Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've noticed that my mali uro tends towards a fairly inactive lifestyle. She wakes up in the morning, eats, basks for maybe an hour, then goes and hides in her little burrow until the next morning. The temps are about 140 at the hotspot on the basking spot, and then the basking spot offers a temp range from there down to 90 degrees and takes up most of the warm side (it's sort of a modified retes stack). The cool side is usually between 70 and 80 degrees. I was wondering if maybe there's something wrong with the temperatures that are causing her to not come out for longer. It's starting to affect her metabolism, in that she balloons up big for up to 5 days before going to the bathroom sometimes. She is in otherwise great health. She has a clean fecal and when she is out, she eats like a pig and loves to run around. Just wondering if there are any specific reasons causing this dormancy, or if it's just a normal thing? I'm actually not usually home when she basks, so when I do get home, if I need to check on her, I have to take apart the thing she burrows underneath. Usually when I take her out she loves to run around and explore, but I don't like having to take her from her hiding space to do it. It seems like it's taking the security out of it. Any suggestions.

Also, Jobi, in your uro setup, do the uros actually construct burrows in the dirt, or do they burrow under things, or just sleep in hide spots above the surface? Do you handle your uromastyx (and if so, how often and for how long...and by handle I mean just let them come out to run around or something), or just let them do their own thing?

I dont think saharans dig much, at least not as mali's do, mine prefer to borrow under things. I almost never handle my reptiles, I only do it if I need to and when I do, I have a golden rule that I obey (if it dosent feed after handling its stressed) however aim not sure if this rule can be applied to my uromastyx, iv made an observation that seems to hold true, time will tell. when stressed birds eat! iv noticed a similar pattern in uromastyx, if true this can explain why many fail to acclimate, imagine owning a benti handling it and hand feeding him without realising that stress is slowly killing him.
sounds funny but its possibly the case.
Rgds

I've been trying to notice a pattern with my uromastyx, but I just can't see one. I have been handling her frequently (every couple of days), mainly because she is in a small cage right now (only about 48"x13"x14"...much too narrow), and I feel like she won't get enough exercise in the cage. But then again, I've noticed that with handling her, she isn't losing any weight either. I think for the rest of this week and probably next week I'm going to try to go completely without handling her and just make observations. that would probably be the best route to take I would think. If she actually starts thinning (and not plumping up), and she starts having more regular bowel movements, I'll keep doing so, only to take her out for cage cleaning and to do a good check on her. I keep forgetting that uros aren't bearded dragons I guess. Bearded dragons are much more outgoing, and they actually seem to enjoy coming out of the cage and having some extra running room.

I'll have to see how it goes. I think I'll be getting some money next week and I would like to get started on new cages...at least for the uro to start. I will probably use wood as my main construction material (unless I decide to buy new cages instead), so I am wondering how I could sort of dirt proof it so that the dirt doesn't rot through. The only ideas I've come up with so far are to glue linoleum on the bottom and lower sides and silicone the corners.

I sort of hope that too much handling is what's causing her to be so strange lately, but I will also miss seeing her waddle across the floor. I'll do whatever's best for her though.

thanks for the help.

I would look into melamine, specifically panolam if you have a retailer near you. I recently made an enclosure 78"x26"x34". I only needed two 4'x8' sheets of panolam(less than $70). One was black and one was mahogony(sp?). It's incredibly sturdy and holds heat well.
MM