Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've read that beans (lentil) are good for uros. My uro only wants to eat them and not his greens. He won't get any water from beans so what should do? If he has no beans he won't eat.
HELP!
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The addiction can be dangerous

try green beans. they have water in them and my uros love them. good luck
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brandy

>>I've read that beans (lentil) are good for uros. My uro only wants to eat them and not his greens. He won't get any water from beans so what should do? If he has no beans he won't eat.
>>HELP!
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>> The addiction can be dangerous

I soak my lentils in cold water to rehydrate them. They fully hydrate in a couple of hours and they will sprout in a day or two.

Lentils by themselves don't seem to be a great staple food as the calcium to phosphorus ratio is not that great (lousy actually)

Here is the breakdown from the usda site:

Lentils (raw) nutrients per 100 grams
water 11.19g
protein 28.06g
fat .96g
carbs 57.09g
fiber 30.5g
calcium 51mg
phosphorus 454mg

which is about a .11:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio

Lentils (raw sprouted) nutrients per 100 grams

water 67.34g
protein 8.96g
fat .55g
carbs 22.14g
calcium 25mg
phosphorus 173mg

which is .15:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio

Sprouting brings up the water content a lot and slightly improves calcium to phosphorus ratio, but it is still lousy.

If lentils are the majority of a uros intake you would need to make sure they are well supplemented with calcium.

My uro will eat nothing but sprouted lentils if they are available so I take them out if he is eating nothing but them and he will go back to munching greens.

Other than the lousy Ca/P ratio they do seem to be great nutrition, so if your uro absolutely will not eat nothing else make sure you are using a calcium and vitamin supplement to fill in the gaps. Better for them to be eating something than nothing at all, but do keep trying to find some things to bring some variety to the diet.

Freshly ground raw bee pollen dusted on greens seems to do the trick for my uro. Of course some are just picky eaters.
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Mike Wilson
mwilson@fuu.net

Thank you so much for the information. What I am trying to do is I ground the lentals and then I ground the greens put a little water on it and mix it together. He did eat some today but he has a very small appitite. He is recovering from what I think starvation. He is slowly coming around. I will also try soaking the beans too. Any other suggestions are welcome
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The addiction can be dangerous

>>Thank you so much for the information. What I am trying to do is I ground the lentals and then I ground the greens put a little water on it and mix it together. He did eat some today but he has a very small appitite. He is recovering from what I think starvation. He is slowly coming around. I will also try soaking the beans too. Any other suggestions are welcome
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>> The addiction can be dangerous

Sounds like you are doing great. Getting a non-feeding uro eating again is tough work so getting him to eat anything is a win.

At this point you probably want to just fatten him up. Later when you are confident on his health and if he still isn't eating his greens you can try taking out the favorite food and leaving in some fresh greens for a day or two and see if he gets hungry enough to eat them.

Something I do is take any greens that I haven't fed before they go bad and dehydrate them in a 200 degree oven for a couple of hours and then powder them. I use this as a supplement on fresh greens so when he eats the fresh greens he is getting a double dose. I already have two large bags of dandelion powder (leaves and flowers) for use in the fall and spring when there are no dandelions around. I dust my mustard/kale/collards with this to add some variety.

One more thing I do when soaking my lentils is sometimes I mix some calcium in with the water I am soaking the lentils with. That way they get coated with a bit of calcium so when my uro is on a lentil kick I know he is getting calcium.
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Mike Wilson
mwilson@fuu.net

Oooh! Brilliant! I love the idea of using up the extra greens! I almost always have some extra stuff they can't finish. That'll be very helpful come winter with the poor selection of greenery.

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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)
0.0.1 Apple Snail
1.1 Felis Domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

Thanks for the advice. The calcium trick is a good one since he won't touch any food with it on. Yesterday he ate (I guess- his tummy was nice a round-for him)and today he hasn't touched the food. Do uros eat very little or do I have a picky eater?
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The addiction can be dangerous

>>Thanks for the advice. The calcium trick is a good one since he won't touch any food with it on. Yesterday he ate (I guess- his tummy was nice a round-for him)and today he hasn't touched the food. Do uros eat very little or do I have a picky eater?
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>> The addiction can be dangerous

It is hard to quantify what is a lot or little for Uros. I have heard them described as everything from pigs to picky eaters.

I weigh my Uro every week when I get him out for a soak so my rule of thumb is as long as he is gaining weight and pooping regularly then I know he is eating. The danger is if his gut empties out he will not produce any water and will get dehydrated.

All of the aspects of keeping a Uro (lighting, heating, UV, stress levels, plenty of hiding spots) and whether it was captive born or wild caught will affect how well they eat.

You may want to sit back and think of everything as a whole and see if there is anything else you can do to improve the environment and health of your Uro. Not saying you are doing anything wrong, on the contrary... it sounds like you are doing great to get where you are, but sometimes the smallest changes can make a difference.

All you can do is keep researching, trying different things and getting opinions from different people.
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Mike Wilson
mwilson@fuu.net