Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
Just wanted to give an update on my new friend and get your opinion about her mood.
She was doing a bit better for a while untill I had to change the sand... cause she threw and burried her food all over the tank for three days! I tried my best to sieve it all out but it smelled way to bad for either of our likings I think. Anyways I found out after pouring the new sand in the tank that it was very moist and had to dry it out side. I only had this little fish tank to put her in so she got over heated after a litte while, if not just clausterphobic! So I put her in the bathroom with the heat lamp set up where she was ok but I think got a little cold from hiding under things, all the moving around got her very scared.
Snice then she's been very docile and staies in her burrow all the time, not coming out to warm up. I'm thinking that mabey she is trying to burmate because she burries her head all the time and she got pretty cold the first day coming over to my house and now again got cold. It's been five days since I changed the sand. I was concerned three days ago and brought her out. She kind of trusts me cause now I cause I go to her very slowly pet her for a while befor doing anything or ofering her a limabean(the only thing she'll eat) I picked her up and put her under the heat lamp untill she got warmed up and then fed her some lima beans and a few pieces of greens that I tricked her into eating by wraping them around the limabean. I did this the next day also cause I thought she needed to eat. I didn't today in hopes she would come out herself. I'm kind of scared mabey she's severely dehydrated! She dosen't go to the "bathroom" very often, once that I've noticed in these last five days(mabey some got burried but it doesn't smell) and don't see any other signs of any virus or anything else that could be wrong. Five days of her sitting in her burrow with her head under the sand plus almost two weeks of hardly eating only limabeans sounds like a problem to me but I'm new to this so I need advice. I'm thinking the best thing to do is keep bringing her out and feeding her by hand as it actually seems to work and then just leave her alone for the most part of the day untill I can get a good look at her stool and see if it looks ok but If you guys think it sounds bad mabey I should bring her to a vet to get checked out?
Thanks.
Josh

I just read the post tiles and wanted to clairify some things.
I should have read through the posts first but it's late(or early depending on how you look at it) so I thought I'd be tired. I agree with what was said about leaving them be when they don't want to come out and I have been for the most part. The temps in her tank are propper acording to standards but I don't have a digital thermometer. I've used a normal thermometer as aposed to the stickers as the "cool" end(remember I'm Canadian ) doesn't have any and I had to find something else. I guess I'm just saying to me this is kind of an emergency and what I'm asking is if it's not. I just didn't want to not get any responces as a result of not reading a recent post.
Whew, sorry if this is a little neurotic I'm just stuck in a rut of insomnia, my uro who I accepted so she wouldn't get neglected care seems to be worse off and it's also my birthday today for those who would like to know me a little better!
Anyways, Thanks again in advance .
Josh

Happy Birthday Josh.

Ares, my mali, is like that also. Staying in his cave, hardly ever coming out to bask so I worry about him also. I'm not downstairs in my brothers room the whole day but there are a couple piles of fresh poo daily (since there are 2 mali's in there, just in case someone thought mine has diahareea or something).

I found something my mali loves to eat. Flukers has these pellets, that are red and round, he loves them. So if you have a Petsmart, check in the isle for food for your mali, Annabelle might actually like the pellets.

If that doesn't work you can always get Flukers Repti-Aid Herbavore and force feed her (it might make you feel bad, but at least you will know she has had some kind of food for the day). The formula has vitamins, nutrients and calcium in it along with other things to help make the animal more healthy and make them want to eat. I think its because it smells so bad and it must taste so bad that once they are force fed it it makes them want regular food instead of the nasty stuff. lol

hope this helps.
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well if she is not eating alot then she probably doesn't have to go to the bathroom very much. i don't think you can miss a uro's poo, though. it still amazes me how much comes out of helga. if you are worried about her being dehydrated, maybe try soaking her in a warm bath for like 5-10 minutes. helga sometimes drinks the water too. just make sure he tail is dry before going back into the cage
have you tried squash or zucchini? helga does not like to eat her greens either but those two veggies have more water content than the peas she loves to eat
in my humble opinion and others may disagree. i think she is just hiding because she was moved around for a couple days. whenver i take helga to the vet, it is like she sulks for the next couple days and won't come out and say hello. good job on trying to gain her trust and just keep taking baby steps with her. if she is still willing to eat, i would not try to force feed her yet as that is really stressful on any lizard.
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vonnie
***Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet. Mae West ***

Everyone gave great info and suggestions, I would just be patient with her.

Seems as though she is also worried about YOU !

She emailed me and told me to tell you to TRY and get some SLEEP, Hheheheheh

Take care, give her time!
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Eve / PHEve

Thanks everyone.
Well I must have been over reacting cause today she woke me up around noon and she was mad! She was hissing and clawing at the tank. Seems I only get realy worried when she's about to get out to take a strole. Last time she came out in the middle of me typing a message on here. She ate by herself but tried so hard to get out for like 3 hours she was panting. The reason I thought she's realy dehydrated was cause when she got over heated in that little tank and I took her out she had an amasing amount of poo come out and I thought she must have been constapated or something but... I guess vonnie told me strait on that one. I've got UVB lights now and will set them up tomorrow.
Another thing I wanted to ask was I don't think she's an eygipicus any more. I had thought she was because from the pics I'd seen the ones her size were the only ones with the same body type, mainly shape of head, and they still had lots of patterns like she does. She doen't have any colour realy just lots of blackish, brownish, greyish... Anyone who has that little Basic Care of Uromastyx book by Philippe de Vosjoli she look exactly like North African Uro on p.15 but their's no colour in that pic to judge. I read that they were the most colourfull so I don't know but she has the condenced blackish colours around her face and legs. Alot of the other ones seem to have either stubby heads or skinny, longer looking bodies compared to her. I know it's porbably imposible to judge without a pic of her which I'll have soon enough but just wanted to see if that ment anything to you guys.
Josh

She wasn't panting for three hours just a couple seconds.

aegypticus or however it is spelled get really really large. maybe you have a mali. helga is greyish and brownish. why was your girl hissing?

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vonnie
***Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet. Mae West ***

Simplist reason I can think of is she was mad, wanted out, and I looked at her . I went to calm her down by petting her like I said I do which kind of worked, then I fed her a limabean in hopes of her not being so scared of me but after she took it she went crazzy again. She tries increadibly hard to get out, sometimes standing on only her tail to try and get higher I admire her eforts but she usualy falls over backwards and gets realy tired out. My mom said maby she just thinks she's biting me and she walks away thinking "I got a good bit out of him that time
My friend woud bring her out alot so she could run around and explore. I let her run around my room one time befor changing the sand and she would even come up to me as long as I didn't stop her from getting under my bed. I guess she's used to having space and when she was in the bathroom she had alot of room so maby their's some kind of resentment going on?
Oh, I realised I didn't answer your question from your last responce. I've put zucchini cut up but I don't think she's eaten any yet. I was thinking sweet potatos as lima beans are kind of sweet and maby then she has a sweet tooth? She doesn't like peas though, she seems kind of frightened by their round and shinyness from when I ofered them plus she burries them and they tend to smell bad. She does look a little like helga in that pic but her head looks a different shape to me and one reason I didn't think she was a mali was their tails seem stubier?
I'll get a pic soon .
Josh.

wow, lima beans are sweet? i never really eat them so i honestly don't know. if you think she likes sweet things maybe you can see if she will eat some fruits. helga refuses to eat anything sweet so i don't really remember all the fruits they can eat but i am pretty sure raspberries are one of them. maybe you can look them up and try some of those and see if she will eat them
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vonnie
***Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet. Mae West ***

Their sweet in the way that fresh peas out of the pods are sweet not too sweet realy. I don't think they are realy when cooked, come to think of it I don't think I know of a recipy even that has limabeans in it?? That wasn't a real question... I only realy ate a few cause she does
A person at the pet store I got the UVB lights at said they realy like blueberries. I tried that but for the moment have to avoid thing like that because she burries them and it smells realy bad which seems to drive both me and her crazzy! She kind of seems to go to the dish more when their's orange things in it another reason I thought sweet potato's, carrots. She seems to like that kind of sweet, not to sweet but probably sweet for a Uro.
I looked realy hard today and she does look alot like Helga in that pic, could have just been the way she was looking at me. Another reason I thought she was aegypticus was my friend's a vegetarian and got her because she was of the most veggy loving lizzards that wasn't an Iguana. I guess I just figgured a step further

i think that i have had lima beans in stews before. i have also eaten things with helga. i tried her fresh soy beans. i give them to her as a treat. they really taste like nothing, chewy nothing and she loves them. well good luck with getting her to eat other things. i take it you have tried some carrots since she likes orange?
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vonnie
***Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet. Mae West ***