Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so today I was home and I saw half a bag of playsand left over from when I did sydney's cage, so I decided to try it in Sam (my mali uro)'s tank. First of all, I had a hard enough time getting the sand in there, since I had just let sam run around the room for a while, whilst I cautiously went about my business, and I look down to see her taking a crap, underneath the tank's stand, which is probably one of the hardest places to clean in my room. So I did the normal thing. Got a rubbermaid bin and put some newspapers in it and put her in there and cleaned up the poo. As soon as I was done with the setup, complete with sand, I put sam in and what does she do? I mean, a few good licks are normal, just to test the environment, but she actually tried to start eating it! I caught her just as she was about to dive, mouth open, into a pile of sand. So now she's got newspapers as floor covering again (I had papertowels, but she tried to eat some of them too!). Are there any good substrate choices for this strange lizard? I've heard millet can be good, as it is edible, but I constantly see pics of uros on millet, with parts of their mouths missing because they tried to burrow into the millet too hard. Is this something I should be concerned about?

It seems what substrate to use is a tough decision. I definately am going to have to do some experimenting with dirt before I put a ton in the tank, to see if she's going to try to eat that or not, and I think I might leave the vermiculite out of the formula when I try it, because I don't want her ingesting that. So right now it's a battle between paper products, millet, or shelf liner (the bearded dragon people over on their forum are just crazy about the stuff...apparently really easy to maintain and safe, since beardies impact relatively easy, I hear). i don't think I'm going to go with shelf liner, since it's not absorbent and uros tend to realease more liquid with their stool. I guess right now I'll stick with newspaper until I can look into the other substrates more (please robyn, don't hurt me )

I am also thinking about doing something different for my bearded dragon, since I'm not a big fan of sand in general (too dusty and not really very natural either). I'm almost considering just going to newspapers or shelf liner for him and sam, since they seem much easier to maintain. Does anyone here use either for either of the lizards? I think while I'm on break from school I'll try to go to home depot and pick up some topsoil and other possible substrate choices (millet), and just see what works best. Sound good?

My uromastyx doesn't eat his luckily but that is exactly why I am afraid to put sand in my beardeds enclosure.Although I doubt he would eat it seeing as how he won't even take pellets.

I personally alternate between millet and the washed playsand myself. altho mine haven't tried to eat the sand. How old is your mali?? Maybe its too young to be on anything other than paper right now??? If its an adult, then the millet might be the answer.

I honestly cant say i have ever seen any pics of uros damaged from millet. Its not hard at all actually. Its fairly soft...so much that their feet sometimes sink into it while walking. So don't get how that can damage them????? Maybe I'm missing something..

Anyhow, I have used millet for years and it works great. Also easier to dispose of. Once your ready to clean a tank, you do one last good cleaning out of the waste, and throw it out for the birdies.
good luck!
Renee

Sounds good. My brother said on thursday we might be able to go out to home depot (and guitar center! Oh yeah!), so I'll check out the millet.

The uro is one I adopted, estimated to be around 6 years old. I adopted it (possibly "her" the day before christmas eve, since I'd heard about her situation from my dad about a week before and was trying to get a hold of the guy that owned her. Basically, he'd gotten her 2 years ago from a friend, and had her in a 29 gallon aquarium with a heat lamp taped (that's right, taped) to the inside of the tank. I'm not sure how long ago, but we (me and my parents) believe the heat lamp fell on her, so she has two large white patches of scar from 3rd degree burns. When I went over to check her out and basically take her home, she was in a ten gallon tank, with just a heat rock, feces, some various other things I dared not try to comprehend, a water bowl, and old iceburg lettuce, and she had ballooned out A LOT by then from lack of movement, so of course I took her, and I also took the spare heat lamp and aquarium setup and began my mission to get her back to health. She is a trooper and is definately lucky to have survived it all, but she's happy now.

Anyways, I just thought I should point that out, because from that experience she is a very oppurtunistic feeder, and is used to food being on the floor of her tank, so I was wondering if she might try to gorge herself on seeds if I put millet in? I can't remember where, but I thought I saw somewhere some pictures of uros who's mouths were partially broken due to pushing into seed substrate. Maybe it was just the wrong kind of seed I guess. I'll definately try millet.

thanks

hi ryan, i have my uro on finch food. basically mainly millet also. just wanted to let you know that if you pick up something on this order, be sure to remove any/all sunflower seeds, as they can be ingested and cause lacerations and other digestive problems. i get a ten pound bag of wild finch food mix at my local petstore. not much sifting to be done as there is not too many sunflower seeds. easy to clean also, just use a pooper-scooper. i completely empty the tank about every 6 weeks and replace with a fresh bag. i think it looks great and ZION seems to be very happy with it! good luck!

laura
hazlet, n.j.

1.0.0 mali (ZION)
0.0.1 fire-bellied toad (KILLER)
0.0.6 tetras
0.0.2 red-eared sliders (DOROTHY&TOTO)
0.1.1 parakeets (ARIEL&JASMINE)

You might have seen the pictures of my Joe's damaged face with millet seed stuck to it. The damage was actually done from bashing into the walls, rather than the millet itself. The millet kind of sticks in the holes, though, and wasn't helping in the healing process!

I like the millet so far, but once I get the new tank built (for Turtle and Tank) I might try a soil mix.

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Torey
Salem, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
1.1 Uromastyx Maliensis (Tank and Turtle)
1.1 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser and Leeloo)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.0 Sunset Dwarf Gourami (Sideshow)
0.0.1 False Spotted Corydoras (Spot)
0.0.2 Metae Corydoras (Frank and Jesse)
0.0.2 Dwarf Sucking Oto (Tootsie and Dum-Dum)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

np

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Torey
Salem, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
1.1 Uromastyx Maliensis (Tank and Turtle)
1.1 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser and Leeloo)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.0 Sunset Dwarf Gourami (Sideshow)
0.0.1 False Spotted Corydoras (Spot)
0.0.2 Metae Corydoras (Frank and Jesse)
0.0.2 Dwarf Sucking Oto (Tootsie and Dum-Dum)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

Sand is not a good thing. I have it in my bearded's tank, and is nothing but a breeding ground for bacteria and odor. Not to mention it is dusty. I think that I'm going to go to shelf liner, but millet or finch for my new uro.

Hello. I have beardeds and uros. I have kept my beardeds on playsand for about 3 years as juvies/adults and on newspaper when they were babies. I have had no problems with playsand at all. (I agree it is dusty, especially when my male is kicking up sand during breeding season, but I haven't had much trouble with the dust).
I have 3 Egyptian uros. My 18'' male (he's very tame... although it took me awhile) is on millet seed/playsand. He is doing very well and likes to eat the seeds off the ground. He's pretty accurate and can get the seed without the sand every time! My other 2 egyptians are cbb and are about 9'' long and are on newspapers. It's easy clean up for me and they love to burrow between the layers (I use about 2-3). I plan on switching them to millet seed once they get big enough. By the way, what would be a good size to switch them to millet seed?
Thanks,
Tristan

For hatchlings/juveniles under 6 inches total length I recommend bare tank bottoms or butcher's paper. Hatchlings are much more sensitive to ingesting dry, hard material so it's best to avoid the problem.

My juvies are at about 9'' in length. I know for a fact that adult uros will eat the millet seed, but will juvies? I am planning on switching from newspaper to millet very soon. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Tristan

I have two uros about that size - sub adult more than juvie, though I don't know ages. They are on millet and do munch it some, though they eat their regular food just fine. No problems with ingesting it so far (knock wood).
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Torey
Salem, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx Geyri (Joe and Arthur)
1.1 Uromastyx Maliensis (Tank and Turtle)
1.1 Anolis Carolinensis (Bowser and Leeloo)
1.1 African Dwarf Frogs (Bruce and Sheila)
1.0 Betta Splendens (Mr. Miagi)
1.0 Sunset Dwarf Gourami (Sideshow)
0.0.1 False Spotted Corydoras (Spot)
0.0.2 Metae Corydoras (Frank and Jesse)
0.0.2 Dwarf Sucking Oto (Tootsie and Dum-Dum)
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)