Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi!
My name is Sara, and I'm new here. I've recently adopted a Uro Acanthinurus. Her name is Solveig. It's about two months ago now. I don't know exactly how old she is, but she's starting to get a lot of colour, so I guess she's in her "teens". When I first got her, she was very shy and kept running away to hide whenever I got close to her. After a while I moved her to a corner of my room so she wouldn't feel so exposed. I also covered three of the sides of her cage and gave her a second spotlight. Then things started to get a lot better. She wasn't scared of me anymore and would even eat dandelion flowers (but only that) from my hand. She would't be disturbed at all when I put my hand in her cage and just keep on doing what she was doing, walking all over my hand.

About a week ago, something must have happened though.. She's acting really weird and she's gone all twitchy. Sometimes she shakes her head around and have complete fits. I give her calcium and she should have enough UVA and UVB, so I don't think it could be metabolic bone disease. She's shedding right now and I was wondering if that could have anyting to do with her acting so weird. Oh, yeah. There's another thing as well. Her face, that was becoming beautifully orange (more every day) has now started to become white. Above her nose and upwards to her right eye is a field of white spreading. It almost looks like blisters of some sort. Does anyone know what this is? If it's a disease of some sort, I guess that's what has causing the mood change. She's become really strange towards me aswell. At one time she even hissed at me when I approached her case.

I'm sorry this is such a long post, but I'm really worried about her and would be very grateful for any help. And I also got a chance to introduce my self. I guess I'll be needing more help in the future..
/ Sara

Sara,

Welcome to the Forum. Hopefully the behavior is due to her shedding. Uros can become quite antisocial when going through a shed. Does your little one have a rock in its cage to rub against? The twitching could (hopefully) be caused by her trying to remove loose skin. I am not sure why but my young Egyptian gets patches of bright white on his head after he sheds and warms up. You said it sort of looks like a blister, does it protrude at all or is it just coloration? Have you checked your temperatures? What sort of diet are you feeding your Uro?

Peter

Thanks Peter! Your reply calmed me down a bit. The white spot is actually not one "blister" but a lot of small ones, just sligtly bigger than the normal ones on her head. You know, how they look kind of blistery (in lack of a better vocabulary... She has a few rocks, one which was put there for shedding purposes because it has quite a sharp edge. The twiching is kind of worrying. It's almost like she was epileptic or something.
During the season, which seems to be coming to an end now, I've been giving her quite a lot of dandelion flowers- she won't touch the greens. She also eats a lot of endive sallad, carrot greens and frozen veggies. For her dry sallad I use birds seeds, red lentils and whole buckswheat. Occasionally, I try to giver her bits of fruit (apples mostly) but she doesn't seem to like it. Does this diet seem ok to you?

Oh, temperature.. I haven't acctually checked the temperature properly, but she has two spotlights directed at her baskingspot. The far end of the cage takes quite a while to warm up, so she should have enough possibility to heat control. Does this seem right or am I doing something wrong?

You didn't mention if you had thermometers in your uro's cage or not. They are essential to properly maintain temps. I have one in the cool end and one in the hot end.
If you do have thermometers, are you sure that they are reading properly?