can I see some of you guys pics of eyptains uros? Also do these tame pretty easily and what are you guys sizes. I heard they grow around 3 feet. That sounds like what I want. Any little things I may want to know about em I owuld like to hear. thnx guys
tito

Hello-
This is my experience. I have 6 egyptians. They range from 22" to 12" .

I view these animals as individuals because mine are all different. Some are very tame, some are sort of tame, and others are completely spooked by my presence. Some really like flowers, some like wheatberry bread, one eats bok choy and will pick it out of a group of greens. One loves nasturtiums.....I could go on and on.
My experience is that you have to try stuff-Caging, shelters, food, handling, etc... to see the response per animal.

The biggest no-no that I have seen with MY animals is sharing their caging with another.....mine do not like cagemates!!!!! Fighting and biting do occur. Stress takes time to overcome for these animals so be cautious of sharing cages.*

Size: Seems that nobody has a 3 foot egyptian out there.
I think that would be a world record length for these guys.
It seems that 2 ft is the rule of thumb for length

*Note: some have said they have had no problem with cagemates....I have not had that pleasure.........

I posted a message to you in the monitor forum. From what I've heard most egyptians max out at around 2 feet (although reports of them in the wild at 30 inches have been made). However, this length belies their true size as they are not built like "normal" lizards (bearded dragons, monitors etc). A 2 foot egyptian is easily as large as a 3 foot monitor, iguana or water dragon because of their round bodies and short tails.

My adult Egyptian is incredibly tame but I have heard of a wide variety of personalities (as artgeckko pointed out). He is a little over 21 inches long and coming up on 4 pounds (he needs to go on a diet I think...) He'll sleep under the covers, sunbath outside, chase the cat etc. I could not be happier with him. Another plus about Uro's is that they are vegetarian.

my mom really likes the sound of them. Smaller then my gator which i have to sell since she is illegal in the state where Im moving. But she likes them over the beardies I showed her and stuff and that they dont eat "live" or "frozen" stuff. Whats the minimum size tank for one of these? Also I heard they grow as fast as rocks. Whats the growth rate? Also an internet caresheet and a book I could buy would be great. Thnx
Tito

I don't have an internet caresheet for Egyptians exactly, but if you go to deerfernfarms.com, there is a caresheet for uros made up by Doug Dix. I would agree that they grow pretty slow..not like bearded dragons that grow at a very fast rate. I would think that the care would be the same for an egyptian as a mali, or any other except for of course when they get older they will need huge enclosures. The caresheet should have all of the info about regular sized uros and their enclosures though...
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Julie Redmon
FSU!!!

You could keep a young Egyptian in a 40-60 gallon tank for about 2 years if you get a hatchling. Their growth rates seem to fluctuate a lot though, really it depends on their size. Once they get over about 15 inches you need to build them another enclosure or buy a 6 foot vision cage. Boulder is in a custom glass tank I built that is 5' by 3' so 15 square feet of floor space. Other people keep them in 6' by 2' cages (12 square feet).

Yes, they are very slow growers. They will usually be a decent size by 3 years old and then grow at a slower pace up until 8 years old(!). I have a little Egyptian that was probably 1 month old when I bought him in November of 2002 and he has grown from 9 grams to 30 grams in 7 months and he is completely healthy and eats a bunch every day (he's pictured at the bottom). As a comparison, Boulder, my adult is 1700 grams so the little one (Nebu) has a lot of catching up to do in the next few years. Uro's in general grow very slowly and Egyptians are probably the slowest growers of them all.

As lytnin pointed out, there is a good general care sheet at deer fern farms:

Deer Fern Farms Caresheet

Good luck.

Peter